Welcome to all the new people signed up to Growing Great Schools Worldwide. It is good to have you on board. This newsletter contains information about the Revisioning Education movement, links to relevant research, book offers and some upcoming events.

Revisioning Education

Those in England are in some despair about state education, including the narrow curriculum, assessment methods, teacher retention and inspections. Following an increasing groundswell of concern there have been ideas for going forward. Here are a few links – please let us know of others.

Times Education Commission Report – published June 2022, led by Rachel Sylvester and Sir Antony Seldon. With ten chapters covering everything from the importance of the first 1000 days of a child’s life, to the need for a curriculum fit for the 21st Century, how education should never be about failure, and the responsibility of schools for wellbeing. Many voices and examples of good practice across the world have been incorporated and I have been tweeting some powerful quotes from the report @sueroffey

This aligns with the chapter on Education in Creating the World We Want to Live In. A read-only copy of that chapter can be accessed at this link. If you want to read the whole book there is a 20% discount on the Routledge site  (25% 0ff for two)

The organisation ReThinking Education has a series of podcasts on various aspects of this important issue – you can access these here. 

In 2015 UNESCO published Re-thinking Education: Towards a Global Common Good. This can be accessed in many languages here.

Books – and offers

Circle Solutions for Student Wellbeing (and hopefully my other Sage books) are on offer from the Sage website at a 25% discount with the code UK22AUTHOR. There is a 40% discount for ordering in bulk.

Up unto 31st October Springer are offering a 40% discount on many books with the discount code HAL40. This includes Positive Relationships– Don’t get too excited, it is still nearly £60!

Applied Positive School Psychology, edited by Andrea Giraldez-Hayes and Jolanta Burke, is being launched on Thursday October 13th at 6pm. Several authors are speaking briefly about their contributions. My chapter is Applying Positive Psychology in Primary Schools. You can get tickets for this event here. 

Another excellent book published in 2020 by Routledge is The Educator’s Guide to Whole School Wellbeing  by Denise Quinlan and Lucy Hone – the directors of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience.

Both this book and Applied Positive School Psychology above are also currently discounted by at least 20% when bought direct from Routledge via these links.

Courses and Events

UK: I am excited to be teaching the Positive Education module on the Masters of Positive Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University this January. The teaching is face to face during the week 23-27th January. Please contact the university if you are interested in signing up for the MAPP.

Online: 9th November 2022 – Improving Behaviour in Schools  on-line conference. I am chairing this and have been offered an extended Chair’s opening address. I also have two tickets to give away. Please email me (sue@sueroffey.com) if you would like me to forward your details to the organisers. First come, first served! If you don’t hear back you were too late!

Circle Solutions Trainers on-line meetings to provide support and discuss both celebrations and challenges are organised for 1st December 2022, March 2nd 2023 and May 25th 2023, 8.30-10 UK time. We send out Zoom reminders to registered CS Trainers prior.

Mental Health

World Mental Health Day was on October 10th – the same day every year. This aims to raise awareness of mental health issues across the globe and mobilise efforts to build positive mental health and support those who struggle.

For those working in UK schools to promote mental health across their setting there is a supportive – and free – on-line community run by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health on Svhools at Leeds Becket University. Check this out.

Worth-it runs a Wellbeing Club – also associated with Carnegie.

Research

Poverty not only undermines overall wellbeing and learning – it risks higher levels of child abuse. Bridget Featherstone is an author of this article about rising poverty in the UK and is also a speaker at NAPCAN’s anti-poverty week on Thursday 20th October at 3pm Eastern Australia time 5-6am UK. Register here

This article finds that people who are focused on others rather than themselves have higher levels of wellbeing. Who would have guessed?!

Resources

For those who want stimulus materials for social and emotional learning, there are new resources at Innovative Resources Australia, Innovative Resources UK, Loggerhead Publishing and At My Best. Another beautifully illustrated pack of cards is from Lyfta  – bringing human stories for discussion in the classroom. If you are using Circle Solutions, resources like this are great as they allow for discussion and reflection that aligns with ASPIRE – Agency, Safety, Positivity, Inclusion, Respect and Equity. Issues, not incidents, impersonal not private, reflection not direction.