“Having Lea speak to our teaching faculty seemed to amplify and energize the faculty... it was absolutely the boost we needed to move further ahead in the field of positive education.”

~ Kirsten Johnston, Associate Director of Guidance, Lakefield College

Lea offers half-day (choose one module from the list below), full-day (‘Make Wellbeing Visible in Schools’ plus your choice of one other module below), or two-day workshops (includes all four modules below).

What is included in the two-day VWB workshop?

• 4 x VWB modules (see below).

• Pdf workbooks for each module.

• Online module access to 4 modules*.

• Additional information for resources, books, Apps and websites for each module.

• VWB Activities Manual (pdf) that includes over 250 classroom activities.

• Certificate of completion (pdf template).

*Access to online modules for 1 year following the training.

Making Wellbeing Visible in Schools

An Introduction to Visible Wellbeing

Visible Wellbeing Module 1

Schools across the world are aiming to turn wellbeing policy into practice. To address this problem Lea Waters PhD, a trained psychologist and positive psychology expert, designed Visible Wellbeing™ which combines the science of wellbeing with the science of learning to make wellbeing visible in all classes and across co-curricula. In this presentation, Lea shares the Visible Wellbeing tool kit of flexible wellbeing practices that go beyond traditional wellbeing programs. She provides techniques that help teachers to use the learning process itself as a delivery mechanism to build student wellbeing. Visible Wellbeing aims to help everyone thrive at school and the training and techniques shared are equally relevant to staff, teaching, non-teaching, and parents as they are to students as a way to build a culture of wellbeing across the entire school. Lea weaves together her science with concrete school best practices to provide the audience with the compelling case for adopting a Visible Wellbeing approach in schools.

Core Learning Objectives:

• Latest statics in youth mental health.

• Research showing how and why wellbeing is a key resource for students to build.

• Key research findings that clearly links wellbeing and academic achievement.

• Introduction to the Visible Wellbeing ‘See-Feel-Hear’ practice.

• Practical methods and examples for how to make wellbeing more visible in the classroom.

Strength-Based Teaching

Bringing Out the Best in Students and Teachers

Visible Wellbeing Module 2

Every teacher wants to bring out the best in their students, yet our broader education systems are often deficit-oriented and focus more on poor performance, problem behaviour, and correcting weakness than on building strength. What’s more, in the day-to-day rush of schools and with pressures to get through curriculum, strengths can get left behind which is demoralizing for teachers and students alike.

This workshop explores three decades of research showing the advantages of taking a strength- based approach for students, including greater levels of happiness at school, higher student engagement, smoother transitions from kindergarten to elementary school, more successful adjustment from elementary to middle school, and higher levels of academic achievement.

Lea will also share the latest research showing the benefits of strength-based teaching for the teachers themselves. Teachers will learn how to identify and utilize their own strengths and will engage in the practice of the strengths spotting technique to better see strengths in their children. Educators will leave this workshop with a range of other teaching strategies that can be used to take a strength-based approach in the classroom.

Key Learning Objectives:

• Key research findings linking strengths to wellbeing and academic achievement.

• Best practices for introducing strengths into the classroom.

• Practical methods for how to embed strengths into the staffroom.

Managing Emotions to Enhance Learning

Visible Wellbeing Module 3

According to neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, “Although many of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think.” Indeed, the latest findings from neuroscience debunk the old idea of cognition and emotion being located in separate areas of the brain and, instead, show that academic learning is a deeply emotional process and calls on areas of the brain that intertwine cognition and emotions, most especially the pre-frontal cortex.

According to the principles of brain-based learning, emotions affect a student’s ability to absorb, process and store information. Add to that the latest research from the field of positive psychology which shows that positive emotions enrich a student’s cognitive functioning in areas such as brainstorming, memory, creativity and lateral thinking, and we now have a convincing reason to teach with emotions in mind.

The role that emotions play in complex learning encourages teachers to think more clearly about the emotional climate needed in class to ensure productive learning. This workshop will look at how emotions effect learning and will take teachers through the circumplex model of emotions. Teachers will assess the emotional climate of their own classrooms and will be given strategies to manage negative emotions and enhance positive emotions.

Core Learning Objectives:

• Key research findings that links emotions to cognition.

• An audit of the emotional climate of your classroom.

• Practical methods for how to manage negative emotions and enhance positive emotions.

Building Positive Relationships in Schools

Visible Wellbeing Module 4

Schools have always been both academic institutions and social institutions and can offer an antidote to the rising levels of youth loneliness. The field of positive psychology provides schools with simple and easy ways to help students meet their social needs and thus be ready for and engaged in learning.

After exploring the research evidence on relation to school belonging, this workshop will take teachers through an Appreciative Inquiry exercise that helps them to identify what is at the heart of positive relationships at school. Once these factors have been identified teachers will work in groups to find ways to more intentionally and strategically bring these factors into the social climate of their classroom. This workshop will introduce teachers to strategies such as active-constructive responding and the use of brain breaks to enhance a sense of connection amongst students.

Core Learning Objectives:

• Research showing how and why school belonging is necessary for schools to build.

• Appreciative Inquiry exercise to help teachers identify the factors that create belonging in

• their schools.

• Practical methods and examples for how to create positive relationships.