Welcome to Well-Being: Homepage - Outside the Box Learning Resources

Author Fiona Forman, co-author of the extensively used primary school programme Weaving Well-Being and author of Wired for Well-Being (secondary schools), brings you this new 3-level SPHE and well-being programme for Junior Infants, Senior Infants and First Class called Welcome to Well-Being.

Welcome to Well-Being is based on Positive Psychology, which is the science of well-being. It is designed to be implemented as part of the SPHE curriculum.

The Welcome to Well-Being programme aims to enhance children’s wellbeing and resilience through developing specific skills including emotional intelligence and regulation, boosting positive emotions and enhancing social skills and self-confidence.

The theme of the programme is that two little aliens called Mo and Ko have come from the planet Zo to help children to feel happy, strong, kind and brave, loving and well. Each week they introduce children to a new idea and they set a challenge for the children to try it out for the week – at home as well as at school. Please note that Mo and Ko are gender-neutral so the pronoun ‘they’ is used to describe them in both the singular and the plural.

Each of the three levels of Welcome to Well-being comes with a Teacher Resource Book and a Pupil Book. The Teacher book comes with a Digital Companion Page which contains PowerPoint presentations for each lesson, supplementary worksheets, classroom posters and much more. The pupil book has two activities per lesson as well as a homework activity. A pull-out parent guide is included in each child’s Pupil Book to support parental involvement.

This Irish-produced well-being programme is now being sold in other countries around the world, including by internationally renowned Australian publisher Hawker Brownlow Education.

Body Scan

What people are saying about Welcome to Well-Being (from Pilot stage)

Sample Teacher Feedback:

I have loved implementing this programme in my class. It has been very beneficial and feels as though we are providing the children with key life skills from such an early age. It is fantastic to see the children in tune with their feelings and emotions and using the skills to navigate through difficulties. It was fabulous, the age-appropriateness of having ‘Mo and Ko’ was invaluable!

Sample Parent feedback:

This is an amazing programme and the most important subject in school if you ask me. Excellent programme. Very valuable for young children.

Sample Children’s feedback:

This is fun! I love the characters! Mo and Ko have different feelings just like us – I like talking & singing about them.

Click HERE to see photographs of Welcome to Well-Being in action in Killester Raheny Clontarf ETNS.

Scope and Sequence Chart for the Welcome to Well-Being, Weaving Well-Being and Wired for Well-Being Programmes

Scope and Sequence Chart W2W, WWB & W4W Image

Welcome to Well-Being Methodologies

The Welcome to Well-Being programme uses the approaches and methodologies outlined in the SPHE curriculum guidelines (DES, 1999). These are based on the concept of active learning; as the children engage with the lesson, they are encouraged to actively apply the skill or idea in their own lives, through the weekly challenge. Other activities include talk and discussion, responding through art, visual organisers, reflecting, poetry and mindfulness activities. Each lesson also contains a multi-media component, usually a song or video story.

About the Author: Fiona Forman

Fiona Forman is an author, speaker, facilitator and trainer in the area of well-being and Positive Psychology. Having spent many years as a primary school teacher, she is absolutely passionate about placing well-being at the heart of school life and she has seen first-hand the great benefits of empowering children, teachers and parents to understand, value and enhance their own mental health. Fiona holds an M. Sc. in Applied Positive Psychology, the science of well-being, from the University of East London. She is the co-author of Weaving Well-Being, a positive mental health programme for primary school children (ages: 7-12) that is now in use in the majority of primary schools in Ireland as well as being licensed to Australian publisher Hawker Brownlow Education and UK publisher Pearson Education. Fiona has recently had her own well-being programme for secondary schools published. This is called Wired for Well-Being and is suitable for children aged 12-15. She has also had this Welcome to Well-Being programme published which is suitable for children aged 5 to 7+.

Outline of Lessons

Each level has 10 lessons, containing the following elements:

Lesson plan – containing relevant SPHE links, supplementary photocopiable resources and classroom posters
PowerPoint slides – containing all relevant material for the presentation of the lesson, including a multi-media element
Pupil Book – containing 2 pupil activities per lesson, self-assessment and homework activity
Parent/Guardian/Carer Guide – (in the centre of each Pupil Book) to encourage parents to support their child

Digital Companion Page - Example

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Welcome to Well-Being – Book A: Meet Mo and Ko (Junior Infants / Ages: 4-5)

€ 4.95 – € 44.55

The Welcome to Well-Being programme is a multi-year programme for children from Junior Infants to First Class (Ages: 4-7+). It is designed to enhance children’s well-being across all dimensions – social, emotional, spiritual, physical and mental.
Select a single book from the ‘Choose an Option‘ dropdown menu to LOOK INSIDE:

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