Newsletter Term 1, 2019
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Newsletter Term 1, 2019 Dear PESA Members, With our fifth National Conference now behind us, how grateful we are to all participants for playing their part in such a profound community-building and learning event. It is inspiring to reflect on the outstanding breadth and quality of work being done by universities, researchers, parents, health professionals, communities, governments, school leaders and educators. We are united in our commitment to an evidence-based approach to growing the wellbeing of our young people and the wider community. A special vote of thanks to our conference committee – what an achievement, and certainly no mean feat to coordinate and curate 7 keynote presentations, 15 masterclasses, 3 discussion panels and over 50 workshops and ‘Inspire’ presentations. This is the first time our national conference ran in Queensland and we were delighted that 400 delegates joined us from a diverse range of schools and organisations from Australia, as well as abroad. Standing amongst our delegates was very humbling indeed, as we learned together, laughed together, and even cried together. As Pauline Carrigan from Where There’s a Will reflected, we are all links in an ever- growing chain, and draw our strength from each other. For those who purchased a non-member ticket, we are delighted to welcome you to the PESA community. We will contact you again shortly with further information when your membership has been activated. We are now gathering and collating footage of presentations and presenter slides, and we will be in touch to advise when those are available on our website. We are committed to continuous improvement of our conferences, and if you attended, we would love to hear your feedback. Please click here to take our short survey. New Resources We have some great new resources available on our website which may be of interest to you, including: • Wellbeing 101 - It Starts with You • Understanding and Using Your Character Strengths – which also includes some interactive character strengths games devised by PESA SA member, Deirdre Walters (St Columba College, Adelaide) to not only teach fellow staff about their own character strengths and those of their colleagues, but also to overcome any potential reluctance staff might feel in embracing positive education. Term 1 2019 Newsletter www.pesa.edu.au Newsletter Term 1, 2019 • Nurturing Gratitude from the Inside Out, 30 Activities for Grades K–8: Greater Good Science Centre, Berkeley • Embracing the F Word: Using FAILURE to build resilience and motivation @ school by Reach Out • Thanks! A Strengths-Based Gratitude Curriculum for Tweens and Teens - Greater Good Science Centre, Berkeley • How do we Learn to Thrive? The Emergence of Wellbeing Science – Professor Lindsay Oades • Presenter slides from our recent SA State Conference We have also recently added an interview with Assoc Prof Peggy Kern on the topic of Belonging. You might not be aware that slides from other state conferences are also available via the website - please click here to access these. Our members dashboard also contains links to recommended reading, Apps, video clips, newsletters and more. A reminder too that our content coordinator, Cheryl Mortimer, would love to hear from you if you are keen to share your experience with other members - there's so much to be gained through collaboration and we urge you to 'pay it forward'. We'd love to hear about what's worked in your school (and what hasn't), how you devised your school's wellbeing strategy, how you've educated and engaged staff, parents and the wider community, or how you've collected and used data. To contact Cheryl, please click here. PESA AGM Our 2019 Annual General Meeting took place on 12 April. At this meeting, our Chairman, Simon Murray reflected on PESA’s growth and achievements over 2018. Click here to view the Chairman’s report. Simon Murray and Janis Coffey retired by rotation at the end of the AGM. In accordance with the PESA Constitution, one Member-Elected position on the Board fell vacant. Simon Murray renominated to the Board and was the only nomination for member-elected directorship received. In accordance with clause 12.3(b) of the PESA Constitution, as the number of nominations received was equal to the number of vacancies to be filled, Simon Murray was automatically elected as from the end of the annual general meeting, and we congratulate him on his reappointment. We thank Janis Coffey for three years of service to our Board. Janis brought to our Board a deep understanding of Positive Education, creativity and a spirit of collaboration, and we are grateful for her excellent contribution. Five co-opted director roles remain vacant, and our Governance Nominations Committee is currently fielding appropriate potential Board members. We will keep members informed as and when co-opted directors are added to our Board, and of course if you know of anyone who you feel may be a worthy nominee, please forward their details to Simon Murray. Term 1 2019 Newsletter www.pesa.edu.au Newsletter Term 1, 2019 Upcoming Events 7 May 2019: Professor Dianne Vella-Brodrick, Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology, CPP, Melbourne Graduate School of Education will deliver her inaugural professorial Dean’s Lecture: Well-being education that feels like a TREAT - rather than a treatment plan. Designing school-based well-being education so it feels like a treat, and not a treatment plan, can be challenging. The alarming statistics on youth mental illness can make it very tempting to focus primarily on responding to mental illness and fixing what’s gone wrong. However, if we introduced well-being education that was a TREAT to learn about - Tangible, Relevant, Evidence-based, Alluring and Transformational – young people will want to learn and practice well-being skills, retain more information which they can apply throughout their life and, feel better supported, motivated and confident about managing and promoting their mental health. Well-being education in schools needs to improve by dovetailing best practices in health, sport and well- being science as well as technology and education. It should strive to equip, inspire and empower young people to be proactively involved in shaping their own well-being destiny. Applying the TREAT framework can help with achieving these desired outcomes. To register, please click here. World Happiness Report 2019 The World Happiness Report 2019 ranks 156 countries by how happy they perceive themselves to be. This year’s World Happiness Report focuses on happiness and the community: how happiness has evolved over the past dozen years, with a focus on the technologies, social norms, conflicts and government policies that have driven those changes. Australia remains highly ranked but dropped from 9th to 11th place over the 12 month period. The top 10 countries (in order) are Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria. Whilst rankings are based on individuals’ own assessments of their subjective well-being, six key factors are used to explain variation of happiness rankings across countries - GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption. Of particular interest to some of our members will be the three factors on which the 2019 report focusses: links between government and happiness (Chapters 2 and 3), the power of prosocial behaviour (Chapter 4), and Happiness and digital technology Term 1 2019 Newsletter www.pesa.edu.au Newsletter Term 1, 2019 2019 Global Happiness Policy Report The 2019 Global Happiness and Well-Being Policy Report is produced by the Global Happiness Council (GHC) and contains papers by expert working groups on happiness for good governance. This report provides evidence and policy recommendations on best practices to promote happiness and well-being. The 2019 Global Happiness and Well-Being Policy Report was presented at World Government Summit held in Dubai on February 10, 2019. Chapter 4 of this report, written by Dr Martin Seligman and Dr Alejandro Adler, is dedicated to the topic of Positive Education globally and provides an excellent overview of Positive Education across multiple countries and contexts. Research of interest Understanding Factors Affecting Positive Education in Practice: an Australian Case Study Amber J. Halliday, Margaret L. Kern, David K. Garrett & Deborah A. Turnbull Positive education is characterized by applying positive psychology interventions (PPIs) within educational settings. Increasing evidence suggests that PPIs can help increase well-being and reduce depressive symptoms in general and clinical populations. However, there is less evidence that PPIs are similarly effective within complex school environments. The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an evidence-informed positive education pilot program (PEPP) delivered within an Australian public high school and use an implementation science framework to explore factors impacting the planning, delivery, practice, and success of program activities. Findings suggest the PEPP was not related to increases in well-being or resilience, but may have buffered students from declining mental health during the school year. Recipient outlook, organizational support, stakeholder input, and provider enthusiasm and understanding were all thought to impact program outcomes. By exploring the practice of a positive education intervention from an implementation perspective, challenges and opportunities