A whole school approach to psychological wellbeing, helping teachers, staff and students to flourish.
The Positive Project, which is now successfully embedded at Shrewsbury High School is a well-being and resilience project which teaches staff and pupils a number of different tools to help them deal with some of life’s challenges, setbacks and worries.
Pupils across all year groups have been learning some of the techniques involved and have begun using the tools to get in touch with their own mental well-being. Ten members of staff have been trained in the Positive Project and further training will continue.
Many of the tools are available on the app (which pupils are encouraged to download and use) although it is possible to do the programme without.
The Emotional Barometer is a tool on which pupils can log how they are feeling at any given time, with space, if they wish, to add comments. This is totally confidential and is designed to raise awareness about how and why they are feeling the way they do and to ultimately identify patterns in their data.
The Worry-filter teaches the students to ‘sift’ their worries/anxieties into two types – those they can influence and those they can’t. They can then take some positive action to reduce those they can influence (e.g. if they are worried about exams, they need to revise; if they are worried about their homework, they need to talk to a teacher, etc.)
The Positive Pin board encourages the pupils to note (mentally or on the app) any moments that made them happy – photos of their dog, good test results, a friend saying something kind. Over time, this builds a bank of ‘happy’ resources which they can draw on to help lift their mood.
Inner Critic/Inner Coach is about listening to our inner voice and noticing when we are being unkind or hard on ourselves and then training ourselves to speak to ourselves in a more compassionate, supportive way – becoming our own best friend, if you like.
The project helps teachers and students to build resilience and develop practical, versatile skills to establish psychological wellbeing within the heart of a school’s culture. Teachers are better equipped to handle the challenges of their profession, while students are given knowledge and tools that can support them throughout their lives
