Spirals for Wellbeing is based on the work of Alan Mclean, summarised in the recent book, Knowing and Growing: Insights for Developing Ourselves and Others. It uses an interdisciplinary approach to support students to grow their identity and expand their social and emotional understanding. The materials aim to prime young people's aspirations and positive identities as they explore the following five themes, all helping shape their dispositions towards learning:

• My Strengths / Passions - Exploring my interests.
• My Life Story - Reflecting on significant people, life events and experiences, my personality traits and identity labels.
• My Emotions - Making emotions visible by Identifying, labelling and sorting.
• My Preferences - Balancing thinking about myself and thinking about others.
• My Attitudes & Values - Taking a stance towards myself others.

The materials support schools in promoting social, emotional and mental wellbeing (the GIRFEC and ACE’s agenda), developing leadership, DYW, and Rights Respecting Schools through metacognition and Literacy skills. As well as suggested activities and learning resources there are slides and on-line self-reflection profiles, which are available on www.whatmotivateslearning.com

There are three main ways to use the materials, either in a class approach - at CfE second level and beyond, using all or selected units; or in a whole school approach using the Progression Planner, available on the website.

Or, thirdly focusing on the central issue of Emotions. Schools can employ Exploring Emotions in either a class approach and/or a whole school approach to developing emotional understanding. The model illuminates three phases of progression in emotional understanding.

These materials will be optimised when used in conjunction with the full forthcoming Using Our Emotions: A Resource for Developing Emotional Understanding. As well as the teacher guide to Exploring Emotions, it includes a comprehensive introduction- Explaining Emotions and a detailed set of resources for each of forty emotions.

Emotions are our moment by moment guide and our identity guides our long term direction. Encouraging young people to explore their passions and aspirations enriches their identity. Identity is the personal compass that determines their long term destinations. Supporting and challenging our students in the search for their aspirations and the construction of a positive identity is a great way to encourage personal growth.

Spirals help young people

• make sense of their personality and identities
• develop positive interpersonal attitudes
• use a wide a range of emotions as possible
• construct the most appropriate emotions for given contexts
• develop their self-control
• understand how they affect others and how others affect them
• use as wide a range of emotions as possible

The programme develops young people's capacity for self-reflection. It draws on their autobiographical memories to create a coherent account of who they are. It gives opportunities to reflect on their emotions, making their feelings visible and so developing their metacognition. A key message is that while personality is a given, our identity is something we construct. Identity determines students' futures through their aspirations and choices. The programme also explores students' attitudes towards themselves and others. These interpersonal attitudes provide a window into their identity.

Units

1. Introductory Slides
2. My Passions, Aspirations and Motivations
3. My Story
4. Learning to Feel
5. My Attitudes, Values & Stances
6. My Personality & Identity
7. My Learning Mindsets
8. Using the Inspire Ring Profile
9. Our Class Climate

All of these units can be downloaded here, except Learning to Feel. If you are interested in Learning to Feel, get in touch using the form below.

Resources available to download:

	My Values, Attitudes and Stances
	My Mindset Towards Learning
	My Passions, Aspirations and Motivation
	My Personality and Identity
	My Story
	Our Class Climate
	Using the Inspire Ring Profile With Students