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How can Wellbeing be made meaningful in our schools ?
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Patrick Sullivan is a Director in National Council for Curriculum and Assessment ( NCCA )
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It was my pleasure to attend the recent Atlantic Rim Collaborative ( ARC ) summit on Wellbeing . The summit attended by representatives from Scotland , Iceland , Ontario and Ireland provided rich and robust engagement on the role Wellbeing plays in our developments in education . The mix of perspectives was fascinating , from the data driven decision making of the Icelandic system , to the curriculum coherence of the Scottish system or the focus on ' process ' of the Ontario approach . Following the discussions I decided to collate some of my notes and to focus on ' how Wellbeing can be made meaningful in schools '. This is not to say that Wellbeing is not currently taught or experienced in meaningful ways in schools .
However attention has drawn to the ' motherhood and apple pie ' nature of some of the Wellbeing initiatives undertaken at school level . This was exemplified by one contributor who remarked : ' If Wellbeing is all about camomile tea and ambient music , then you can keep it . Surely developments in Wellbeing also have to acknowledge the challenges of life and help enable students to deal with these .' So here are a few points , in no particular order , from my notes of the meeting : A whole school culture is required , not just individual teachers , or an individual leader- this point recognises the need for a sustained approach to Wellbeing in schools , and that it can ' t just be left to the enthusiastic teachers who endorse the approaches of Wellbeing , but instead it has to be a shift in mindset from all staff in schools . Embedded in how the school is run- this point was made in relation to the decision
TY UPDATE MARCH 2017 making of the leaders of the school and that the Wellbeing of each individual ( not just students ) needs to be at the heart of decisions that are taken Focus on process NOT outcome- the development of local approaches to Wellbeing rather than a national ' one size fits all ' approach was seen as important . The process of developing these approaches and the engagement and ownership of the school / teachers in this work is seen as incredible worthwhile . Child ' s voice- was spoken about time and again as being central to the development of Wellbeing approaches . Methods of how to collect this , how to communicate this to parents and how to ensure children engage meaningfully was seen as important . A shift in teacher identitythis point was made in relation to the shift in role of a teacher to facilitation not direction . This shift can be a challenging step to take , but one that is seen as integral to providing space for children ' s voices to express their views , opinions , identities and beliefs . Relationships- and behind it all the centrality to high quality relationships between everyone in the school is seen as the most effective means of promoting Wellbeing .