The Inaugural Positive Schools 2009 Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference to be held on Friday 22nd May 2009, at the University Club, University of Western Australia Main Campus Crawley.

 

 

 

 

 

Please click HERE for the conference booklet

 

 

WORKSHOPS

Seminar Room One & Seminar Room Two

SIX WORKSHOPS WILL RUN OVER THE COURSE OF THE DAY

 

TIME	SEMINAR ROOM 1 Workshops	SEMINAR ROOM 2 Workshops
9.30-10.30	Working Well (Tiger in the Room)  Helen Street Wise Solutions	Play is the Way Wilson McCaskill The Game Factory
11.30-12.30	Working Well (A sense of purpose) Helen Street Wise Solutions:	Play is The Way Wilson McCaskill The Game Factory
2.00-3.00	Catch Them Before They Fall: Building Literacy Resilience Part One Steve Heath University of WA	Healing with stories: how to Help Kids and Teens Learn Positive Life Skills Part One George Burns Perth, WA
3.30-4.30	Catch Them Before They Fall: Building Literacy Resilience Part Two  Steve Heath University of WA	Healing with stories: how to Help Kids and Teens Learn Positive Life Skills Part Two  George Burns Perth, WA

 

Please click HERE to download a complete timetable for the day.

 

Please click HERE to register for the optional workshops. (NOW OPEN)

 

 

 

WORKSHOPS Seminar Room One (9.30 – 10.30) AND (11.30 – 12.30)

 

(NB Wise Solutions are presenting TWO DIFFERENT one hour workshops)

Working Well

WiSE SOLUTiONS

(Helen Street)

If we are to promote and develop positive education in our schools and colleges then we must first look to our own wellbeing as role models, mentors and leaders in education. No matter how psychologically and socially healthy, all adults can benefit from the consideration of wellbeing as a life long process of development.  The following one hour workshops are taken from Wise Solutions newest PD Event developed for 2010 onwards: “Working Well.” Working Well consists of a series of interactive workshop sessions developed to provide school staff and other educational professionals with effective strategies for the development of wellbeing in a sustainable and realistic way.

 

Tiger in the room (9.30 – 10.30)

This one hour workshop focuses on the power of perception to control our feelings and behaviour. Information is grounded in the metaphorical case of a “tiger in the room”. We are guided through an explanation of how we “feed” unwanted beliefs with unhealthy thinking patterns and consequently develop chronic stress reactions. The workshop invites participants to try out an up-to-date combination of mindfulness and thought altering techniques in a safe, non-threatening environment. The workshop is designed for all teaching staff as a means to develop healthy thinking and effectively manage long term stresses.

A sense of purpose (11.30 – 12.30)

This second one hour workshop focuses on helping teachers to set and pursue realistic goals for improved wellbeing and effective stress management.  Participants will be assisted in identifying and setting their own short term goals to develop resiliency and improve wellbeing.  Moreover, the workshop will focus on how to ensure that these goals are put into practice, i.e. participants will learn how good intentions can become real actions.

 

WiSE SOLUTiONS: PD EVENTS

Wise Solutions has been designed for use in ALL Australian and New Zealand schools.  Our open and in-house PD events offer information and strategies for improving student and staff wellbeing whereas our evaluation services provide detailed information on the mental health status of ALL students and/or ALL staff in the school environment.  

Our PD events are presented by A/Prof Helen Street. Each event  is concerned with understanding and improving the resiliency and wellbeing of students and staff. “Setting Goals for Mental Health” focuses on student mental health and classroom harmony while, “Teaching Well” addresses staff stress, distress, work satisfaction and wellbeing. The two one hour workshops presented here are taken from a new seminar series “WORKING WELL” designed specifically to help busy professionals effectively and realistically manage stress. All Wise Solutions seminars are held as open house and in house PD events for Australian schools and colleges.

 

Helen Street

Helen is a co-conference organiser and an invited speaker presenting the Positive Schools 2009 opening address at the conference. Her biography is presented HERE

 

Contact

Wise Solutions: Phone 08 9388 8843, Email enquiries@wisesolutions.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

WORKSHOPS Seminar Room Two (9.30 – 10.30) OR (10.30 – 11.30)

 

(NB The Game Factory are presenting TWO IDENTICAL one hour workshops)

 

PLAY IS THE WAY

The Game Factory

(Wilson & Julie McCaskill)

 

Discover the benefits of The Game Factory’s PLAY IS THE WAY™ Program in a one hour hands on workshop.

 

You will be introduced to some of the games and the simple, effective language that helps primary school students master the positive social behaviours essential to improve their living and learning.

 

Our belief is that games help children to habituate patterns of behaviour that are socially effective and culturally appropriate. The PLAY IS THE WAY™ Program has proven itself in many schools throughout Australia by achieving significant improvements in the social and emotional competencies and well being of their students.

 

The workshop is your opportunity to have a play, a few laughs and leave energized and informed.  Oh, and don’t worry, you don’t have to be sporty, fit or dressed in sports wear to attend.

 

The Game Factory

 

The Game Factory helps to change the student, teacher relationship from one based on control and compliance to one based on guidance and self-determination. To achieve this we offer schools a program of physically interactive games that has been formally evaluated and proven in schools throughout Australia.

Wilson McCaskill

 

After working for many years at his drama school in Perth, Western Australia, Wilson McCaskill recognised the declining social and emotional competencies of children. To combat the problem he established The Game Factory program of physically interactive games in 1990, for use in primary schools.  As teachers wanted a tool that was easy to implement and sustain and didn’t require extensive training to use, the program quickly became a success, with schools reporting positive changes to individual and collective student behaviour.   The formally evaluated and proven effectiveness of the program in W.A. prompted Wilson to make it available to the other states of Australia in 2000.   The popularity of the program means that Wilson and his wife Julie spend the majority of their time travelling extensively throughout Australia to in-service teachers in both public and private schools.

 

Julie McCaskill

 As Director/Administrator, Julie McCaskill has steered the rapid and exciting growth of The Game Factory throughout Australia.  Working hand in hand with her husband Wilson, Julie’s meticulous note taking and keen observations over countless workshops with teachers, and games sessions with students, have been instrumental in the production of The Game Factory’s resources and program.  Her past life as an acting school administrator and stage performer, make Julie a firm advocate of the power of play to enhance, shape and change the lives of children.

 

 

Contact

Phone (08) 9343 3033, 

enquiries@thegamefactory.com.au             www.thegamefactory.com.au

 

 

 

WORKSHOP Seminar Room One (2.00  – 3.00) CONTINUED (3.30 – 4.30)

 

 

(NB George’s workshop is a single workshop presented in two parts)

 

Healing with stories: how to Help Kids and Teens Learn Positive Life Skills

George W Burns

Examining the values of communicating with metaphors in teaching, parenting, therapy and counselling, George Burns provides inspirational story ideas that you can adapt to share with your students and clients for coping with life’s challenges and enhancing well-being.  He explains how to tell stories that engage the child, how to make those stories metaphoric, and where to find sources for such tales.  From his mother sitting at his bedside reading the classics to his father telling stories of life as they worked in the backyard shed, George has learnt a love of stories, collects cross-cultural tales, and has investigated their benefits in teaching and therapy. He is the author of three internationally acclaimed books on the topic, teaches around the world, and has been called the ‘metaphor man’.

 

 

In this workshop George will provide informative background, illustrative case examples, and simple, pragmatic exercises to help you quickly apply these methods for enhancing educational and therapeutic outcomes with your own students or clients.  Among other things, you will learn guidelines for effective storytelling, how to use your storyteller’s voice, and where to find sources for developing effective story ideas for learning positive life skills and well-being.

 

George W Burns, Perth WA

George is also an invited speaker at the conference and as such, his biography is presented under speaker information

 

 

 

 

 

WORKSHOP Seminar Room Two (2.00  – 3.00) CONTINUED (3.30 – 4.30)

 

 

(NB Steve’s workshop is a single workshop presented in two parts)

 

Catch Them Before They Fall:   Building Literacy Resilience

Child Study Centre, UWA
Steve Heath

Both research and evidence from practice suggests that successful literacy plays an important part in children’s well being in the classroom, and in other areas of their development. However, currently in Australia, an alarming proportion of children with adequate intelligence and opportunity do not succeed at literacy. We also know that typically, once children begin to fail at literacy, many do not improve, and that this has implications across their further schooling and later lifespan.

 

This workshop will briefly review findings which have led most researchers to agree on what is needed to promote successful uptake of literacy in the majority of children. We will also look at building literacy resilience and examine recent research on early identification and intervention for children at high risk for literacy problems.

 

 

We will examine the central predictive factors for literacy problems identified in four decades of research. We will discover how these factors can be cost-effectively measured in schools to establish levels of risk in Preprimary children before they begin to fail and in time to provide preventative enhancement programs targeting those at high risk.

 

Finally, we will sample activities from these programs and discuss development of evidence-based literacy resources which are accessible to schools.

 

Dr Steve Heath will present and talk about managing DYSLEXIA

 

Steve is a clinical and research psychologist and also a trained teacher. She has a special interest in disorders of language and literacy and particularly phonological processing. She works clinically with primary school aged children and adults. At the UWA Child Study Centre Learning Clinic Steve works in the multi-disciplinary team with students whose specific learning disabilities interfere with their academic achievement and undermine their developing sense of well being.

 

Steve’s research has resulted in a cost-effective preschool screening method that will identify children at risk for reading problems and which has been tested in schools in a project funded by the Department of Education and Training (DET).  She is also a member of the Child Study Centre team that holds an ARC-Linkage grant with DET to look at ways of training parents to support their preschool child’s early literacy development through play-based activities.

 

Contact

Phone 6488 1300

Email steve@psy.uwa.edu.au

 

 

Please click HERE to download a complete timetable for the day.

 

Please click HERE to register for the optional workshops. (Open 28th April 2009)