Shine Magazine, Issue 9, October 2009 - Department of Education ...

Innovative Program
Shine 77
Ouyen P–12 has SOLE
A remote Mallee school has successfully developed and trialled a
program aimed at boosting student wellbeing while reducing behaviour
management issues.
The Skills of Life Experience – or SOLE program
– is the brainchild of Ouyen P-12 College
co-principal Kathryn John and classroom teacher
Lisa Heslop. Mrs John said the three-month
pilot had lead to a reduction in the number of
classroom referrals to her office. “For me it provides
a structure to work through difficulties with
children – by focusing on the skills Lisa has already
given them, we can ensure there is a consistency
of messages,” she said. Miss Heslop describes
the innovative curriculum as an eclectic mix of
philosophies and positive teaching practices. “It
includes social and cognitive problem-solving skills,
coping with uncontrollable stressors or difficult
emotions, assertiveness skills as well as relaxation
and overcoming procrastination,” she said.
“More simply, the program discusses the seven
areas of resilience – emotional awareness, impulse
control, optimism, flexible and accurate thinking,
empathy, self-efficacy and connection with
others. The curriculum is supported by research
that illustrates the broad positive impacts of
such a program.” Leading positive psychologist
Professor Martin Seligman is a major influence,
as are elements of the University of Pennsylvania’s
Penn Resilience Program, which recognises the
restorative practices embraced by the school and
seeks to enhance relationships among students and
between students, teachers and parents.
The SOLE program aims to equip children with
the skills needed to live positive and fulfilling lives.
The committed educators say they were inspired
to develop the program out of a shared desire to
improve education outcomes at the rural school,
situated about 450km north of Melbourne.
“We just wanted to be pro-active about
teaching the whole child and raising the
skill levels of all children. We know if we can
create more settled, happier students that their
learning will be improved and enhanced,” Ms
John said. “We were looking for something to
fulfill our needs and given our remote location
and the difficulty of accessing ‘professionals’ on
a daily basis, we wanted to come up with a way
of becoming more self-reliant ourselves rather
than being dependent on external services.
“A top priority was to improve our students’
capacity to solve issues and resolve conflict and
to equip the children with the skills needed to
enable them to make good choices – this program
complements our approach to student welfare.
“Creating this program really was an intuitive thing
– Lisa and myself share a passion about children,
their well-being and wanting to help facilitate welladjusted
young people.”
Miss Heslop agrees. “I was driven by a desire
to teach kids some of the skills that will benefit
them for the rest of their lives and to help give
them strategies to cope better with difficult
situations that arise in their life,” she said. “I
wanted to drive the kids to be positive thinkers
and to build on their own character strengths.”
A combined community effort ensured the
program came to fruition in Term 1 this year,
including input from the local health authority,
the Mallee Track Health and Community
Serivce, and funding from the local municipal
body, the Mildura Rural City Council through
its School-Focussed Youth Service.
Mrs John said she was interested to hear Chris
Daicos, keynote speaker at the recent Loddon
Mallee Principal’s Conference in Melbourne,
emphasise the importance of developing
programs similar to the one underway in the
Mallee. “It was satisfying to realize that we are
already providing on-the-ground delivery of her
main message,” she said.
The school is hoping to secure funding to allow the
program to continue. Miss Heslop said she would
like to expand the program, which focuses on
small groups of students in Year 3–6. “I’d love to be
able to coach other staff in the terminology of the
program so we can have a whole-school approach
to it – I am certain teachers would personally
benefit from it as well as learning how the skills
can help children,” she said. “Ultimately, our vision
would be that the program becomes a model for
other schools to use as well.”
Students have their say
“We talk about how to solve problems
and how to fix things … it helped me
when I was doing cross country – I was
nervous and thought I would collapse
but we talked through those feelings as a
group and I felt much better going into
the race.”
Charlotte, 11
“I like how we have a suggestion box
and we get to write down problems on
a card. We pull one out and try to deal
with it as a group … it is a good chance
to work together on a solution.”
Ashley, 12
“I like the fact that it is teaching us
things that will help us for the rest of our
life, not just now …it’s about changing
negative thinking to something better
and helping us to look at things from a
different perspective. It makes us think
about things in different ways and helps
build our confidence and makes us more
supportive of each other.”
Rose, 12
“It is a fun place we get to go after lunch
and I enjoy when we role play … it’s
good to be able to talk about feelings,
thoughts and problems.”
Shania, 11
Students at Ouyen P–12 College took part in the successful three-month trial of the
Skills of Life Experience (SOLE) program, which was the brainchild of co-principal
Kathryn John and teacher Lisa Heslop.