Tony Seymour writes about our Brilliant Derbyshire workshops for schools and support centres.
“Schools should make the well-being of their children a major objective, and this should include the children’s sense of social obligation and also how they feel inside.” (World Happiness Report 2015).
Across the length and breadth of Derbyshire, we’ve delivered Being Brilliant workshops in upwards of 25 schools and support centres. The feedback has been superb. But can the initial enthusiasm be sustained? You bet! 18 months ago, after attending our workshop, a group of energised Year 7s at one north Derbyshire school created their own ‘Brilliant Club’ with lunchtime meetings. They prepare presentations about being positive for local primary schools, create ‘positive content’ for assemblies and maintain a unique ‘Art of Brilliance Noticeboard’ containing anecdotes and tips about happiness and responsibility. These noble efforts in maintaining and spreading positivity across the school and community are a great example of what results can be unleashed when the ‘penny drops’.
This year, with a moderate dose of fear and apprehension, we set about delivering uplifting messages about happiness, choice and personal responsibility to youngsters with learning needs at special schools and to students attending support centres (‘attending’ is used rather loosely). Most are there because of exclusion or bad behaviour. How did we fare? In such ‘challenging’ settings, how do you know if your lesson about happiness and making positive choices is hitting the mark? One special school head wrote:
“The facilitators were wonderful, full of energy and drive; a pleasure to work with. Even the students with challenging behaviour engaged fully and displayed the best responses.”
As the World Happiness Report states, the well-being of children should be a major objective of every school, rather than focussing on being a super- efficient ‘exam factory’. From this year, one thing stands out: When happiness, well-being and positivity are central to the school ethos, learning, growth and development often follows naturally.
For the Art of Brilliance team, spreading happiness has truly become a ‘speciality’!