Professional Development Programs for Adults
Neuroscience for Educators
Our Neuroscience for Educators workshop is the starting point for the Primary School Wellbeing Pathway. In this two-hour workshop, educators will be introduced to key neuroscience concepts and explore practical applications for the classroom. Focus is on supporting student wellbeing, building resilience, and helping to create a positive learning environment. Throughout the workshop participants will reflect upon their own teaching practice, considering the impact of the school environment and their own interactions and communication on students’ developing brains.
Note: Introduction to Neuroscience for Educators is a prerequisite for all other 2 hour workshops for educators
Kaleidoscope of Colour
This workshop is designed to support educators in delivering Kaleidoscope of Colour a social and emotional wellbeing program for children in the early years of primary school. It is designed to enrich educators’ current practice by reflecting upon the experience of children in the classroom, and how interactions, communication and the environment impact upon a student’s wellbeing.
Trauma and Attachment
In this two-hour workshop, educators will gain a deeper understanding of the brain state associated with trauma, the impact of implicit memory on the ability of these children to feel safe, and adaptive behaviours that may present themselves in a school setting. Participants will be provided with strategies that can help to bring balance and safety to the experience of children who have been impacted by trauma or disrupted attachment and enable them to move from survival to learning.
Please note: All two-hour workshops require An Introduction to Neuroscience for Educators to be attended as a prerequisite.
Coregulation: Thinking Beyond Self Care
This two-hour interactive workshop explores the ways in which stress can impact brain function. Participants engage with reflective tools that enable them to develop both an awareness of the messages their body is communicating, and the impact of their thoughts and emotions on their wellbeing. They step through a number of processes, creative and cognitive, that can increase their capacity to regulate during stressful experiences, and explore short and long-term self-care strategies.
Please note: All two-hour workshops require An Introduction to Neuroscience for Educators to be attended as a prerequisite.
Journey to the Island of Calm
This workshop is designed to support educators in delivering Journey to the Island of Calm a social and emotional wellbeing program for students in years 4-6. Over six hours participants will explore the key ideas and research underpinning the twelve core lessons of the program, take part in selected planned experiences from those lessons, and consider the different ways the learning might be embedded in daily classroom practice.
Professional Development Programs for Children
Brain Talks in the Classroom
Brain Talks in the Classroom are facilitated by the Pathways team across a whole school over a number of consecutive days. These talks give students and educators the opportunity to experience key concepts and strategies explored in An Introduction to Neuroscience for Educators. The information, strategies and resources introduced during this session can be embedded immediately as part of classroom routines. Brain Talks also model the lesson structure and way of working central to the Meet Your Brain! program.
Meet Your Brain!
The Meet Your Brain! program provides teachers in the lower and upper primary classroom with a picture book and a series of seven 30-minute lessons designed to build on An Introduction to Neuroscience for Educators and Brain Talks. Lessons incorporate strategies to calm and connect students, key questions are explored through creative, practical, hands-on learning experiences, and students learn tools for self-regulation that can be used and shared both inside and outside the classroom.
Pathways staff are available to facilitate the lessons in classrooms, providing an opportunity for teachers to observe the Pathways way of working, and student engagement with the key concepts of the program.
Wellbeing Warriors
Peer to peer mental health first aide for primary school children. Wellbeing Warriors is a 5 weeks facilitated program for primary aged children. The program will build awareness of social and emotional wellbeing with children, and help children respond to their peers within the context of their setting.