Most teachers and parents have a strong belief that it is not enough to teach our children just how to read, write and solve maths problems. We believe that it is important to educate our students socially and emotionally; to enable them to flourish both at primary school and in their life beyond school.

This is why we can embrace the science of Positive Psychology which, when applied to education, we call Positive Education. Positive Psychology is a branch of psychology that emerged from  traditional psychology’s deficit based model. It is a strengths based approach that aims to prevent, rather than cure mental illness and anxiety. The aim of positive psychology is to improve the quality of people’s lives.

Barwon Heads Primary School developed their own model, based on Martin Seligman’s PERMA model. Positive Education is taught by using the VIA Character Strengths.

The aim was to equip our students with a toolbox of strategies that they can use to be resilient and lead happy and meaningful lives.