Schools in Qatar & Hong Kong recently welcomed our Founder & CEO
Just a couple of months ago, Dana & Michael experienced a new milestone for URSTRONG – the first school in the Middle East to adopt our program. Doha English Speaking School in Qatar began their journey with URSTRONG after their School Nurse, a former parent from one of URSTRONG’s long-standing partner schools, PLC Sydney, recommended our friendship strategy for DESS.
Friendships for children at International Schools are particularly tricky with unique challenges. With kids coming from all different walks of life, URSTRONG gives them a common language of friendship to get them all on the same page. During our Day of Friendship and parent-child workshops with hundreds of people in the DESS community, Friendship Fact #4: Friendships Change…and that’s okay! seemed to resonate the deepest. As Sarah May, their School Nurse stated:
“Parents and staff have been sending me messages of thanks and popping into see me to thank me personally for introducing the program to the school. A few parents have openly spoken about how they wished they had these strategies when they were children and how they now feel empowered to support their own children moving forward in life. I feel positive and confident that parents, staff and children are fully equipped with the strategies and the knowledge of how to put out Friendship Fires and deal with Mean-on-Purpose behavior. This is a fantastic step forward in promoting well-being at the school!“
DESS is now embedding Friendology 101 and all staff, kids, and parents are utilizing URSTRONG’s language of friendship to help the children form healthy friendships and promote that sense of belonging at school.
URSTRONG & Nord Anglia International Schools
For the past year, we have been working with the Nord Anglia International Schools. Sarah Reynolds, their Well-being and Positive Education Coordinator, was introduced to URSTRONG at the Positive Schools Conference in Hong Kong in 2017. Dana, our Founder, was one of the keynote speakers and shared how URSTRONG is tackling the ‘R’ (Relationships) in the Positive Education PERMA model by teaching friendship skills.
Dana then conducted a webinar across Nord Anglia’s global school network, reaching 56 international schools across 26 countries. The webinar resulted in welcoming 3 Nord Anglia Schools to our URSTRONG Schools team:
- Nord Anglia International School Hong Kong
- The British International School Shanghai, China
- The British International School Bratislava, Slovakia
Dana & Michael visited the Nord Anglia International School Hong Kong where they toured the school and saw evidence of Friendology 101 around the campus. Jennifer Rowland, their Primary PSHCE Coordinator, has lead the implementation of Friendology across 3 campuses – each of which have a Talk-it-Out bench (where the children go to put out their Friendship Fires) and have URSTRONG’s posters up on display.
