Psychological skills

Psychological skills for the future

Psychological skills keep your brain working at its best. With four core skillsets, staff are equipped to embrace challenges and seize opportunities – and to support their colleagues and students to do the same.

Awareness

Teaching is a demanding profession, and it can sometimes feel like an emotional rollercoaster. We all experience negative emotions - that’s normal. But when emotions like stress or anxiety linger for too long, research shows they can become harder to shift.

Emotional awareness is about noticing our moods and emotions. We can then develop emotional regulation – the ability to manage our emotions, so we can think and feel at our best.

Improve emotional awareness
Regulate mood
Manage stress

Focus

School days are extremely busy and there’s often little chance to recharge. Because of this is can be hard to maintain energy levels and motivation - to stay calm, efficient and creative.

Cognitive load management is about knowing how to use the brain’s attentional networks to get the best from our minds. Attentional control gives us the power to choose what we pay attention to, and when.

Manage distractions
Improve energy
Promote creativity

Mindset

Life at school is constantly evolving – nothing stays the same for long. Sometimes we can end up feeling disheartened by this, and find ourselves resistant to new ideas and perspectives.

Meta-cognition allows us to take a step back and notice our patterns of thinking. With cognitive flexibility, we can learn to stay open-minded and optimistic in the face of change.

Be more adaptive
Create perspective
Think flexibly

Connection

School staff spend a huge amount of time with others. Strong relationships with colleagues and students are vital for psychologically safe learning environments, but these can be difficult to get right.

Self-regulation allows us to be in the right frame of mind for interactions with others. Active listening skills can help us to create a supportive culture at school, where colleagues and students feel heard.

Boost social intelligence
Strengthen relationships
Build psychological safety

Get started

Get Positive for your staff

A dynamic, 4-part programme combining live and online content

An engaging online learning solution

Not sure where to start?

Speak to an expert to find the best solution for your school.

“Positive has shown us ways to stay emotionally healthy during the inevitably busy times of year. The skills are practical and sensible, and we all now talk openly about feeling a bit "bottom left" and how that will influence our behaviours during the day. Their training is making us a better organisation ready to face the challenges of the post pandemic world.”

Julie Taylor
Principal at The Belvedere Academy