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, […]
Read MoreWhile 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 […]
Read MoreOver the past 2-3 weeks I’ve spoken to over 1000 teachers and counsellors in Perth and Brisbane. One of the themes I touched on during my talks, was the Pressure | Fear | Relief model of education that I believe too many of our students experience. Below is a very short (2:40min) video that introduces […]
Read MoreFor the benefit of my overseas readers, all Australian school students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. These are known as NAPLAN tests. They are the equivalent to the SATs in the UK or the NEAPs in the […]
Read MoreToday 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 […]
Read MoreMy 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 […]
Read MoreIf you’ve read my articles, or heard me speak you would know that I often make the assertion that, as a collective body of adults, the school and not the parents are the significant adults in the life of the 21st Century child. Till now this belief was based only on anecdotal observations and common sense. However, […]
Read MoreOn Saturday 16th April, I had the pleasure of attending the Positive Psychology in Education Symposium at Sydney University. It was a great opportunity to meet with some of the leading educators and psychologists from all over Australia and I’m looking forward to collaborating with some of them in the future… I was also very fortunate to be […]
Read MoreMy latest article has been picked up by Online Opinion. Just another disappointing sequel With perhaps the exception of The Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back, sequels rarely receive comparative critical acclaim as their predecessors. Sequels often offer little to enhance the story, in many cases only serving to confuse or infuriate the […]
Read MoreI thought I’d let you know that proposals for this years NSW Teacher Scholarships are now being accepted as well as show you an interesting video from this year’s TED talks – the common theme – improving education by looking at it differently… for those who apply… good luck! NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarships 2011 You wouldn’t be reading this post […]
Read More