Schools are about learning – we are striving to provide our students with those dispositions that will allow them to be successful in their lives, not just academic achievement. We believe that effective schools should never be just about academic pursuits. They certainly have a place but academic excellence is just one facet of a child’s education. At AIS, we focus on the whole student – academic, physical, creative, altruistic and relational. In a world that’s seeing an increase in AI and machine learning, it is these uniquely human skills that prepare our charges for success in an unknown future. As a school, we don’t lose focus on the academic imperative, but it’s just one facet of an AIS education. They say that it takes a village to raise a child. It might take a city to educate them. School must have a vital place in this development – our students spend more waking hours with us than they do their parents. To create well-rounded young people of substance, the school must take an active role in this domain. 

It isn’t just a part of our curriculum, it’s our philosophy for pastoral care. To that end, it permeates all that we do. A student may learn resilience as part of a sporting team. A teacher may develop a growth mindset by introducing a new and innovative lesson to their students. A parent may develop gratitude through an interaction with a staff member who has “gone the extra yard” for their child.  For Positive Education to be authentic, it must be a part of what we do. Of course, we need to provide our staff with the skills to achieve this through training and support and, at times, distinct lessons may occur. But for Positive Education to live and breathe it must be part of our way of life.

Martin Seligman is considered the “father” of positive psychology and, by extension, Positive Education. His Six Classes of Virtues refer to broad classifications of 24 character strengths that we all possess. These are:

• Knowledge and Wisdom
• Courage
• Humanity
• Justice
• Temperance
• Transcendency

Students and staff at AIS will utilise the VIA Character Strengths Survey to determine which of these dispositions are their “go to”. We then use these areas of strength to inform how we might tackle an issue that is part of our lives at school. An example of how we might use this technique at AIS is in our Year 6 Goal Setting Program. Students undertake the VIA Survey and then when they develop a plan to achieve their academic and personal goals for the year, they work with their class teacher on how they might use their character strengths to achieve this aim. For instance, a student with curiosity as their strength may set a goal for the year to use “curiosity to explore learning in Science more deeply”.

Our goal is that everyone in our community will have the opportunity to be the best version of themselves. To achieve this goal, we must work at developing a caring community that nurtures and loves each member of our family. Positive Education provides an effective framework to support this goal.