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Innovative project leads the way in positive psychology amongst school children

Monday 10 May 2010

Ilona Boniwell

A pioneering new pilot project from the UEL's School of Psychology is set to improve wellbeing and positive thinking amongst year seven school children in some Newham schools.

The Spark Project started earlier this year and involves forty teachers working with seven staff from UEL’s School of Psychology in three different Newham schools.

Led by Dr Ilona Boniwell, Programme Leader of MSc in Applied Positive Psychology, teachers in the schools are trained how to work with school children aged 11-years-old in their transition towards high school.

The project is now coming to the end of the pilot and the UEL Positive Psychology team are organising in-depth interviews with teachers to assess the results of the project, view their recommendations and prepare for the next stage into further schools.

Dr Kate Hefferon, Lecturer in Applied Positive Psychology said: “This project is a great way of building resilience in children. It incorporates positive psychology, cognitive behaviour therapy and resilience training to help school children find coping strategies in difficult situations and enable them to have the ability to make clear decisions.

"It’s also important for adult success as it teaches them to think more clearly about situations rather than make rash decisions and it is excellent for overall wellbeing."

There were twelve lessons in total and the teachers passed on the skills they learnt from the team to the children, who had to complete exercises and homework afterwards. The children were then able to integrate the lessons learnt into their personal lives.

Dr Hefferon added: "There are different theories on how to build resilience in children and we think Spark is an excellent example of one. A similar programme called the Penn Resilience Programme has been very successful in the States amongst children. We want to bring Spark to other schools in different boroughs across London and develop an adult programme later."

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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