**For International Day of Happiness, I have created a social media challenge for schools and families to take part in. ** Schools can join in as a whole school, in staff teams, in tutor or class groups, in house groups, subject groups - the choice is yours! The aim is to spread joy and strengthen relationships / connections, in line with this year’s International Day of Happiness theme of “Happier Together”. ***To get children involved in the challenge and support their wellbeing, I’ve created a prize draw for schools and families / households to take part in. *** For schools, the prize is a free virtual wellbeing presentation (see below) for primary, secondary or staff. For families, the prize is more suitable for those with small children, as they can win a set of Character Toolkit Strength Cards, which are designed with primary school children in mind. The worksheet in this resource provides you with more information, including lots of activity suggestions to do the 10-day challenge, in-school or online. It also contains the link to the challenge webpage, with more detailed info about prizes, rules, etc, and lots of free downloadable images to use during the challenge. PRIZES FOR SCHOOLS: Primary Assembly, 15-20 mins (worth £149) “Kindness matters”(considering the needs of and practising service to others) OR “My wonderful friends” (recognising and celebrating others’ character strengths) Secondary Assembly, 15-20 mins (worth £149) “And … breathe!” (simple breathing meditations to calm nerves before exams, think before reacting in anger, etc) OR “Be selfishly selfless!” (benefits of altruism, giving, volunteering etc on wellbeing / mental health) Staff CPD presentation / workshop, up to 30 mins (worth £249) “My emotions don’t rule my life” (understanding the relationship between emotions, thoughts and behaviours) OR “Improving school and personal relationships: How understanding and working with our strengths helps us connect and work better” OR “Strengths-based school leadership” Schools are allowed to enter multiple times, but to be entered in the prize draw, each entry/team has to complete the entire 10-day challenge. I’ll be doing the presentations online using Zoom or Google Meet (your choice). Sorry, but recording of the presentations isn’t allowed.

Live recording of a panel of teachers, psychologists, wellbeing specialists and more, discussing mental health and wellbeing for children / teens, parents, teachers & other school staff during Coronavirus crisis. **This was recorded live on 24th March 2020. I chaired the panel (Frederika Roberts, Positive Psychology & Character Education Speaker, Trainer, Author) and the panelists were: ** Dr Caren Baruch-Feldman, Cognitive Behavioural Psychologist, School & Camp Psychologist Adele Bates, Behaviour & Education Specialist Kelly Hannaghan, Wellbeing Consultant, Publis Seaker & Author Anna Harrington, Specialist Public Health Nurse, Occupational Health Kate McAllister, Teacher, Trainer, Speaker, Writer, Thinker. Wellness Nerd.

This resource consists of a worksheet for children and a teachers’ guide. The activities, aimed at supporthing children’s wellbeing, are informed by positive psychology, positive education and character education research. They were originally designed to be used by children in a home environment or in school during the school closures and periods of isolation and social distancing imposed by the Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic, but will support wellbeing at any time and are particularly relevant to mental health awareness weeks (e.g. Children’s Mental Health Week) and school wellbeing weeks. The main target group for these activities is children aged 8-12, though the activities can easily be tweaked for younger or older children. ABOUT THE RESOURCE CREATOR: I am Frederika Roberts (The Happiness Speaker), a former secondary MFL teacher. Now, I work as a positive psychology trainer, speaker, lecturer, researcher and author. I have an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and am currently undertaking research (into the use of Appreciative Inquiry to increase whole school wellbeing) for my EdD (Doctor of Education). I have written/co-written & co-edited the following books: Author: “Recipe for Happiness” and “For Flourishing’s Sake” Co-author: “Character Toolkit for Teachers” and the “Character Toolkit Strength Cards” Co-editor and contributing author: “The Big Book of Whole School Wellbeing” You can find me on X (formerly Twitter) at @frederika_r If you have found this resource useful, please consider leaving a review, to help other teachers find and use it. Thank you :)

**A discussion/starter activity for PSHE lessons or for Tutor Period. Ideally for KS3 and above, though could also be used for KS2. ** Help your pupils discover their ‘Little Happiness Ingredients’ and have a discussion around the activities they enjoy doing to improve their well-being. The worksheet then also asks pupils to plan activities over the following 7 days, to help them develop/maintain a habit of including deliberate leisure time in their days. When exams are looming, you can ask them to focus on activities that take no more than 15 minutes to do, so that even when they are busy and stressed with revision, they can still find time to fit quick leisure activities into their days. You will find more activities in the book I have co-authored with Elizabeth Wright (with Foreword by Kristján Kristjánsson): “Character Toolkit for Teachers: 100+ Classroom and Whole School Character Education Activities for 5-11-Year-Olds” Many of the activities are suitable for older children and even adults.