Media

The Problem Solver

When the founders of a new ACT-based primary school curriculum asked me to create an identity for their new product, I thought it would be another standard ‘run-of-the-mill’ branding job. 3 years later and I’m writing a blog for them as a co-director.

Embracing My Flexible Self-View

I’d be the first to admit that, growing up and in my early adulthood, I would not have won any awards for my ‘flexible self-view’! I was infinitely self-critical, defensive, and my self-confidence was pretty low. When something went wrong or I was at fault, my snap reaction would be deflect and blame someone else. The thought that I had done something wrong brought up so many negative thoughts and feelings, I could feel almost sick; my coping strategy became avoiding accountability and blaming others.

Karate-Chop and Air Kicks!

Over the past year I’ve been exploring Connect, which is a Personal, Social & Health Education (PSHE) curriculum. In doing so, I’ve pulled apart the programme from three different perspectives: Mum, researcher, primary school teacher.

I’ll start with my perspective as a Mum. As the unfamiliar Covid landscape unfolded I tried to navigate my children (and myself!) through it the best that I could. I found, on the whole, both of my girls adapted well to the lockdown situation and the subsequent changes to their routine. However, my youngest (who I strongly believe was sent to planet earth as a test of human patience) did struggle at times. Karate chops and air kicks are currently her principal form of communication and I often joke that she’s the equivalent of three children.

Digging into The 6 Ways to Wellbeing with Dr Geetanjali Basarkod

The termly themes of the Connect Curriculum are informed by the Six Ways to Well-Being—six everyday actions that can help individuals improve their well-being indirectly. Before we get to the behaviours themselves, I want to describe why this “indirectly” aspect is important. Plenty of research shows direct attempts to increase positive mental states like happiness and reduce negative states like sadness might backfire and actually make us feel worse.

A Psychological Flexibility Wellbeing Curriculum

About 5 years ago, Duncan (Gillard) came to me with an idea. He said that we needed to create a Psychological Flexibility Wellbeing Curriculum.

Prevention via the Promotion of Resilience Skills

Prevention is better than a cure, pretty much everyone would agree with that. The idea is simple – if you can avoid something bad happening, then you won’t have to spend time and effort dealing with the fallout.

Connect and the 6 ways to wellbeing

What makes the Connect PSHE curriculum really unique is that the termly themes are derived from the psychological wellbeing literature, and specifically the work of Dr Geetanjali Basarkod. Dr Basarkod developed the ‘Six Ways to Wellbeing’ along with her PhD supervisors Professor Joseph Ciarrochi and Dr Baljinder Sahdra.

Supporting children to get back to ‘Discovering’!

As humans we are born Discoverers! Babies and toddlers explore their new world with no inhibitions or preconceptions; no thoughts, doubts or fears. Take a toddler learning to pull herself up on the sofa; she has no internal dialogue, fretting “but what if I fall down and they think I’m stupid?”, or “I’m no good at this, there’s no point in trying again”. Toddlers learn through doing – through trial and error. Sometimes children make mistakes, and fall down – but that’s OK! There is no dwelling on past failures, no inner voice worrying about the past or future; they simply get up and try again. Babies and toddlers grow and learn through experiencing their environment as it is.

A new way of promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools

The Children’s Society recently published a report called Life on Hold, which focused on the impact that COVID-19 has had on children’s lives (particularly those children already disadvantaged). The report detailed how, even before COVID-19, children’s happiness levels were at the lowest they’ve been since 2009/10. Throw in the new normal of school closures, disrupted daily routines, being away from friends, homeschooling, virtual lessons and likely stressed-out parents, and it’s unsurprising that children’s mental health and wellbeing is currently in the spotlight.