Tools to Thrive: Homepage - Outside the Box Learning Resources

Tools to Thrive is a new two-level positive mental well-being programme for senior cycle secondary school students in Fifth and Sixth year (ages 15 to 17+). The programme is drawn from the fields of Positive Psychology, the science of well-being, and Neuroscience to develop positive well-being habits for life. It is designed to be implemented as part of the SPHE curriculum.

Each level has 8 lessons which are designed to be taught consecutively where possible. Each lesson may be taught over a one-hour class period, or maybe be split over 2 lesson periods if desired also.

Research shows that having a high level of well-being is the greatest predictor of happiness and success in life for both adults and young people. (Layard et al., 2014). However, young people face ever-increasing challenges and demands as they grow into adulthood. There is a vital need to equip them with the skills and strategies that will help them to flourish and thrive despite these challenges.

The programme is designed in alignment with the 4 key features of effective teaching and learning in SPHE (NCCA, 2023)

1. Awareness
2. Dialogue
3. Reflection
4. Action

The programme aims to support learning in all of the Learning Outcomes of 2 of the 3 strands of the Revised Senior Cycle SPHE curriculum (2024), namely Health and Well-Being and Into Adulthood. The majority of these Learning Outcomes (11 of the 16), are covered within Levels A & B of the programme. The remaining 5 are covered in Tools to Thrive: Level B Follow-On, which comprises of 3 further online lessons.

There is a huge need for mental health resources for schools as so many young people are struggling with their mental health. It is expected that this new programme will play a part in making a significant difference.

Each of the two levels comes in the form of:

• Teacher Resource Book, including access to comprehensive online resources on the Teacher’s Digital Companion Page (password-protected)
• Pupil Reflective Journal, including access to comprehensive online resources on the Pupil’s Digital Companion Page (no password required) – one for each level
  • Book A: Pupil Digital Companion Page
  • Book B: Pupil Digital Companion Page

Free Samples of the two Student Reflective Journals are available HERE and you can trial one of the eight Lessons for Free from each of the two levels HERE.

The programme has 8 lessons, each with the following components:

• Lesson plan: Containing relevant SPHE learning outcomes, lesson-specific learning outcomes, introduction, subsequent development, suggested supplementary activities and posters
• PowerPoint slides: Containing all relevant material for the presentation of the lesson
• Video Clip: A video clip to support the concepts of each lesson is included midway through each lesson, along with an optional follow-up activity for group/pair work. – Teachers can use their discretion with regard to whether or not to include this activity in the lesson
• Student Reflective Journal: Containing 2 reflections per lesson, key message and end-of-week reflection. This Reflective Journal is confidential to the student and sharing reflections with the class or teacher should always be optional.
• Supplementary Worksheet: A supplementary worksheet for each lesson is available at the end of each lesson plan and these can also be downloaded from the Teacher Digital Companion Page. Teachers may choose to use this page as an additional. resource during or at the end of each lesson.
  • Book A – Teacher Digital Companion Page: www.otb.ie/t2t-a-t (password required)
  • Book B – Teacher Digital Companion Page: www.otb.ie/t2t-b-t (password required)
• Pupil Digital Companion Page: This supporting online page contains weblinks, articles, further reading, videos and resources to support each lesson.
  • Book A – Pupil Digital Companion Page: www.otb.ie/t2t-a-p (no password required)
  • Book B – Pupil Digital Companion Page: www.otb.ie/t2t-b-p (no password required)

You can try out one FREE SKILL LESSON from each of the three levels by clicking on Lesson Plans icon the bottom of this page.

You can LOOK INSIDE the teacher books and/or pupil reflective journals by selecting Book A or Book B set at the bottom of this page, choosing from their respective dropdown menus and the ‘Look Inside’ feature will appear. Click HERE to go to books.

You can request FREE SAMPLES of the pupil books by clicking the Samples icon at the bottom of this page.

To download this Scope and Sequence chart (for post-primary schools) as a pdf please click HERE or for the Scope and Sequence chart of all four well-being programmes for primary and secondary (all ages), please click HERE.

Click HERE or on the brochure cover above to browse the ‘Post-Primary Well-Being School Programmes’ Brochure. To view  the catalogue for all four well-being programmes (primary & post-primary), please click HERE.

Fiona Forman is an author, speaker, facilitator and trainer in the area of well-being and Positive Psychology. Click HERE to find out more about Fiona.