Let's get practical about wellbeing

We welcome back Dr Sue Allingham in this episode following on from a month highly focused around mental health and wellbeing.

We often discuss wellbeing from both a theoretical view and quite a negative and deficit perspective of all the things that are not working. What about discussing what we CAN do, the solutions rather than just the problems…

Angelica Celinska and Dr Sue Allingham discuss both adults' and children's wellbeing, what is right for each individual, what is your way of listening? How sometimes we recognise individual needs in adults but actually not always in children. The fact that we cannot schedule wellbeing, and in who's opinion is it wellbeing anyway? What does wellbeing mean? They consider the need to recognise how the other person feels secure in themselves, and questioning "what do I know about the children and adults around me and what makes them feel comfortable"?

Angelica and Sue tap into:

• Stepping back and observing – interacting or interfering (Julie Fisher)
• The adult agenda impacting on children's wellbeing
• 'Chocolates in the staffroom and golden time on a Friday'
• Sitting 'nicely' – what IS sitting nicely, in who's opinion?
• Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
• The Leuven Scale – Dr Ferre Laevers' emotional wellbeing and involvement scales
• Sticker charts, marble jars, golden time, circle time…does this work for your children? For your community? For your team? For YOU as an educator?
• Leaders tuning in to their individual team's needs
• Critical reflection and critical consumption of knowledge
• Pressures from various central bodies
• 'Emotional backpacks'
• The right to silence – the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child
• Reading body language
• How do children know you value them?
• How does your team know you value them?
• Slow pedagogy – Dr Alison Clark
• Emotional and physical wellbeing is all about the entire body – do the children feel comfortable in the setting? Does your team feel comfortable?
• Distractions in the environment