Tools to Thrive is a new positive mental well-being programme for Senior Cycle, secondary school students in Fifth and Sixth year (ages 15 to 17+). The programme is drawn from the fields of Positive Psychology (the science of well-being) and Neuroscience, to develop positive well-being habits for life. It is designed to be implemented as part of the SPHE curriculum.

Each level has 8 lessons which are designed to be taught consecutively where possible. Each lesson may be taught over a one-hour class period, or maybe be split over 2 lesson periods if desired also.

The Tools to Thrive programme aims to introduce adolescents to these evidence-based skills (tools), drawn from the field of Positive Psychology, to develop positive well-being habits for life. Each lesson also indicates the neuroscience behind each tool to give students an understanding of what is happening in the brain as each tool is utilised.

The programme is designed in alignment with the 4 key features of effective teaching and learning in SPHE (NCCA, 2023):  – Awareness – Dialogue – Reflection – Action.

The programme aims to support learning in all of the Learning Outcomes of 2 of the 3 strands of the Revised Senior Cycle SPHE curriculum (2024), namely Health and Well-Being and Into Adulthood. The majority of these Learning Outcomes (11 of the 16), are covered within Levels A & B of the programme. The remaining 5 are covered in Tools to Thrive: Level B Follow-On, which comprises of 3 further online lessons.

There are two levels in this series:

• Book A (Secondary – 5th Year / Ages: 15-16+)
• Book B (Secondary – 6th Year / Ages: 16-17+)

This is the first book in the series.