- Deliberately creating a culture and community of happiness and wellbeing in a school is the most powerful way to address issues of mental ill health, disengagement, bullying and poor academic performance.
- Every human being has a built-in desire to get happier and get the best out of life. This internal motivation ensures deep engagement by everyone in the Get Happier School. It provides clear rationale and logic to help make the most effective choices.
- A framework for mental health, happiness and wellbeing can and should be taught to all children as part of the curriculum.
- Having an explicit, simple framework or mental model to understand the idea of happiness and how to maximize it in your life, is essential to wellbeing and mental health.
- A wholistic and relevant framework for wellbeing enables anyone to quickly recognize which aspect of behaviour they can change, and how to do it.
- The Get Happier School framework provides strategies and problem solving processes but also provides the freedom for each person to apply it creatively in their own unique life space.
- We learn best through fun stories, self-reflection, questioning, engagement and practice.
- Prevention is better than cure. Being proactive by teaching this framework before puberty sets children up with the resources to build well-being, self esteem, responsibility and mental health. Children learn to value themselves and to discover their own unique gifts.
- Developmental and sequential learning using the established principles of effective learning, ensures highly effective learning outcomes.
- In a complex and rapidly changing world young people do not require ‘quick fix’ solutions, but practical, evidence-based and sustainable processes to build confidence, resilience, great relationships and problem solving skills.
- Everyone in the school community is involved in empowering students, including teachers and parents.
- To significantly reduce the incidence of family violence, suicide, drug abuse and road trauma we need to teach children in our schools the science and skills for managing feelings, improving wellbeing and getting happier.
