Staff from St Mary’s Primary School, Scone; St Joseph’s Primary School, Denman; St James’ Primary School, Muswellbrook and St Joseph’s College, Lochinvar attended the event.
The attending teachers were sponsored by Where There's a Will, with the founder of the foundation, Pauline Carrigan, presenting a key note speech at the conference around the significant journey that the Upper Hunter have been embarking on with Positive Education.
The steps taken by these schools within Positive Education is a world first and many schools around the world are very interested in our journey so far.
Some of the other inspiring sessions included listening to Professor Lea Waters, the creator of the strength-based schools approach and ‘Visible Wellbeing’, which uses character strengths to build relationships and foster growth in student wellbeing.
This was particularly relevant as St James’ is now a ‘Visible Wellbeing’ school. Professor Waters also spoke about her book, The Strength Switch, which aims to help parents focus more on their child's strengths, rather than always seeking to improve on their weaknesses. We will be looking at presenting this information to our parents later this year.
This conference showed all attendees just how many wonderful things are happening within Positive Education and we are excited at St James’ to continue implementing new initiatives to help our students flourish and grow.