Creating a community of kindness + connection + belonging
We love to celebrate what our URSTRONG Schools are doing around the world. This week, our Founder visited a school in Brisbane, Australia to present to the parents and check-in on their progress after adopting our friendship strategy in January 2019.
Hollee Mason, Year One Teacher & Wellbeing Champion, shared that the children, parents, and teachers have had such a positive response to our program. Our language and strategies are being used in the playgrounds and in classrooms. Following the Educator Training day where the entire staff were trained in our Friendology 101 curriculum, Hollee wrote in an email:
The feedback was nothing but positive and all staff said it was the most engaging, fulfilling and motivating PD they’d ever participated in (everyone is still talking about it!). I couldn’t speak more highly of the program and the amazing things that are being achieved across the world!
Following the day of training, their Wellbeing Team designed an implementation plan that would include a week-long Festival of Friendship. With URSTRONG’s whole-school strategy in mind, they capped off their festival with both a Family Fun Night and a parent-child workshop with Dana.
Learning a Language of Friendship with the support of parents & teachers.
To say Dana was impressed was an understatement (see her reflections as posted on Instagram below). We are so proud of this school and the incredible spirit and creativity they’ve put into bringing our Friendology curriculum to life to create a community of kindness + connection + belonging.
I had one of those nights that will go down in the history books! ?
A few months ago, I spent the day with the teachers at Rainworth State School in Brisbane, QLD. We explored our Friendology curriculum, our school-wide friendship strategy, & an implementation plan. I shared some of the ways other URSTRONG Schools have brought our language & strategies to life. ?
Well, Rainworth State School can officially drop the mic… ? They took our program to the next level on every front. They didn’t just put up our posters, they got them made on steel for the playground and on rainbow lanyards for teachers on supervision. They didn’t just have a Festival of Friendship, they had a week of fun activities AND a Family Fun Night to get the entire community involved. They didn’t just build a ball pit, they made the coolest video to show the kids how it works to make a friend. They even designed a URSTRONG Award that kids give to other kids to celebrate friendship! They literally put the cherry on top of everything they did and came up with the most creative, fun, impactful ideas. ?
The coolest thing of all? HOW MUCH THE KIDS HAVE LEARNED!! Tonight I presented to over 200 kids + parents and those gorgeous little faces knew ALL 4 Friendship Facts. They could explain the Friend-o-meter to their parents + showed them our Finger Friend-o-meter. They knew what makes a Fire bigger or smaller and how to Talk-it-Out. They could explain the Friend-o-cycle. No joke, these kids were further on their friendship journey than I thought humanly possible in just a few weeks…. ?
It’s hard to explain the immense gratitude I have for this school. Hollee, Miranda, the Wellbeing Team, the leadership, all the teachers…wow! These people are my heroes. ? ?
~Dana
Here are a few photos capturing the incredible ideas from the brilliant minds at Rainworth State School:
