Positive Education

Positive Education

Revesby South has begun the first steps to become a Positive Education school. 

What is Positive Education?

Positive Education is an approach that develops an educational environment that acknowledges the importance of, and teaches the skills required to enhance wellbeing and character development as an essential component of academic achievement and personal flourishing over an individual’s lifetime. It brings together the science of positive psychology with best practice teaching to encourage and support schools and individuals within their communities to flourish.

Positive Psychology is the fundamental basis in which Positive Education is built from. Professor Martin Seligman is generally considered the founder of Positive Psychology. In his address to the American Psychological Association over twenty years ago, he encouraged his colleagues to move back to their roots, which were to make the lives of all people more fulfilling and productive rather than just focusing on a disease model of curing mental illness.

The diagram below displays a number scale from -10 to +10. Seligman proposed, rather than just focussing on those who are languishing, for example a -7 and getting them to a 0. Positive Psychology and by extension Positive Education, focuses on a larger group of people at a 0 and moving them towards +6 or higher. That is, moving towards an area of flourishing and optimal human functioning. This does not mean we neglect those who are struggling with their wellbeing, but more we are building capacity of everyone to improve their wellbeing, no matter where they are on the scale.

A question that is sometimes asked is whether schools are an appropriate place to teach wellbeing. From the standpoint of maximising reach and impact, we believe the answer is ‘yes’. Schools are influential institutions that have contact with large numbers of young people on a regular basis. From the standpoint of moral behaviour and character development, schools are also in a position to inspire students and staff, to cultivate character and virtues that assist us all to become caring, responsible and productive people in society.

Positive Education is not ‘replacing parenting’ – parents will always be the first teachers of wellbeing and character development. However, we believe the school is in a strong position to complement and support your positive parenting in an educational setting.

Positive Education is not ‘happyology’ – indeed, it is generally acknowledged that the pursuit of happiness as an end in itself rarely leads to lasting and genuine contentment or wellbeing. Undeniably, hardship, unhappiness and struggle are normal and healthy elements of the human condition. It is not about putting on a smile every day, but is rather about building and relying upon skills such as optimism and resilience when faced with a difficult, upsetting or challenging situation.

The goal of Positive Education is to create a community where students and staff learn the skills to become their best possible selves, evolving toward their highest potential.

RSPS Flourishing Model

Below is our revised version of the school’s Flourishing Model. We will work with the community (students, staff and parents) to provide opportunities to improve these aspects in our day to day life via various programs and approaches.

Revesby South Public School’s Flourishing model articulates our approach to creating the conditions for students to flourish. Our intention is to help our students to develop strategies which will enable them to take a proactive approach in dealing with the inevitable challenges that they will face throughout their lives. In doing so, we will provide our students the opportunity to lead lives that have more positive emotion, and a greater sense of achievement and purpose. This will in turn enable them to have confidence in themselves, to look to the future with optimism, to build resilience and to be successful in contributing meaningfully to their world.

A whole-school planned approach to wellbeing

The school applies the principles of ‘Positive Education.’ This approach provides an educational environment that acknowledges the importance of, and teaches the skills required to enhance wellbeing and character development as an essential component of academic achievement and personal flourishing over an individual’s lifetime. It brings together the science of positive psychology with best practice teaching to encourage and support students, parents and staff to flourish.

This approach is closely aligned with Lee Waters’ SEARCH model, a comprehensive framework designed to enhance student wellbeing and behaviour by focusing on six key pillars: Strengths, Emotional Management, Attention and Awareness, Relationships and Habits & Goals. 

Strengths are the positive parts of your personality that impact how you think, feel and behave. Scientists have identified 24-character strengths that you have the capacity to express. Knowing and applying your highest (signature) character strengths is the key to you being your best self. Harness Character

Click here to read more about character strengths.

Emotional Management helps students to better understand, accept, regulate and express emotion. Doing so helps students to develop more positive and constructive ways of responding to good and bad situations. Think Well

Attention and Awareness  Attention represents the student’s ability to focus on different aspects of themselves and their environment. For instance, it can refer to something around them, like the lesson content or a physical or emotional characteristic.

Awareness is the knowledge of things as they happen. That means with self-awareness, they can consciously affect the direction of their attention. They can sharpen their awareness of those moments when they become distracted and then use this awareness to focus their attention on their learning and behaviour. Focus Intently

Relationships help students understand, express, and manage different social aspects of learning. By supporting our students in developing and enhancing their social skills, they learn to build positive relationships with others. Connect Hearts and Minds

Coping with adversity is a crucial life skill. This pillar equips students with emotional resources that can help them in dealing with stressful situations. It also teaches them to have the resilience to stand up after encountering challenges and adversity and helps students to jump forward to success. Discover Purpose

Habits and Goals Habits are performed automatically, without putting much thought into the action. These actions can either be good or bad. Students learn how to break their bad habits and replace them with good ones to achieve their goals.

Goals give students something to work towards. This sense of forward direction and purpose can, in turn, enhance their wellbeing and behaviour. Strive to Succeed

At the centre, our goal is for every student, staff and community member to work towards flourishing. That is, to lead a life that is fulfilling, happy and with contentment or to have the things that makes life worth living. We do this by empowering students to develop their own personal toolkit . By harnessing a variety of wellbeing tactics, related to each of the six pillars, students learn how to navigate life's challenges with more confidence, resilience and empathy.

On the outside of our model are the three pillars of the Department of Education Wellbeing Framework. This represents our alignment with the education system and that despite our own focus and goal for every student to flourish, we also align with the Department’s goal of every student being known, valued and cared for. Connect, Succeed and Thrive

We are tremendously excited about building in programs that promote for example and not limited to – mindfulness, hope, optimism, resilience, grit and a growth mindset in all our community. For without these things listed above, it is very difficult to grow and flourish.