Why we're exploring...
When Sparklers set out, we did so in response from teachers and kaiako requesting support with tamariki post Christchurch-earthquakes. We didn’t know Sparklers would quickly shift from a Canterbury to a national focus and here we are 5 years later with our statistics telling us Sparklers is present in 78% of Aotearoa primary and intermediate schools. We are amazed!
We want to explore how we can support you to extend your wellbeing mahi wider - we know you'll already be doing this. There’s heaps of literature on ‘why’ it’s important to build a whole school approach to wellbeing, but knowing ‘how’ to go about it can be where it gets a bit tricky.
We really rate Lucy Hone and Denise Quinlan’s book The Educator’s Guide to Whole School Wellbeing because it does a great job setting the scene. It’s from Aotearoa, based on tonnes of research, is full of resources and doesn’t ask that we follow a one-size-fits-none approach - that ticks many of our boxes!
We’ll be using this book as our guide as we gently learn about whole-school approaches alongside you, offering starting points, tips and sharing ideas each week to help guide the process for you, your school and kura. But it’s manageable - promise!
Building on our term 1 mahi, we’ll also intertwine what we do with Te Whare Tapa Whā. We know many schools and kura have already, and we'll look to share these stories and learning.
And we look at all the school and kura hauora possibilities as we fid them - this hikoi isn’t about Sparklers. It’s about wellbeing and hauora and finding our way to make it available for everyone.
First things... get your hands on a copy of Denise and Lucy's book, share this page with school or kura leaders who are curious too and spend a little bit of time reflecting. We've created a worksheet to support this process here.
