Positive Education in action!

Strong relationships amongst peers play a crucial role in the wellbeing and resilience of children and adolescents, whereas poor mental health outcomes are associated with unstable school environments and peer relationships.

The influence of relationships on health is diverse, as they promote self-care, endorse healthy habits like balanced nutrition and physical health, and nurture positive emotions that support overall bodily functions.

We all possess an intrinsic biological and psychological inclination for social connections and a sense of belonging and have a fundamental need for secure interpersonal connections and to perceive ourselves as worthy of care, empathy, love, and respect.

In the Māhutonga Matariki classroom spaces, we're diving deep into the importance of Teamwork, and what it entails in relation to positive peer relationships. You may have heard your child talk about 'Survivor'. This is a framework used to teach the explicit skills of developing Healthy Relationships, Teamwork, active and constructive communication, creative and flexible thinking.

Here's how it works: each term, students from each base group are organised into groups (using a random mixer so it's truely random). Each group comes up with a team name (my personal favourite so far is 'Lord of the Parakeets'!) Every Tuesday, we teach a Positive Education lesson which is focused around a different Learner Attribute/s and the Positive Education focus (this is currently 'Positive Relationships'). The learning from this lesson is taken into the Reward Challenge where students have to work in their teams to complete the task.

An example of this is the Week 2 challenge: 'Marble Roll'. 

During the challenge, groups were asked:
- How can each member of the group contribute? 
- How does our group make decisions together? 
- What does healthy communication look and sound like?

Points are added to the leaderboard and contribute to an overall score for term-long programme. On Wednesday's, we do a 'Tribal Council' where each group must unanimously vote for one other team to have a deduction of 50 points. Teams must practise their active communication skills to reach an agreement together. Every Friday, the groups take part in a 'Kahoot' which includes questions from each Learning Area and serves as a 'round-up' of the week's learning. The winning team receive immunity for the next Tribal Council.

Using a framework like 'Survivor' to teach skills related to Healthy Relationships, Teamwork, active and constructive communication, creative and flexible thinking is beneficial for all students. It has been rewarding to see students connect with each other and it is a fantastic vehicle to nurture Leadership skills as well.

Watch this space for updates!

Winning teams from the Week 2 'Marble Roll' Reward Challenge.