Local Schools Working Together

TEACHERS from throughout the Upper Hunter met in Sydney on the weekend to begin a ground breaking project to roll out positive education across 22 local schools.

The Where There’s A Will Foundation paid for the local teachers to travel to Sydney, learn about positive education and form stronger networks to support each other in the new approach to education.

Local teachers join together: Back: Natalie Smith, Andrea Burns, Jane Callinan, Adam Johnston, Sally Hagley, Nate Atkinson, unknown and Kathy Burns,
Middle: Marika Eveleigh, Johanna Teague, Samantha Cockerill, Michelle Lovegrove, Lizz Hickey, Liz Leman, Hannah Hunt and Lyn Redding. Front: Pauline Carrigan, Kim Wilson, Katrina Hodgson, Elizabeth Bate, Michelle Harris, Felicity Dowdell, Katherine Davidson and Kirsty Hails.

Kim Wilson, deputy principal from St Mary’s Primary school in Scone said she was excited to be part of the project and enjoyed working with other teachers throughout the area.

“It’s very exciting because we are very much doing ground breaking work with 22 schools in one cluster all working on this together, all of the guest speakers and everyone there knew about our group because this is quite unique,” Ms Wilson said.

“It hasn’t been done in one area on such a large scale before, so they are hoping there will be success from it,” she said.

“The networking and the sharing of ideas and resources so we’re not just individually trying to do everything on our own, we’ve got this group that will meet regularly,” she said.

“I got a very clear understanding of the science behind positive psychology and how that leads to positive education,” she said.

“Some of us are wired to naturally have that good mental health and be able to think things through and others are not, but it’s very clear that those skills can be taught and now we need to teach kids the skills to have good mental health and well being,” she said.

“The other thing was looking at the mental well being of staff and concentrate on their well being, so that is something I want to work on here,” Kim Wilson said.