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Not for ourselves alone

Mount Barker High School

Geelong Grammar comes to Mount Barker

 

IMG_1353 Course Leaders and Participants

Staff at Mount Barker High School and the surrounding primary schools began their July holidays with a four-day course – Discovering Positive Education, run by Geelong Grammar School’s Institute of Positive Education. They were joined by interested staff from both public and private metropolitan schools.

The course covered topics about Positive Accomplishment and understanding Fixed and Growth Mindsets, Positive Emotions, Character Strengths, building Optimism and Resiliency, Positive Engagement, and Positive Relationships.

In welcoming participants Warren Symonds, Principal of Mount Barker High School said that it would be one of if not the best professional development experiences of their careers. On the last day of the training, many of the participants affirmed this claim.

Charlie Scudamore, Deputy Principal of Geelong Grammar School, began the conference by saying that it was the first time the team had ‘played away from home’, he finished it by saying that he had been wrong – they were at home. The feeling of being at home was very much part of the conference as people shared learning, ideas and meals together.

The course took place over the last day of term and the first few days of holidays when teachers are usually running on reserve, making the sustained energy and enthusiasm of participants quite amazing – our science teachers were busy planning new Positive Education modules for their curriculum in their spare time on the last day.

As a result of this training, approximately 150 teachers and support staff across the district have undertaken Positive Education training. This means that over 3000 students in our district will benefit from working with school staff trained in delivering Positive Education!


IMG_7123 Learning about the Neuroplasticity of the Brain