WELLBEING
IN EDUCATION

NZIWR provides flexible options for schools and educators to build their wellbeing knowledge and capacity.

Wellbeing is now more important than ever but finding the time to learn about it is challenging. If you’re new to whole-school wellbeing, or interested in wellbeing but short on time, our online programmes are for you.

Teacher Boost Online Community

We know educators work hard and need support. We have created an online community to share our work and ideas to support educators with:

  • Resilience tips and strategies for right now
  • Help to see the big picture and what’s working; and
  • Hope for the future

If you want to join us head to Teacher Boost.

Join the Teacher Boost Online Community

“Such a wonderful initiative to create this page. I’m looking forward to the sharing of stories from members and their experiences with wellbeing and resilience.”

Making the Case for Wellbeing

A three-part course exploring what wellbeing in education is, why there is such a pressing need for it today, and examples of how wellbeing is being promoted and protected in a range of different schools. 

Priced to make it as accessible as possible, this course includes:

  • Three short videos (approx 12 mins each)
  • Downloadable summary of the key points 
  • Downloadable slide presentation – ready for you to share in your learning centre – we’ve done the heavy lifting for you!
  • Supporting research and additional watch, read, listen resources
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“Dr Lucy Hone and Dr Denise Quinlan are two of the leaders in the world’s positive education field.”
Ryan Niemic, VIA Institute on Character

“Thank you for this first course, it has helped me to know where to start with my well-being team and how to approach our senior leadership.”

Navigating Wellbeing Change

Navigating Wellbeing Change is the course for educators who want to drive long-term, sustainable school-wide wellbeing change — and avoid overwhelm!

Tired of running scattered wellbeing initiatives that never seem to connect or add up to more? Worn out from being your school’s only ‘wellbeing person’? Looking for solutions that apply to your school’s context?

Navigating Wellbeing Change is for educators who want to:

  • Deliver early wellbeing wins that matter most to your people
  • Develop wellbeing plans that respond to your priorities, context and budget
  • Put wellbeing firmly on the school agenda
  • Give staff and community hope for the future.

“The stand out benefit we got from NZIWR is that the process that they embark on with you allows you to develop something that is specific to your organisation, they celebrate learning from failing and continuously leave you with snippets which are gems to inform and inspire your practice.”
Jess Patrick, Deputy Principal

Bite-Size Learning (BSL)

Bite-Size Learning (BSL) is designed for Wellbeing Lead teachers to run short professional learning sessions with staff – and they can be adapted for the classroom.

Activities in the sessions are designed to take approximately 15 minutes in a staff meeting, but can also be expanded to 45-60 minute sessions by using the discussion questions provided and sharing the recommended videos.

The topics in each series follow a logical order that builds on knowledge as you learn, allowing you and your staff to accumulate a deeper understanding around how wellbeing can be promoted in your place of learning. 

Each session includes:

  • An overview sheet for Wellbeing Leads (equipping them to run each session)
  • A Teacher Activity sheet
  • A short teaching video featuring Dr Lucy Hone, Dr Denise Quinlan and NZIWR colleagues who are experienced educators and psychologists working with staff and students on wellbeing
  • Further resources for each topic including videos, readings, podcasts and articles

It’s easy to extend sessions with the extra activities, resources and discussion questions – so it can be used in a way that best fits with your centre’s priorities and focus.

Discover This CourseDownload The Flyer

“The staff at Hinds school have loved the BSL videos to help support our ongoing wellbeing PLD. The BSL videos are manageable chunks of professional learning that have fitted well into part of our staff meeting, Teacher Only Day or meeting before school. The videos, plus activity guides and worksheets, provide practical advice, in an engaging way, to use straight away in your personal life, school setting or classroom. It has made us realise that our wellbeing is up to us and that we can make small, manageable steps to improve it.”
Amanda Ferguson, Hinds School

Staff Wellbeing Workshops

Learn practical tools to build resilience and combat stress in our highly interactive and engaging workshops for staff.

From one hour to a half day, delivered virtually or face-to-face, get in touch for some flexible PLD to build wellbeing literacy and capacity in your school community.

Contact us today.

Find out more

The Educators’ Guide to Whole-School Wellbeing

A practical guide to getting started, best practice process and effective implementation, written by Dr Denise Quinlan and Dr Lucy Hone.

While many schools understand the need to promote and protect wellbeing, they often find themselves stuck, not knowing where to start. Who’s going to run the programme? Do we need a curriculum? Shall we buy one or create our own? Which is the best wellbeing model for our school? How will we fit in the required professional learning on top of everything else we already do? Is wellbeing just another fad? How do we get students involved?

This book provides companionship through rich stories from schools around the world that have created wellbeing practices that work for their schools. It guides educators through processes that help create individualised, contextualised school wellbeing plans. With chapters addressing ‘why wellbeing?’, ‘what is “whole school?”’, change dynamics, measurement, staff wellbeing, coaching, cultural responsiveness, and how to build buy-in, it is the first of its kind. 

Balancing research and practice for each topic with expert practitioner and researcher insights, this book gives schools access to best-practice guidance from around the world in a user-friendly format, designed with busy educators in mind.

What sets the Lucy and Denise apart from the many school wellbeing practitioners globally is their substantial experience working alongside diverse school groups. While many have experience in one school, few work across a multitude of very different schools and clusters, giving these practising academics a unique appreciation for effective, cross-context processes.

A list of chapters is available here.

Purchase This Book

“Everyone working in this field will want a copy of this excellent book.”
Dr Sue Roffey, Director of Growing Great Schools Worldwide

“Denise Quinlan, with broad international training, is an experienced and highly motivated positive psychology researcher and wellbeing change leader who is clearly destined to make a difference.”
George Vaillant MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Deepen your learning with the Diploma

The 11069NAT Diploma of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing comprehensively covers important wellbeing topics such as strengths, resilience, optimism, creativity and excellence. Take your career to the next level with a recognised qualification in the science of optimal performance and wellbeing.

“As an educator I was grappling with my work on promoting wellbeing and health as I felt I needed a stronger foundation of knowledge, evidence, skills and tools to be able to do my work effectively… To say the course is life-changing would be an understatement. I use every part of what I have learnt not only in my professional life but also in my personal life… I would encourage you to make the most of this opportunity.”
Megan Martin

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Whole-School Wellbeing Training

Our partnership with CORE Education delivers collective wellbeing to learning communities throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. This wellbeing programme is suitable for funding via regionally-allocated PLD and can also be delivered directly to your learning community (early learning, kura, schools, Kāhui Ako).

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Learn from those who’ve gone before

There are three episodes of our podcast series Bringing Wellbeing to Life  that we recommend to get you started: 

We’ve Worked With Hundreds of Schools

Mā te tuakana te teina e tōtika, Mā te teina te tuakana e tōtika.

The older will lead the younger and the younger will lead the older.

Wellbeing in Action