Sharing Student Projects

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate what UK primary school teachers think would make schools happier places, both for themselves and students. The aim was to establish significant recurring ideas, so that these factors might contribute to the development of a happy school atmosphere in the future. The target population for the research was teachers and TA’s who are currently teaching or left the profession within the last five years. The research included eleven participants, including three TA’s and one male teacher – the remainder were female teachers. This sample included those with experience teaching all the way from EYFS through to Year 6. These eleven participants were interviewed online over Teams, lasting an average of 25 minutes. This papers findings largely align with past research, although they offer new insights and starting points for future investigation too. The main background paper used was UNESCO’s report, ‘Happy Schools: a framework for learner well-being in the Asia-Pacific’ (Meleisea & UNESCO, 2016). This paper also used a qualitative research approach and identified three main categories that created a happy primary school: people, place, and policy. Background research also revealed a number of other significant factors when thinking about the creation of a happy primary school. These included the significant role of friendships, the need for support but not micromanagement, the value of green and outdoor space, a creative curriculum, and enough room in the classroom. Some factors are also to be found in background research that did not emerge within this paper, for example, the role of parents in creating a happy school and more flexible ways of examining ability and progress. These findings created a starting point for this paper to build on. In order to investigate these ideas further, a positive psychology approach was taken which aims to look at what is currently working and what can make things more positive in the future. A socio-constructivist approach was used, as this acknowledges the value of different people’s perspectives, that language facilitates understanding and that there is not a single reality. Therefore, semistructured interviews were used to gain a rich contextual understanding of participants thoughts and experiences. These participants were recruited through convenience sampling (those already known to the researcher) and subsequently through snowball sampling (asking participants to refer others on.) The inclusion criteria was that participants needed to be currently working at a UK primary school, or to have done so within the last five years. The exclusion criteria included anyone not able to conduct the interview in English, as the aim was to gather as much data as possible from participants. Their answers were analysed using thematic analysis to identify what ideas recurred within the transcripts and to orgainse them into themes. That process revealed several significant findings, organised into three categories: people, place & learning environment and policies & procedures. From within this, key subthemes emerged – including the value placed on teamwork, leadership and friendships within the theme of people. Within the theme of ‘place’ the subthemes of safety, wellbeing, nature and the classroom all emerged as being important. Finally, within the theme of ‘policies and processes’ teachers identified play, curriculum and the importance of trust. Many of these findings interconnected, for example the subtheme of wellbeing, which highlights the importance of holistic change and listening to teachers experiences of what makes schools happy places

This research may have an impact on teachers, students and those responsible for policy decisions that shape UK primary schools. These findings include a range of suggestions as to how primary schools could be positively adapted – including the need for a more creative curriculum that incorporates play time, green spaces around schools and a change in school culture that places greater trust on teachers abilities. This cultural shift towards respecting teachers as educational professionals, was consistently referenced as an important factor in promoting their wellbeing and enabling them to do their jobs more effectively. If such findings were to be implanted, it is to be hoped they would yield positive results – primarily for teachers, but also for students. Many participants in this research voiced the need for societal change in educational settings but felt that this needed to come from the top down through government policies and then the support of senior management. For example, OFSTED was referenced across multiple interviews as a source of tension – perceived as coming from government and implemented by senior managers. Shifting the focus of success from purely academic measures to a more holistic understanding, including measures for wellbeing and happiness, would benefit teachers and students according to this papers findings. Schools would benefit from examining the subthemes in this paper to create a happier school environment. This research includes important findings about what creates happiness in schools, from the value of friendships to the importance of having enough space, and the significance of teamwork through to the role of creativity and independence