Frances Brown - Senior Manager

" The advertising said the Universal Wellbeing Evaluation was transformative but for me that was understating the reality. I learnt so much about my Universal Wellbeing from just doing the Evaluation, it was so interesting and took me to understanding parts of myself I had never considered before. I now use the Universal Wellbeing Model daily to improve my own Universal Wellbeing, that of my family, students/clients and staff. Since I did the Evaluation I’ve lost 10Kgs, gone off antidepressants and moved from a role I did not enjoy to one I love, not bad for 10 weeks on.

Best investment I ever made in myself ever.

Naomi Thompson - Residential Team Leader

“FREEDOM is very supportive. Allowed me to engage and interact openly and in a safe space.”

Joanne Catherine Woolley - Pastoral Care Coordinator

“Encourages critical refection on your own wellbeing to better inform your practice.”

Feedback from a Past Student

“The course content is thought provoking and up to date with current teaching of wellbeing programmes. I have been impressed with the enthusiasm and support from our tutors who are obviously passionate about what they do.”

Robin Jane Atkins

“FREEDOM encouraged me to learn more about my culture, Maori, pepeha, whakapapa and I learnt a lot. They made me more open and just ask and be positive. I have made friends. Everyone is respectful and kind. I have found a family here.”

Eva Huia Thompson

“Here at FREEDOM, I have made friends, a lot more than what I did before because I was stay home mom before for more than 10 years. My values and beliefs are being respected here at FREEDOM, like Karakia, having it in the morning and having it at the end of the day, that is so respected.”

Kerewai Ainsley

“I have been to too many tertiary institutions, and I have never been into institution like this one. They are so supportive of all your needs. FREEDOM has really made me look at myself and take note of my feelings and use them in a correct way.”

Moetu Ranginui

“I liked FREEDOM, I think it is cool even the concept of how it was begun, how Susan explained, I think it was really cool. I always get encouraged here at FREEDOM. Students and facilitators are very supportive. Everyone is respected.”

Certificate in Universal Wellbeing Coordination (Halfway through programme) - Aimii Pascoe Tertiary Pastoral Care System Manager

Initially I was apprehensive about the course as it was so different to my previous study experiences. I enjoyed the course and found a new way of thinking and I enjoyed learning. I feel like I definitely benefited from doing the course. I saw my attitudes towards wellbeing change over the course. I have noticed a more intricate way of looking at it. I saw myself and students learning things about themselves, sharing, and opening up. I can see some great ways we are inherently providing wellbeing support to our staff. This is not a documented procedure, just through the culture we have in our workplace.

I think that what I have learnt is so beneficial to our student and staff. I am now thinking about how best to present this to them to have a good uptake of this information as this is not your typical content to present to our students. I think that we have made some excellent changes to our wellbeing support for staff and students in comparison to general industry standards in years gone by.

What have I learnt, it’s hard to summarize! I learnt about the complexity of human behavior! This course gave me different perspectives and ways of thinking regarding wellbeing. I learnt a lot about our business, this course started a lot of conversations about how we operate and how we have handled situations in the past.

My approach to the students/client’s wellbeing now has definitely changed. Although many things I was doing were okay, this course has given me a tool to explain, dissect and articulate what I might be looking at and then how we can look to improve the situation for our students. I think this has allowed me to look at far more dimensions that can relate to one behaviour and therefore opened my eyes to what else might be at play with students.

The UWM allows us to build our own understanding of wellbeing as well as explain it to others. It takes a holistic approach to understanding, explaining, and working to improve the wellbeing of people and communities. There are a number of components of the UWM that also have a number of variables that play a part in the overall wellbeing and the understanding of how this presents in people, groups, and communities.

It helps us understand the complexity of behavior and causes of behavior, and helps us understand our students better and in turn be able to better to better support their wellbeing.

This course gave me an insight into my own wellbeing. I am generally reasonably aware of my own wellbeing but in particular this brought up my issues around ethnicity and cultural acceptance. I found this really interesting and super beneficial for me to take some time to reflect.

The resources have greatly supported the course learnings and have helped me better understand the UWM. The emotion wheels were particularly beneficial and although I see this would be hard to get uptake in my trainers, I could see the benefits from using this resource in particular.

Culture Dimension

This was actually quite interesting learning for me about myself. I noted how I seek validation from my own ethnic group. I can feel alienated sometimes. The ties to one’s ethnicity and culture can be difficult and intertwined but are ultimately important to how we view ourselves, confidence, and possible self-worth.

I think this highlighted for me personally that I do not need external validation. My biological DNA is my identity and does not have to be proven or genetically quantified. I was not expecting to have learnings about myself rather than students in this course.

What I will do differently now is to stop the negative self-talk and be confident and open to learning more. I already try and embrace any ethnic and cultural differences within our students and love finding the common ground that we all have somewhere to make a connection. I think we can definitely work on fostering that common ground between students on a course.

Emotional Dimension

I think these dimensions, emotional recognition, safety, knowledge, emotional regulation, and acceptance, are incredibly interesting and often hard to articulate and quantify so this course has been very helpful. The emotion wheels were very interesting, and I found them helpful for myself. I think that for me personally – to take a minute to allow the emotions to pass is very helpful.

Spiritual Dimension

I learnt a bit about myself – my way of moving through the world and I learnt a lot about how people’s values and life attitudes are developed over time and often stem from generational bias and beliefs. This can mean that changing our own and trying to help others with their beliefs and values can be difficult.

Dissecting these variables allows me to recognise the fundamentals of what makes each of the dimensions up and then how we can identify and issue in them and then how we can look at supporting our students and staff.

This course has given me more basis for understanding the behaviour patterns I may see in our staff and students. For each particular behaviour that our staff or students display there can be multiple dimensions or variables at play. Far too many to list one by one but it has given me a good overall picture. Wellbeing is a very complex subject; it feels like a lot of the recognition of the what’s and whys is done intuitively however this course has given me tools and a method of articulating what it is I may be intuitively feeling in regard to our staff and students’ wellbeing.

I enjoyed learning about the others situations and feelings on the topics of the day. Especially the people of significance to them. I think having the other students so willing to share is amazing, I learn lots from their ideas and their examples.

I learnt a lot about the ways people can mask their negative self-value and loci of control. It was good to discuss loci of control as I think I had a concept of this but have never had it articulated as people having a feeling of external control i.e., no control over their destiny so it made sense when we discussed the negative behaviors that may rise with this.

I valued the example used of the folded paper and writing down the roles people play in life. Even just reframing it in this way for me made me self-reflect on the many roles I have which was quite a shift in perspective.

Samantha Cotton Polytechnic Student Mentor for Wellbeing Services

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Universal Wellbeing Model. I have worked with other holistic wellbeing models, however the UWM provides digestible, tangible variables within each dimension of health to look at deeper and keeping an eye out for. It has changed the way I think about wellbeing and how we meet our wellbeing commitments within an education space – it has removed a lot of the vague aspects of wellbeing and given me concrete leads to better direct my support questions for a learner, as well as referrals for further professional support where needed.

The UWM also helps to better inform our organisational wellbeing strategies, with tangible areas of wellbeing that we can be investigating further and providing more targeted, robust supports for.

I believe the learning I have done in this course is already helping me to become a better Student Mentor for Wellbeing Services. I find myself keeping an ear out for different variables and breaking learner challenges/needs down into different dimensions of health. This helps to “clear some of the fog”, so to speak, in what a particular learner needs from us , and what further supports they may need help connecting with elsewhere (e.g. counselling, financial support, whānau counselling etc...). My learning in this module has really helped eliminate much of the vagueness around wellbeing, and will continue to help me transform my support approach into direct, measurable action.

Interestingly, I have also been navigating my own wellbeing journey throughout this module. In the early days of the programme, I was still in the earlier months of a journey and the challenges that came along with that. My learnings about the UWM have helped me gain a deeper understanding of why I was feeling the way I was feeling, where the overlaps were (e.g. seeing connections between challenged variables in different dimensions of wellbeing), and specific areas where I had the power to start making changes (or at least holding space and having compassion/patience if I was unable to change them just yet). It served as a very timely reminder that, when multiple variables across different dimensions of health are challenged or under pressure, overall wellbeing is negatively impacted. And that, with time, by addressing the individual variables that need attention, you can slowly move your wellbeing from a negative to a positive state.

I’ve gained a solid foundational understanding of the UWM model and how I can apply it in my role, in an educational setting. I’ve learned new things to be looking out for when working one-on-one with learners, as well as variables and other things to consider when developing wellbeing strategies for the wider organisation.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Susan. She has been very informative, and I love the collaborative approach to learning. She has also been very flexible and understanding when things have come up that clash with class and has set aside her own time to catch us up on things we’ve missed. A 10/10 learning experience! The paper has been well organised. Both classes and communication have been regular and reliable, and Susan has been very reliable and approachable when flexibility has been needed at short notice. Very pleased with the content of the paper. I have a lot of learnings and takeaways that I feel I can apply to my working and support experience with learners straight away, as well as to overall organisation wellbeing support strategies and initiatives.

During the first sessions, I was thinking about how aspects of the Universal Wellbeing Model resonated with me and reminded me of the Te Whare Tapa Whā realms (or taha) of wellbeing, but also how much it expanded on this model. By the end of theses sessions I was thinking more deeply about each of the variables, and how they can overlap and intersect with other variables and cause change/flux within the parent dimensions. I thought about how complex this woven web could become, particularly when faced with the prospect of multple different variables falling over or being at odds with one another.

I saw many connections in the UWM, both within the model and to my own work. It prompts a wider lens of consideration when working with learners who disclose challenges to wellbeing, and an ability to drill deeper into what seems to be affecting a wellbeing dimension (e.g., Social – we can go deeper than saying “whānau connections are impacting this learner’s Social dimension. We can say they are being impacted by the specific variables i.e., the family variable, the social safety variable, the social confidence variable etc and this can give us a more nuanced picture of what is going on for this learner and how we may be able to unpick some of the threads to remove or reframe the negative impacts to the students wellbeing.

I thought about the complexities of the variables and how, while a bit overwhelming at first, they paint a more detailed picture of what wellbeing is made up of and how we as professionals should be thinking about wellbeing. I also thought about how I might be able to start incorporating some of these variables into the work I do, both with my learners directly and in helping to guide new processes and training. I anticipate that the UWM will eventually become second nature in my thinking around wellbeing and will broaden and deepen both my understanding of wellbeing and my response to support needs and issues.

I am used to thinking in terms of wellbeing dimensions and what may fall into these realms of wellbeing, as well as ways to foster and develop elements within these dimensions to improve overall wellbeing. However, learning to zoom out even further to consider the many different variables, environments and inputs allows for a more concrete and detailed understanding of the aspects we need to acknowledge and reflect on when thinking about holistic wellbeing support.

This model improves how we respond to learners who disclose wellbeing challenges and a need for further support and builds on our existing support services.

My aim is to start incorporating some of this broader understanding into my work with learners. Using the Social dimension as an example, I have a more concrete understanding of how they can impact on a learner’s ability to study (Self-talk: I’m too stupid to learn this, Family: my family think it’s a joke I’m trying to study, Community/iwi: how do my studies translate into my community? Am I even contributing to my community with this? Social Confidence: I won’t fit in with my classmates, they’re all much smarter and friendlier than me etc).

It is encouraging me to start thinking beyond my past wellbeing model understandings e.g., Te Whare Tapa Whā which encompasses 4-5 different realms of health. This course was a good first step into the complexities of the UWM and it’s mirroring of the complexities of holistic wellbeing; realizing how granulated the different realms and variables of wellbeing are and how, though there are many, they all have equal importance and weight in balancing good mental wellbeing. I’m looking forward to learning more!

I have learnt the importance of entering a relationship with a learner with zero expectations, assumptions or driving thoughts. Instead, working to keep an open mind, stay curious, and explore ways of supporting different variables that I might otherwise have passed over or placed in the “too-hard basket.”

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Universal Wellbeing Model. I have worked with other holistic wellbeing models, however the UWM provides digestible, tangible variables within each dimension of health to be looking deeper into and keeping an eye out for. It has changed the way I think about wellbeing and how we meet our wellbeing commitments within an education space – it has removed a lot of the vague aspects of wellbeing and given me concrete leads to better direct my support questions to a learner, as well as supporting referrals for further professional support where needed. The UWM also helps to better inform our organisational wellbeing strategies, with tangible areas of wellbeing that we can be investigating further and providing more targeted, robust supports for.

I believe the learning I have achieved in this programme is already helping me to become a better Student Mentor for Wellbeing Services. I find myself keeping an ear out for different variables and breaking learner challenges/needs down into different dimensions of health. This helps to “clear some of the fog”, so to speak, in what a particular learner needs from us (supports within our power as an education provider), and what further supports they may need help connecting with elsewhere (e.g. counselling, financial support, whānau counselling etc). My learning in this programme has really helped eliminate many of the vague aspects of wellbeing, and will continue to help me transform my support approach into direct, measurable action.

Interestingly, I have also been navigating my own wellbeing journey throughout this programme. In the early days of the programme, I was still in the earlier months of challenges that came along with that. My learnings about the UWM have helped me gain a deeper understanding of why I was feeling the way I was feeling, where the overlaps were (e.g. seeing connections between challenged variables in different dimensions of wellbeing), and specific areas where I had the power to start making changes (or at least holding space and having compassion/patience if I was unable to change them just yet). It served as a very timely reminder that, when multiple variables across different dimensions of health are challenged or under pressure, overall wellbeing is negatively impacted. And that, with time, by addressing the individual variables that need attention, you can slowly move your wellbeing from a negative to a positive state.

I’ve gained a solid foundational understanding of the UWM model and how I can apply it in my professional role, in an educational setting. I’ve learned new things to be looking out for when working one-on-one with learners, as well as variables and other things to consider when developing wellbeing strategies for the wider organisation. It’s been helpful to have professional code of conduct from the get-go, so everyone knows is aware of conduct expectations.

Certificate in Universal Wellbeing - Katy Quinn – Primary School Teacher

Really excellent, approachable teaching methods. Conversational class allowed for discussions to further deepen our understanding of each variable via discussion of personal/ work-related experiences with that variable. Really good prompts, struggled with the reflection exercises in the beginning but mastered them by the end., They were a really good addition the programme. I find myself using them now to process a hectic day at work. Great way to emphasize the importance of learning effective self-care techniques in this line of work. Overall, really enjoyed the course and learned so much from it. I will benefit from the learnings both on a personal and professional level going forward so thank you. Excellent!

Katie Telesia Hastings - Pasifika Learning Support Teacher

Wellbeing is influenced by complex, often multi-directional interactions between a large number of influencing factors. An appreciation of the complexity of wellbeing is essential when conceptualising universal wellbeing. It is as important to consider how these variable may interact as it is to consider their direct influence on wellbeing.

I now feel more equipped to consider multiple avenues that may be affecting a child that I believe to be struggling. I also now have built in more techniques to improve wellbeing through various variables, not just social and emotional, as I had prior to this course. I now can also target variables such as those in the spiritual dimension to improve wellbeing.

I have learned the unique influence that my culture played in shaping me as a person and building a strong sense of resilience in me., I also now am much more aware and mindful of my own self-talk.

Overall, I have learnt about the complexity of wellbeing and the various ways that we can actively improve our own wellbeing.

Teacher Aide Supporting Behaviour Module - Feedback from a Past Student

This is not a refresher course. It consists of so much input, strategies, and ways to support emotional/wellbeing needs and positive behaviours. It has helped me to support students and decode things that are happening and to teach them new skills. Not only for them but I myself have learnt so much from this course. My own behaviour, reactions towards students and staff have changed.

Brainstorming together behaviour plans/programmes for students with special needs, but also other needy students around me by just changing my attitude. With this extra knowledge a whole new window opens, and you face some difficult challenges with more confidence.

Defusing and de-escalation ways to assist students before major meltdowns or violence episodes is very helpful plus assisting in restorative programmes.

I really enjoyed the sessions and loved hearing how others have dealt with issues. It really highlighted the fact that we are all on the right track and we have the knowledge to cope with the ever changing natures of our jobs. It did make me think about how I manage some of the behaviours in our class and I needed to be more tolerant of behaviours, but also to keep trying to find more ways to correct some of the behaviours. I think because I work in a class and not with specific students that I tend to react rather than manage behaviours.

The course content was excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it's been so useful to me. Looking forward to the next course.

I enjoyed the opportunity we had to discuss the situations that we are dealing with at school and all the practical advice provided. I learned so much just from listening to the other teacher aides that also attended and that shared what they are dealing with at school.

The facilitator is very experienced, she is not only professionally knowledgeable but also a great person who can give practical guidance from her experience, wide knowledge, research as well as the heart that she has put into listening to each conversation. Through her, I viewed a good example of a great teacher who cares, loves, and has real influences towards students that help them to live in a better way of life.

Secondly, I think this course is important as it provides us the opportunity to have the process to know how to change a behaviour from a negative way to positive perspective and amazingly, we can see the result straight away, that gives us confidence and really helps the complicated situations we encounter every day.

Teacher Aide Supporting Wellbeing Module - Feedback from a Past Student

Before seeing the Universal Wellbeing Model, I would have utilised basic indicators to assess the wellbeing of a child: whether their body language indicated if they were sad or happy, whether they appeared to enjoy playing outside, or whether they seemed enthusiastic to learn or engage in activities (which I believed indicated how much they enjoy living life). This narrow view of wellbeing definitely limited my ability to consider all the factors that could be affecting a student’s wellbeing, and therefore, their readiness to learn.

Upon understanding this model, I now have so many more avenues that I can use to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that may be affecting a child’s ability to engage and learn or regulate themselves. For example, a child may appear happy and confident in the playground and then not want to engage in classroom learning activities. Potential factors that I might investigate now to understand what the issue for this child lies are their emotional wellbeing- do they lack self- belief when it comes to academic performance? cultural factors - does their culture encourage quiet, non-engaging behaviours in the classroom? social wellbeing - do they feel safe enough to ask questions? This depicts how much richer a picture of wellbeing understanding this model has enabled me to create.

Sensory inputs are the first level of the model- this was interesting to me as it highlights how an individual’s processing of the world is at the core of their wellbeing.

I will appreciate the spiritual aspect of wellbeing more. On a personal level, I have always felt that this was an important aspect of wellbeing; however, I would not have considered it when assessing the wellbeing of my students as it felt as though I was simply allowing my own values to taint my observations. Upon seeing it included in the model, I will feel more comfortable that it is professionally appropriate to consider this aspect of an individual’s wellbeing when assessing their overall wellbeing.

On the Social Dimension

In particular, I am now aware of the importance of discussing our self-talk and investigating whether a student is being affected by negative self-talk.

On the Physical Dimension

I realized the complex indirect impact that some of these variables can have on children’s wellbeing. For example, some parents at school struggle with financial security. This evidently impacts the wellbeing of those parents’ children through nutrition, social acceptance (missing out on school outings) and missed learning opportunities in extracurricular activities

I learnt that physical affection and touch significantly affects wellbeing.

I noticed a link between the lack of sufficient nutrition in some children’s lunchboxes and them struggling to pay attention for prolonged periods of time. Although correlation does not mean causation in the slightest, it was an interesting observation that I would not have made prior to this course.

Intellectual Dimension

I will use the knowledge of these variables to foster higher levels of intellectual wellbeing in the students that I work with. I will do this by increasing the number of discussions that I have that aim to increase the students understanding of both them and their interactions with both their environment and peers. This will increase their wellbeing levels by improving their comprehension and therefore, the amount of learning that they can derive from learning challenges that arise.

Cultural Dimension

I realised I need to deliberately ask certain children questions in order to ensure they understand a topic due to their culture discouraging them from asking questions even when they don’t understand something. I clarified my understanding of the difference between ethnicity and culture.

Emotional dimension

I noticed the impact of low and high self-esteem on children’s willingness to try new things in school, especially in sports activities on sports day. I ensured that the children who appeared to have lower self-esteem about their capabilities in sport had a positive experience during sports time. I also ensured that I praised them for their performance afterwards in order to foster some higher self-esteem. The relationship between self-esteem, learning and success was really highlighted to me during this session.

I now provide honest, mostly positive feedback to all my students in order to foster higher levels of self-esteem as this will benefit their learning and willingness to try. I saw the importance of believing one has a unique value as I noticed the huge impact that not holding the belief can have on a child’s confidence, which therefore also obviously impacts their ability to make friends, try new things and find meaning in their life,

Spiritual Dimension

Interested and intrigued as I had never studied the connection between spirituality and wellbeing before. I noticed the impact that values can have on connections within families and how this can feed into a child’s wellbeing both directly through influenced the quality of bonds they have with their families, as well as indirectly by influencing the amount of time and energy that they were willing to invest into fostering strong friendship with their peers. Children who spent a lot of quality time with their family were more likely to invest in creating strong bonds with their peers, especially younger children. I thought about the impact that my trust in ‘higher powers’ has on my wellbeing. It most definitely brings me a sense of peace when I am unsure about how something in my own life will work out.

I learnt the deep impact that intuition can have on wellbeing- I had not considered the influence of this prior to this class, I will discuss intuition and what it feels like with the children that I teach to try and foster the positive influence that being in tune with your own intuition can have on wellbeing,

Teacher Aide Supporting Wellbeing Module - Feedback from a Past Student

I enjoyed this Module. Though I do believe that our school is good with the use and support of teacher aides it is nice to be able to put labels on some of the practices I do i.e.: external versus internal loci, also I liked the give good specific feedback.

What did I learn? Blinking heaps actually. I am looking forward to using Socratic questioning.

Socratic teaching/questioning with my older kids it is going to be NEAT.

I liked the Facilitator’s explanation of how the treaty works within teacher aide work. Though I had a small idea that we did follow treaty guidelines I found out the school actually does it really well. It is the words and correct phrasing that I am learning that I'm valuing as I do have a hard time expressing concepts. ie: Equity I think I will try to be more aware of the mutual care aspect of what was taught today, and reward people who practice equity so it will become the norm, not the exception.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to do this module and I'm looking forward to doing more. One of the big things I have learnt is to be more conscious of things like being inclusive ensuring that all my students are part of a group and thriving.

I am very, very glad I took this module, I had felt like a fraud a lot when talking to peers as I don't have any qualifications. The small number of classmates I had was definitely a bonus for me. I'm really glad that our school seems to be really good in the guidelines that have been taught in this module. Susan’s friendly teaching was excellent. The booklets were good, but the slides were better for me. I know I will change a lot of things. BUT Socratic teaching/questioning is still my favourite thing I've learnt, and I will be doing.

What Our Community Says