Flourishing Schools
Build the foundation for a happier and healthier future
Happiness is a skill you can learn - and the earlier you learn it, the longer its impact.
Our Flourishing Schools programme teaches young people and teachers the vital life skills to ride the waves of this uncertain world with greater kindness and resilience.
With practical tools drawn from the science of mindfulness, gratitude, and compassion, everyone can learn how to keep their minds happy and healthy, whatever the circumstances.
Available both in person and online, it’s designed to support and nourish teachers, too!
Research shows that the happiness and well-being of children and young people has continued to drop over the last decade.
The Children’s Society’s latest Good Childhood Report shows that even before the pandemic, 15 year olds in the UK were the most unhappy in Europe.
A generation’s well-being and mental health are being damaged by a fear of failure, dissatisfaction with their appearance, and difficulties with friends. This is an issue both now and potentially into the future.
According to the World Health Organisation, 1 in 5 adolescents may experience a mental health problem in any given year. 50% of mental health problems may be established by the age of 14, and 75% by the age of 24.
It’s clear that a new approach is needed, especially in the face of the new challenges we’re facing. The Children’s Society’s Covid-19 Recovery briefing suggests that:
“... the primary focus of the recovery curriculum should be on promoting well-being and successful reintegration, rather than solely focusing on academic achievement.
Adopting a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing will be more important than ever.”
The Museum of Happiness
Flourishing Schools Programme
Create a well-being revolution - together!
Plant Seeds
Launching the project in each year group, we’ll provide half a day’s training for teachers and children, creating the school’s Happiness Ambassador Board
Nourish Seeds
Launching the Happier Mind experiment, you’ll learn the skills of mental well-being, gratitude, mindfulness and kindness, creating reflective displays/events to cement learnings
Spread Seeds
Create your own mini Museum of Happiness! Showcase the science and learnings for parents and your whole school, catalysing further conversation and change
‘You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf’
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Learn how to ‘Water the flowers, not the weeds’
- Ajahn Brahm
Made with teachers in mind
We know that teachers are likely to be overwhelmed, and keeping children healthy and safe is at the top of their agenda.
So our fun and engaging programme is designed to be a nourishing experience for the teachers, too, rather than another thing on their already overflowing to-do list! It’s built to reduce overwhelm, support resilience and support both children and teachers in staying mentally and physically well.
For young people, by young people
The programme is youth-led and will be for young people, by young people. This peer-to-peer approach helps participants and ambassadors to own it, shape it, and lead by example.
Through this model, the rest of the school will learn and grow through the support of the youthboard and peers. And they FUNdraise to pay forward the next Museum of Happiness at another school.
Because the positive ripples from our programme are designed to spread far beyond the school gate! And it culminates with a showcase event where parents and guardians will be invited to discover and spread the skills and learnings further.
Programme Outline
Plant Seeds
Launch the project in each year group
Half day’s training for teachers and young people - creating the school’s Happiness Ambassador Board (10 participants, mixed genders)
Nourish Seeds
Learn about happiness and mental and emotional wellbeing. Discover how to have a happier, healthier and more resilient mind. Launch a Happier Mind experiment with the youth board for the school that week, with teachers implementing it in classrooms. At the end of the week each class will create a reflective exhibit or display for the showcase event and mini Museum of Happiness
Learn Gratitude as a skill for a happier and more resilient mind in assembly. Launch a gratitude experiment with the youth board for the school that week, with teachers implementing it in classrooms. At the end of the week each class will create a reflective exhibit or display about gratitude for the showcase event and mini Museum of Happiness
Learn Mindfulness as a skill for a happier, more resilient mind in assembly. Launch a mindfulness experiment with the youth board for the school that week, with teachers implementing it in classrooms. At the end of the week each class will create a reflective exhibit or display about mindfulness for the showcase event and mini Museum of Happiness
Learn Kindness as a skill for a happier more resilient mind in assembly. Launch a kindness experiment with the youth board for the school that week, with teachers implementing it in classrooms. At the end of the week each class will create a reflective exhibit or display about kindness for the showcase event and mini Museum of Happiness
Prepare showcase event and opening of the school’s mini Museum of Happiness. The youth and teacher Happiness Ambassador Board prepares a showcase of what they’ve learnt in whatever creative way they wish, and shares with the rest of the school and parents their intentions to help the school continue to flourish
Spread Seeds
The Happiness Showcase and launching the mini Museum of Happiness to the school and parents (half of the year groups at a time)
Celebration, contemplation and a commitment to take the project forward if desired
Your Programme Leader
Vicky Johnson is Co-founder & Director of the Museum of Happiness, a trained coach, resilience mentor, and former youth worker whose passion for the art and science of happiness is born from her own experiences.
She knows the difference that the tools of happiness would have made to her own adolescence, and is committed to sharing these skills with young people in empowering, enjoyable and community building ways.
