Embedding Positive Psychology Principles - A Practical Approach for Primary Schools
Written by Rhiannon Phillips-Bianco. Year 4 Class Teacher and Wellbeing and Mental Health Curriculum Leader at The British School in the Netherlands
The Department for Education stated in 2019, “The focus in primary school should be on teaching the characteristics of good physical health and mental wellbeing. Teachers should be clear that mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, in the same way as physical health.” (1)
Adrian Bethune’s ‘Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom’ inspired me to try a new approach to wellbeing, based on positive psychology. Over the last eighteen months, with the support of Karren van Zoest, the Headteacher at JSL, the Wellbeing Team, sixteen volunteers from across the school and the engagement of the teaching staff, we developed our own ‘Healthy Minds’ programme which focuses on four specific areas: emotional intelligence, resilience, coping strategies and fostering positive emotions.
As Weare warns, emotional intelligence and resilience “…skills are not acquired by osmosis, they involve the school taking a conscious, planned and explicit approach through the taught curriculum.” (2) Our aim was to take this principle beyond the curriculum and embed it into the daily practice, language and ethos of every classroom to better support students at the ‘healthy’ or ‘coping’ point of the spectrum.
Emotional Intelligence
A key aspect of developing emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and name emotions. We created ‘How Are You Feeling Today?’ poster (image below), which is in every classroom, to provide students with a lexicon to enable open conversation around emotions. Teachers model and encourage the use of this rich vocabulary during positive and tricky moments.
Developing Resilience
As the Department for Education stated in 2016, schools can promote resilience to mental health issues “…by providing pupils with inner resources that they can draw on as a buffer when negative or stressful things happen.” (3) In the international setting, many students are Third Culture Kids who cope with a change of home, language and culture; who don’t have the extra support of extended families around them; and who deal with loss when friends move on. Developing resilience to help students cope with these realities is fundamental.
In the classroom, we use two main tools to help students develop resilience. The first is James Nottingham’s Learning Pit concept. This video effectively explains it to students: https://vimeo.com/117364809. We created our own image (below), displayed throughout the school, and refer to it frequently. This is a reminder that there is no shame in struggling.
The second tool we use, discussed in Adrian Bethune’s book, is Karl Rohnke’s zones of growth and learning: comfort, stretch and panic. Students are taught that we could all be in any of the zones at different times and there is no shame in asking for support. When students move from the Panic to the Stretch Zone, they are encouraged to share the strategies they used. This builds awareness of the impact a Growth Mindset can have on their learning and supports two of the eight attributes in the BSN’s Character Profile, ‘Perseverance’ and ‘Courage’.
Coping Strategies
Our school’s Character Profile also includes ‘Compassion’. Students are encouraged to show compassion towards their peers when they are struggling; and, self-compassion when they struggle. We teach a range of coping strategies to give students tools to use when necessary. Our methods include: active and calming Brain Breaks (including GoNoodle, popular with staff and students); Calm Corners in every classroom that have displays to remind students of the strategies they have been taught; and breathing exercises.
Hot Chocolate Breathing, a find from Instagram (@journey_to_wellness_), is a firm favourite across the school. Its visual approach teaches students to breathe in through their nose and out through their mouth, with longer outward breath than inward.
Fostering Positive Emotions
“Robert Emmons, a leading gratitude researcher, has conducted multiple studies on the link between gratitude and well-being. His research confirms that gratitude effectively increases happiness and reduces depression.” (4) We foster positive emotions through a range of methods:
· Every class has a team flag, which shares the class values that students decide on together at the start of the year.
· Random Acts of Kindness are encouraged and are even set for homework.
· Students are taught how to give specific, thoughtful compliments; and how to receive them gracefully.
· Students are encouraged to write big and small things they are grateful for in Gratitude Journals.
Key Stage 2 students learn that fostering positive emotions enables them to re-wire their brain from its natural negativity bias; however, this doesn’t mean they have to be positive all of the time. Accepting that life can be hard and difficult moments are to be expected; and developing strategies to overcome them and knowing that difficult emotions will pass, is at the heart of our approach.
Looking Ahead
In eighteen months the impact of this initiative has been significant throughout the school. Our students are more aware of their feelings and those of others, and have the language to express that. They have developed their ability to recognise when they are struggling and the coping strategy they need to help themselves; and that they show a great deal of kindness and empathy towards one another. We will continue to maintain this, and to ensure that it is consistently embedded throughout the school. I am confident we have built the firm foundations and look forward to developing our use of Positive Psychology in school even further.
Quotes:
1) Department for Education (2019) Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education, p.33
2) Weare ‘What Works in Promoting Social and Emotional Well-being and Responding to Mental Health Problems in School? 2015, p.10
3) Department for Education (2016) Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools, p.19
4) Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom by Adrian Bethune, p.88