Every success is worth celebrating – Character Crow to teach first-graders to recognise their strengths

This autumn, the City of Espoo will offer support for identifying children’s strengths for first-graders and their guardians. The Bringing back the joy package, based on the See the Good! series, is tailored for schools and pupils in Espoo by a company called Positive Learning. The package is aimed at first-graders, and it is part of the Healthy Espoo development programme goals to strengthen the mental wellbeing of the residents of Espoo.

Healthy Espoo is one of the four development programmes in Espoo this council term. The programme involves the development of solutions for recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing mental health problems.

“We work for the best of children and young people by cooperating closely and purposefully with their guardians. We want to support their wellbeing and learning together,” says Harri Rinta-aho, Deputy Mayor for Growth and Learning at the City of Espoo.

“Through this, we also want to offer resources for spending time with children at home and support families at that exciting moment when a child moves from early childhood education to primary school,” Rinta-aho adds.

App and training sessions help families see the good in every day

The package contains six webinars for guardians in Finnish, Swedish and English. The webinars explain what is at the core of positive pedagogy: even small successes are worthy of attention and increase self-confidence, with which the child can move towards their next success.

Guardians also get access to the See the Good! app on mobile or the web. The digital service based on pedagogical research offers information about character strengths and how to support them. Character strengths may include compassion, determination and curiosity, among other qualities. The app includes concrete suggestions for the guardian to support the development of their child’s strengths.

The service offered to the guardians of first-graders is easy to use and offers help for positive education right in your pocket. The app encourages users to notice the good in the child, give feedback directly to the child, and rejoice in and discuss their successes. The app helps users record the successes of the child and the whole family and illustrates their shared progress.

It also supports the development of socio-emotional skills and reinforces children’s inclusion. With the app, the family can set shared positive goals, and daily practice ensures many experiences of success.

Teachers of first-graders will also attend training sessions on the topic in the autumn. Teachers will also receive printed See the Good! materials through which they can practise skills related to emotions, interaction and strengths with their own class.

The dates of the training sessions will be announced in Wilma and on the City’s website during the autumn.

Positive education supports learning and wellbeing

Positive Learning Ltd, Positive for short, is perhaps best known for the training sessions, strength cards and books in the See the Good! series. In the series, the Character Crow teaches children about character strengths using everyday examples.

“Wellbeing and education go hand in hand, and children’s wellbeing can be supported through positive education. There is research data available on this both in Finland and internationally. Positive socio-emotional development promotes a child’s mental and physical health, prevents behavioural challenges, anticipates good school performance and sustainable relationships, and prevents and protects against risk factors,” says Kaisa Vuorinen, founder and CEO of Positive.

“Recognising children’s strengths and offering this package to first-graders is especially important, since support provided to all children allows each of them to start on a path to success from the first grade onwards,” Vuorinen states.

Teaching children about character strengths also supports the building of broad skills, which is also a key element of the national curriculum.