On Wednesday evening, we hosted a well attended meeting in our Library at which we launched +Works (pronounced ‘Positive Works’) at Awty.

+Works is a parent-driven, grassroots non-profit organization that was recently established here in Houston by Sarah Fisher and Trish Morille.  Full details of +Works can be seen online at http://www.positivethinkingworks.org/2011/12/talk-ii-to-address-child-development-whats-normal-for-the-age/. 

In summary, +Works is an innovative but thoroughly-researched framework to build character through building a genuine working partnership between schools and parents.  It is very affirming that Awty was chosen from about 40 applicant schools as one of the 10 pioneer schools to implement the program.  I am very confident that our students and their families will benefit enormously as a result of this initiative.

+Works encourages both families and school communities to understand the power of power dynamics, and how they impact upon everyone every day.  It builds on this foundation to provide a practical framework for genuine character development.  +Works should probably be described as a change of mindset rather than a curriculum, and it is supported by a substantial (100 page) Parents’ Guide that in turn is based on very sound scientific and psychiatric research that has been brought together by Dr Stuart Twemlow (http://www.backoffbully.com/Pages/stuart.html).  We are currently in the process of translating this document into French, after which it will be launched formally at Awty in both English and French.

There are three aspects of +Works that particularly appeal to me as an educator.  First, it sees bullying (that increasingly over-used word) as a symptom of a wider problem rather than a problem in itself.  In other words, +Works sees bullying as a social process that is a consequence of inappropriate relationships, and it seeks to address this cause rather than the symptom.  Because it focusses explicitly on the wider issue of character development, +Works should bring benefits to everyone in our school community, not just those who are affected by bullying (or dysfunctional relationships).

Second, +Works sees the task of developing character as an active partnership between parents and the school.  Consequently, we will be holding a series of very practical parent information workshops, and I can see the potent potential of parents and the school explicitly working

together in a common, mutually supportive direction for the benefit of the children entrusted into our care.

Third, +Works makes extensive use of visual materials such as stickers which serve as constant reminders of the need for appropriate behavior and help quieter children to make their point in confrontational situations.

As follow-up to Wednesday evening’s launch of +Works at Awty, the framework is being introduced immediately in the Primary School, where it will build on several of the excellent programs already in place.  When the new academic year begins in August, +Works will roll into the Middle School.

As further preparation for the introduction of +Works into Awty, an online questionnaire will soon be made available (in English and French) on the Awty website.  We want to encourage as many teachers, parents and students as possible to complete the questionnaire, as the data will become our baseline to assess the ‘value added’ by +Works over the coming few years.  The questionnaire is based on a very similar questionnaire that has been used elsewhere in the US and in several overseas countries, thus enabling us to place the quality of our students’ character development into a wider national and international context.

At Wednesday evening’s launch of +Works, I was delighted to announce the appointment of Mr Brian Kelley, our Director of Student Services, as Awty’s +Works Point Person.  I am sure that the Awty community will be hearing much more from Brian about the rollout of +Works in the weeks and months ahead.

I am thrilled that Awty is now a +Works school, not for its own sake, but because of the real benefits I believe it will bring to our children and young adults - benefits that I hope will remain with our students for the rest of their lives.