Leadership for Tomorrow by Malcolm Groves

Author:Malcolm Groves [Malcolm Groves, Andrew Hobbs and John West-Burnham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785832970
Publisher: Crown House Publishing
Published: 2017-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Seligman maintains that these five pillars contribute to overall well-being, are important areas that people pursue for their own sake, and can be defined and measured independently of one another. Some aspects of the model are measured subjectively by self-report, other aspects can be measured objectively. Seligman sees student well-being as multidimensional, on both the positive and negative sides of the mental health continuum. He argues that a multidimensional approach allows schools to tailor systematic well-being approaches to the developmental needs of students. This analysis suggests that schools need to have both a detailed knowledge and understanding of the overall well-being of students, their families, and the wider community, and a means of systematically assessing the individual needs of students using a multidimensional approach.

As part of the background to preparing this chapter, during 2016 we carried out some small-scale evaluations in nine schools in Bedford which had placed a particular focus on developing a school well-being strategy. This strategy was part of a local authority initiative, overseen by Peter Pan Teaching School Alliance. It was informed by Seligman’s model and drew on the work of a range of national partners, including Early Excellence,2 specifically using the Leuven Scales for Emotional Well-being and Involvement, which we will outline in more detail later, and YoungMinds, especially their academic resilience framework.3

The evaluation tracked the development of the work of the schools over a 12-month period. Whilst the well-being of pupils and how this linked to their educational achievement was the prime concern, it quickly became clear to several of the schools that the well-being of their staff, and of pupils’ parents, were inextricably intertwined with the well-being and achievement of pupils. For many, though not all, of the schools, their involvement in this initiative led to significant changes in thinking, policy, and practice. At the heart of these changes lay a refocusing on the centrality of each child: understanding their specific needs and barriers to learning, then addressing these directly and personally at the earliest possible opportunity.

Common key features of the resulting changes, identified in the evaluation report (Groves, 2016), are:

A focus on earlier identification of difficulties experienced by children, within the school and outside, and timely responses.

The encouragement of more personalised responses which match interventions to the child rather than the other way around.

Taking time to get to know pupils as individuals and responding to their interests and concerns.

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