Happy Familes School
We are very excited at Lysterfield Primary School to be subscribed to the Happy Families School Membership which provides whole school access to a variety of resources for our school community. Owned and run by Dr Justin Coulson, one of Australia’s leading parenting experts, the membership offers a wealth of parenting education and resources. We will regularly share these resources available through our membership with you, including Insight Articles and Webinars.
INSIGHTS ARTICLES
A new Insights article is released weekly throughout the term. Insights articles are written by Dr Justin Coulson and other leading experts and provide parenting education and support for a wide variety of traditional and contemporary parenting challenges.
Please see below for two of the most recent Insight articles -
You can also read the article here -
You can also read the article here -
PARENT WEBINARS
You have access to 4 live webinars a year (one per term) as part of the Happy Families School Membership.
Term 2 Event Recording
Boys: Building Strong Young Men From The Inside Out
He’s disappearing. Behind the closed door, lost in screens, making choices that keep you up at night. He’s navigating a world designed to confuse him – algorithms designed to addict him – a world parents don’t understand and can’t break into. The headlines scream crisis. They warn us that boys are in deep trouble… and it’s getting worse.
But it doesn’t have to be like this.
Dr Justin Coulson has a different story to tell. In the webinar Boys, Justin reveals what decades of research suggests: when boys get what they actually need, they thrive. Not through force or fixing, but through connection, meaningful challenge, and someone who refuses to give up on them.
This presentation hands you the ‘Playbook’. It cuts through the noise with practical, research-backed strategies for the battles you’re fighting right now. Gaming. Pornography. Self-control. Friendships. School motivation. How to discipline without destroying trust. How to stay close when he’s pushing away.
But beneath the tactics lies something more powerful: a vision of masculinity worth fighting for. Boys who help others feel safer and stronger. Who create surplus value. Who become not just good men, but the best version of themselves. Your son already has everything he needs to get there.
To watch the recording, register with our school name here -
Term 1 Event Recording
Anti-Fragile: Building Resilient Kids Through Life’s Challenges
In Anti-Fragile, a webinar on building resilience in children, Dr Justin Coulson challenges the idea that childhood should be free from stress and struggle. He argues that challenges are essential for growth and that parents can empower their children by allowing them to experience developmentally appropriate adversity while providing the right kind of support to help them overcome it.
How do we help children build resilience and equip them to handle life’s inevitable volatility, challenges, and setbacks?
In this webinar, Dr Coulson will explore:
- What resilience truly means and why it matters
- Why resilience is declining in our screen-focused world
- Why risky play and face-to-face connections support life skills and resilience
- How the current resilience deficit damages our children’s present wellbeing and future adult life
- Practical strategies to reverse this trend by helping your child forge a strong sense of identity, develop genuine competence, and build lasting hope.
Anti-Fragile presents Dr Coulson’s groundbreaking approach to building resilience in children, equipping them to not just cope with life’s challenges but to thrive because of them.
To watch the recording, register with our school name here -
You can also view the Term 4, 2025, webinar here -
Term 4, 2025 - 'Entitled: Raising Responsible, Respectful Kids'
On-demand gratification has become the modern-day norm, and our children have never known anything different. As a result, parents are noticing a clear pattern of declining levels of resilience and frustration tolerance. We naturally want them to be happy and successful, but we also recognise that a sense of entitlement can hinder their journey. While our hearts yearn to give them the world, we know it’s equally important to nurture gratitude, responsibility, and respect within their hearts.
Our children are growing up in a world defined by instant gratification. They’ve never known a time when things weren’t immediately accessible, which has contributed to declining resilience and frustration tolerance. As parents, we yearn to give them the world and shield them from disappointment, but we also know that fostering gratitude, responsibility, and respect is essential for their true happiness and success.
Entitled with Dr Justin Coulson will dive deep into the issue of entitlement. We’ll explore its root causes, its impact on our children’s development, and most importantly, we’ll equip you with practical strategies to turn things around. You’ll learn how to shift your child’s mindset from “gimme” to “thank you”, and how to foster a sense of appreciation even in an age of abundance.
In this presentation, we will navigate the challenges of parenting in today’s world and discover how to raise children who are not just responsible and respectful, but empowered, resilient, and ready to make a positive contribution to the world.
Kim Bedford | School Counsellor / Social Worker