This year we are keen to develop pupils' well-being by teaching them skills to cope with the roller-coaster of life.

What is well-being?

"A state of well-being in which the individual realises her or her own abilities; can cope with the normal stresses of life' can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his or her own community".

For our pupils this means:

"...feeling good and strong in our minds and bodies, having energy, getting along with and helping others, knowing our strengths and feeling proud because we are doing our best.  It means we can cope with the little problems and disappointments of life.  It means enjoying life, being grateful for what we have and accepting ourselves just as we are!"

Each month we are teaching our pupils from P3-P7 a new Tool of Resilience to support and improve our children's well-being across a number of areas - social, emotional, physical and psychological.  Nuturing children's well-being can lead to increased academic performance, positive behaviour and better life outcomes.   Research has shown that happy people are more creative, can multi-task better, are more tolerant of boring tasks and are more helpful and sociable.

In Killylea Primary School, we foster a whole school culture of well-being through:

• strong positive relationships
• sense of belonging and shared identity
• appreciation and valuing of academic and non-academic achievements
• participative approach to the management of the school where the pupil voice is heard
• clear rules and high expectations

So far we have introduced the skills and strategies of:

• Jigsaw of Perspective
• Lucky Dip of Distraction
• Planning Pen