Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom: A Practical Guide to Teaching Happiness

"Adrian is a primary school teacher and active member of Action for Happiness. He has taken the 10 Keys to Happier Living and other ideas from positive psychology and applied them with great success in his classroom. This book shares that experience as a guide for other teachers. Adrian was an early adopter of Action for Happiness ideas. He felt that these could make a big difference in the school he worked in and has put them into practice in his own classrooms. For example, Anti-Bullying Week is something that a lot of schools participate in. But it highlights the negative behaviours rather than constructive ones. Instead Adrian introduced It’s Cool to Be Kind Week choosing to promote positive good, social evidence-based behaviours. The kids learned why kindness was important for everyone’s happiness and explored doing kind tasks over the week. For example they produced a newspaper of happy headlines and stories to hand out at the local train station which made commuters smile. The kids were tasked with doing kind things for people in their community, and several people wrote to the school with notes of thanks. It showed kids that they can have an influence and make a difference. This approach achieved everything Anti-Bullying Week could have and much, much more. “They chose to promote positive good, social evidence-based behaviours instead of negative ones” Adrian’s well-structured book shows teachers how to teach a range of concepts and skills and integrate them into the classroom and school culture. It’s one of the first books of its kind that makes it easy for teachers to understand why this matters and what they can do in a practical sense in their classrooms."