How can Gratitude create a Positive School Culture?

We know that we can create a more positive school culture through the power of gratitude; a happy team includes teachers, admin staff, cleaners, caretakers and even the lollipop lady! But how can we bring gratitude to the school table?

One way we can make the school environment more positive is to start all staff meetings on a positive note; WWW (What Went Well) and encourage each other to share something we are thankful for or proud of!

We can use TAP to highlight the positive things the staff have achieved and by expressing gratitude publicly on the thanking walls we can communicate this gratitude to the families connected to the school. This can also help us personally to become more thankful for the kindness of others.

Staff can be encouraged to post messages of thanks on the thanking walls regularly, even if the messages are anonymous they can have a positive effect on those recipients of gratitude.

We can encourage staff to keep a gratitude journal, taking just a few minutes at the end of the day to reflect on the kindness of others. This gratitude journal can also be turned into an action plan for the next day, a to-do list of either thanking people face to face or going to the TAP App and expressing gratitude there!

Gratitude keeps us focused on the present; looking for the positives does not mean we ignore the challenges... but embracing the good things in life sure gives us more energy to deal with the 'not-so-good' things when they happen!

We can also teach kindness, firstly through example, showing people what kind 'looks like' and by teaching a lesson on kindness in the classroom.

We can also increase our happiness by setting gratitude targets, a number of thanks per week. Using the TAP App is a great way to achieve this; if we try to reach these goals we will be putting gratitude at the forefront of our minds and we will be looking for reasons to be grateful.

There will still be struggles but we can use gratitude and a strengths-based lens to energise and support ourselves through life's many challenges. If we focus on gratitude, we will feel more patient, positive and joyful at school and we will have more energy when we get home.