Three questions to mull over…

Assuming you and your school place student welfare/wellbeing high on your list of priorities, here are three questions to consider for 2012… 1. Who is the significant adult in the life of a 21st Century student? How and where do they spend most of their time? With whom do they converse most with? Is it […]

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The Kids Are Alright – In the National Times

Fed up with the constant media attacks on our youth, I sat down at the laptop and wrote this. And the National Times decided to publish it… Another day, another media attack on the youth of Australia. This time it’s the turn of Channel Nine’s A Current Affair, to have a report, “All parents should […]

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Five Ways to Wellbeing

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Felicia Huppert. Felicia is a well-known researcher in the field of wellbeing, and has advised and informed the UK Governments policy making in the area of mental capital and wellbeing. Amongst other things, she introduced me to the work of the New […]

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Talking Youth Depression on Channel 10

In case you missed my appearance on Channel 10 discussing youth depression and wellbeing, you can watch the interview here. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIUJt1zgK7A] Please share it with your staff at your school, friends or family. We need to keep on talking about it… Sign up for email updates here, share with your friends or connect on Facebook […]

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Catch Dr Suzy Green and Me on Channel 10 – Monday 6.30pm

JUST BEEN INFORMED THIS WILL NOW SHOW ON TUESDAY NIGHT Just a quick note to let you know that last week I recorded an interview for the 6.30 Report with George Negus. It is due to be aired on Monday 15th September at (guess when?) 6.30pm on Channel 10 in Australia. The subject of the story […]

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Label kids – Limit kids.

On Friday 22nd July, my colleague Ray Francis and I had the privilege of presenting a workshop at the AIS Pastoral Care Conference. The keynote speaker was James Nottingham. He gave an insightful, entertaining and at times, touching talk on the concept of Mindsets. Mindsets 101 In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, […]

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What is it with Rs in Education… This week: Root Rating?!?!

The (anti) social media habits of schoolkids have taken up a lot of newspaper and online column space this week in Australia. The latest craze to take hold of our teens (doesn’t it seem like only last month it was planking?) is to “rate roots” via ingeniously titled “Root Rater” pages on Facebook. For the […]

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An alternate three Rs for the 21st century?

While the traditional three Rs (reading, writing & arithmetic) were only aimed at the students, these alternate three Rs would serve as an operating system for the whole learning community; students, staff, parents and the wider community. Relationships – Humans are social beings and as such positive relationships are key to human flourishing. As well […]

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Positive Schools Conference in Fremantle

Today I had the privilege of giving a key-note talk at the Positive Schools Conference in Fremantle. This was a great opportunity for me to engage with some of the leading minds in Australia in the field of mental health, wellbeing and education. I gave a talk based on my Drowning not Learning blog post from last […]

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Have you read The National Times today?

My latest article has been published by Fairfax Media’s National Times. The most popular course at Harvard University is not medicine or dentistry. Neither is it engineering or even law. It is positive psychology, the field of psychology that is sometimes dismissed as ‘‘happy classes’’. Tal Ben Shahar first offered the class in 2002 and […]

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