CONTEXTUAL WELLBEING Creating Positive Schools from the Inside Out

If we are to help young people attain a love of learning and flourish at school, then we need to explicitly support their wellbeing. In this book, Helen Street introduces a definition that underpins an alternative way of supporting young people, and an alternative way of delivering education.

All too often we try to help a child who is distressed at school by encouraging them to change or to develop as an individual. We want them to be more confident, more resilient, less anxious. But what if the answer is not about trying to help that individual to change, in whatever capacity? What if the answer is all about creating a healthier environment for that individual?

I believe that wellbeing is an interplay between our best individual self and our best environment. As such, happiness and success are far more than individual pursuits, or even individual responsibilities. Lasting happiness develops from the ongoing creation of healthy connections to others and to the world around us.

Happiness is a positive state of wellbeing resulting from our connection to a social environment that supports and nurtures us to become the best we can be.