Wellbeing

Lea Waters' Parent Presentation

On Monday evening, Kinross Wolaroi School welcomed over 100 parents—both in person and online—for an engaging presentation by Dr Lea Waters, internationally renowned psychologist and expert in positive education. Lea introduced the SEARCH Framework and the Visible Wellbeing approach, which are designed to help schools create environments where students can flourish both academically and emotionally. Through practical examples and research-based insights, she explained how wellbeing can be made visible in classrooms and how the SEARCH elements—Strengths, Emotional Management, Attention & Awareness, Relationships, Coping, and Habits—can be woven into everyday learning experiences to support student growth.

A key theme of the evening was the importance of parents understanding and participating in their child’s wellbeing journey. Lea spoke about the concept of the “Wellbeing ATM,” encouraging families to make regular deposits through small, intentional acts of care, connection, and self-awareness. These daily practices build emotional resilience and help children develop lifelong wellbeing habits. Parents left the session with a deeper understanding of how they can support their children at home and contribute to a shared language of wellbeing across the school community. The strong turnout and enthusiastic engagement reflected a collective commitment to nurturing a culture of wellbeing at Kinross Wolaroi School.

For families who could not attend on the night, you can watch the seminar below.

The Strength Switch by Dr Lea Waters

Unlock your children’s potential by helping them build their strengths.

 

This game-changing book shows us the extraordinary results of focusing on our children’s strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses. Most parents struggle with this shift because they suffer from a negativity bias, thanks to evolutionary development, giving them “strengths-blindness.” By showing us how to flick the Strength Switch Lea demonstrates how we can not only help our children build resilience, optimism, and achievement but we can also help inoculate them against today’s pandemic of depression and anxiety.

 

​As a strengths-based scientist for more than 20 years, Waters has seen how this approach enhances self-esteem and energy in both children and teenagers. Yet more on the plus side: parents find it a particularly exciting and rewarding way to raise children. With many suggestions for specific ways to interact with your kids, Waters demonstrates how to discover strengths and talents in our children, how to use positive emotions as a resource, how to build strong brains and even how to deal with problem behaviours and talk about difficult situations and emotions. The Strength Switch will show parents how a small shift can yield enormous results.

Dr Waters' book is available to Kinross Wolaroi families at an exclusive, discounted price via the link below:

https://www.leawaters.com/shop/the-strength-switch

Use the code 'VIP15' for a discount on all items in Lea’s shop.