Research on Children in Schools

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What does it involve?

Step by step guide to the "Happy Schools" programme

The “How to Make a Happy School” educational programme is designed to be a day of inspiration, engagement and creativity for students. The project kicks off with an engaging science of happiness assembly, brings it back into the classroom for some interactive activities, and ends with a professional survey created by trained researchers using the student's very own questions.

The “How to Make a Happy School“ project has FOUR main steps:

1) A morning assembly delivered by experts on learning about the science of happiness.
2) Designing our own happiness study in class with support from researchers
3) Data collection with other students in school (optional)
4) Analysis and findings led by teachers, supported by specially created resources (optional)

Quotation

“Seeing my friends happy, because when they’re happy, it makes me feel like nothing is going to be wrong.”

Pupil in response to: "What makes you happy?"
Year 6

The morning will kick off with an engaging talk about why happiness is important, the ingredients of happiness, and how happiness is measured. Academics will explore real happiness research with students and delve into the consequences of being happy (or not!). There are many opportunities for the students and teachers to get involved in role-playing happiness research too – cue Mexican waves and synchronised walking!

Quotation

My friends cheer me up a lot.

Pupil in response to "What makes you happy?"
Year 5

After the talk, children are assisted by researchers in creating questions for their own psychological surveys. Here, the students learn about the different kinds of questions and response options commonly employed in social sciences surveys, and how to make age-appropriate questions for the whole school.

Children are engaged in classroom-based group activities that help them form their own questions for their fellow students that feel meaningful to the happiness of their school and community. At the end of the morning activities, the researchers collect the children’s favourite questions and create the students’ own online survey. This is sent back to the school to be completed by the students!

Students will then be able to analyse the data from their own survey and see how happy their school is!

The University of Kent’s School of Psychology are currently inviting schools to apply for the FREE “How to Make a Happy School” project.

If you are interested in involving your child’s school, please contact Dr Lindsey Cameron and her team at happyschools@kent.ac.uk or at L.Cameron@kent.ac.uk for more information!