I think people see Geelong Grammar and they think it's a really prestigious school, it has a long history, we can be quite traditional but yet we're taking quite an innovative approach to looking at young people's well-being. So what is happiness? When you want to get with friends and they come with you somewhere.
People are fighting with my dad. People are fighting with your dad. We wanted to do something for our students to help them cope with the stresses of life.
School does come with its ups and downs. Mean people saying mean stuff. Sometimes you might think I won't get it and I'll fail.
I wonder if you can look at some and think that one really describes my character or who I am. That when we first introduced the science of positive psychology, we wanted to teach it explicitly, not just in our other academic programs. How do you find time in a crowded timetable? We're going to have some character strength conversations.
Are you ready? We actually had our English and maths teachers give up some of their subject time. We're actually going to interrupt this session with a really lovely mindful moment for us all, just to refocus.
Just a big deep breath in. And out. Things like mindfulness, actually just being calm, focusing on a Mandela before you do a test, all of those things help our students take the exams, prepare with life in a more rational and reasonable way.
Net plans coming up and it just helps you relax. and, like, just be, like, in the flow of things. They'd also be explicitly taught concepts like growth and fixed mindset.
A fixed mindset is where you're just like, no, I'm not going to try this. I'm just going to stop. But having a growth mindset is being like, oh, well, I'm going to try this because I may like it, but it doesn't matter if I don't. At least I've had a go. Think about your head being a balloon, just lifting up.
And to be able to learn how to do these things at an early age so that when they have other stressors in life, they're actually really prepared for those. You go into teaching because you want to help children make more of who they are, historically only academically, but of course now not just academically, but in all aspects of their life. Perhaps it is a bit of an educational revolution that we're actually really considering that well-being is at the heart of the curriculum of our school, but we'd also love to see it placed at the heart of the curriculum for schools throughout Australia.
I think there is a degree of enthusiasm within the Department of Education for positive education, but I don't know at the political level whether there's the same support. It's something for every school in the country and they would only benefit from it, so I do hope that the government will look at this more closely.