Professor Happy launches in London

Professor Happy, a new life-skills coaching course for 8 to 12 year-olds, today announced the launch of its program in Kennington, London. It is designed to help children build confidence, work creatively, develop collaboration skills and encourage critical thinking. It is based on the “PERMA” model of Positive Psychology.

Pilot session at the Kennington Park Centre, London

“Group coaching” is a popular form of personal and professional development with senior executives of large organisations, however, this is the first program of its kind aimed at primary school level. ”Many parents worry that conventional education and qualifications are being overtaken by the pace of technical and social change in the world…”  said Simona da Silva, founder of Professor Happy. “We need to develop a child’s character strengths and expose them to multiple educational and philosophical approaches to prepare them for their future challenges in life”.

The Professor Happy program is a six-week course that meets four hours per week. Each session focuses on a different theme, such as strengths, gratitude, creative thinking, and goal setting. Eleven year old Emma from Tooting said: “We got to create our goals in any way we wanted; we could express it through art or building something and we could use lots of different resources.. I really got a chance to think about what I am good at and there were lots of new skills that I discovered”.

Children are taken through various activities to stimulate their self-awareness and mental skills such as group discussions, arts and crafts, cognitive challenges and science demonstrations. Elaine, who’s 11 year-old child attended said: “The sessions made her more open about repetitive thoughts… so we’re normalising and talking about them more”.

“The children displayed remarkable engagement and genuine contentment throughout the sessions…” said Zamira Demollari, a Montessori teacher from Colliers Wood, who assisted with the pilot. “The participants were effectively encouraged to tap into their imagination and understand their potential.”

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