Get happy!

Anyone who has taught any of the Health and disease segments of the biology A level will be familiar (ish) with the definition of health from the WHO;

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (WHO, 1948)

It tries to define the thorny issue of health by saying what it is, rather than what it is not. What makes someone unhealthy is intuitively easy to grasp, so it makes sense to think of people not being ill as being healthy.

Which brings me to the related matter of happiness, or more specifically the happiness of students. In recent years

ResearchED and class

I spent a muggy if enjoyable day at the third annual ResearchED two Saturdays back. With my usual lack of forward planning I’d delayed the decision over which sessions to attend to the minutes waiting for the opening speakers – the Head of Capital City Academy (no servants were mentioned) and the elegantly be-vested co-organiser Tom Bennett. I had a few ideas in mind; Dr Allen from Datalab, incoming Ofsted head Amanda Spielman were definites, but broadly I went for talks that were broadly speaking sociology rather than pedagogy.