Positive Education at Sumner School
Positive Education focuses around the development of educational environments, such as ours, that allow students the opportunity to engage in high quality learning programmes, but which also promotes the knowledge and skills that young people need to develop their own and others’ wellbeing. Schools and communities that have continued to use this approach around the world have seen decreased depression levels in their young people and have positively affected their wellbeing and happiness, providing them with the tools and skills needed to navigate difficulties they may face.
At Sumner School we are dedicated to educating our students hearts as well as their minds. We fundamentally believe that Positive Education provides us with the tool to be able to do this. Our school culture is built upon the foundations of caring, open and trusting relationships. We use these foundations to bring together the science of positive psychology to encourage and support individuals and the community to flourish and thrive. We focus on specific skills that assist students to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, enhance personal resilience, promote mindfulness and encourage a healthy lifestyle.
At Sumner School we are dedicated to educating our students hearts as well as their minds. We fundamentally believe that Positive Education provides us with the tool to be able to do this. Our school culture is built upon the foundations of caring, open and trusting relationships. We use these foundations to bring together the science of positive psychology to encourage and support individuals and the community to flourish and thrive. We focus on specific skills that assist students to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, enhance personal resilience, promote mindfulness and encourage a healthy lifestyle.
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The International Positive Education (IPEN) Double Helix demonstrates our belief that for our students to be successful we need to not only to ensure we are maximising their academic potential, but also that we are developing their understanding of Character Strengths and wellbeing, which are intrinsically valuable and contribute to a variety of positive life outcomes. |
Positive Education focuses around the development of educational environments, such as ours, that allow students the opportunity to engage in high quality learning programmes, but which also promotes the knowledge and skills that young people need to develop their own and others’ wellbeing. Schools and communities that have continued to use this approach around the world have seen decreased depression levels in their young people and have positively affected their wellbeing and happiness, providing them with the tools and skills needed to navigate difficulties they may face.
Why is Positive Education so important?
While schools have a long tradition of pastoral care, this new approach to fully embedding wellbeing and character education differs from previous approaches in several ways. Firstly, pastoral care was predominantly reactive, while we believe in a proactive approach to wellbeing promotion – in other words, focusing our attention and resources on building fences at the top of the cliff rather than just providing ambulances at the bottom. Secondly, pastoral care was usually directed at a small number of students, whereas we take a universal approach to whole school wellbeing promotion. Thirdly, pastoral care only focused on students, neglecting staff and whānau. Finally, all of our processes and strategies are supported by robust scientific evidence, which we use to guide us every step of the way.
In this new Digital Age, we believe education needs to focus on building character strengths and wellbeing alongside academics – that creativity, optimism, curiosity, bravery, teamwork, leadership and social intelligence are just as vital as reading, writing and arithmetic for success in the 21st century.
In this new Digital Age, we believe education needs to focus on building character strengths and wellbeing alongside academics – that creativity, optimism, curiosity, bravery, teamwork, leadership and social intelligence are just as vital as reading, writing and arithmetic for success in the 21st century.
