Product reviews for From My Heart

At last I have got round to reading this wonderful book - maybe I loved it because I kept putting ticks next to paragraphs and exclaiming - but that's what Wellbeing Australia is all about! Hawkes talks about the values we want our children to learn that will benefit their own lives and sense of wellbeing, impact on their positive contribution to their communities now and in the future and importantly for teachers, enhance the quality of the learning environment. It is all about relationships, resilience and responsibility.

This very readable book has 17 chapters which takes the reader on a journey exploring their own thinking and practice of values. The writing is enriched by stories from all parts of the world, but with a particular focus on Australia where Hawkes was influential in the development of the Values for Australian Schools framework. He cites people and schools that will be familiar to many of us: Professor Terry Lovat at Newcastle University, the ever energetic Andrew Fuller and the inestimable Sue Cahill, Student Wellbeing Coordinator at St Charles Borremeo School (and member of the Victoria WBA Advisory Group).

In one of the very first chapters Hawkes cites the impact of values education on five dimensions, all of which are interrelated. Lovat et al, 2009, 2010).
- Values consciousness (or awareness) - this means that when we talk and think about values in schools this changes what people do and how they do it.
- Student Wellbeing: This is enhanced when students are given the opportunity to reflect on values such as self-worth, empathy and responsibility - this is particularly true of students who are -˜at risk'
- Agency: Values action projects developed student voice, initiative and leadership. When students were aware of the foundational values of these projects their sense of understanding about others increased and led to more positive relationships across the school
- Connectedness: Now a focal theme for resilience and wellbeing, values education builds positive and wide ranging connections between teachers, students and parents - across all contexts
- Transformation: Values education is clearly transformative. It changes the way people think, behave and develop, how relationships evolve and how schools operate.

One of the chapters in entitled Children See, Children Do. This is named after the 90 second video clip produced by NAPCAN in Australia which shows how important adult role models are for the ways children learn how to treat others. I use it all the time in training - but it is worth a look as it reminds us all that whatever we do, so will our kids. When we engage in acts of kindness, generosity and show that we can be trusted and are responsible in what we say then this is the behaviour our children will aspire to emulate.

There is so much in this book it is impossible to do justice in this short review - you will need to buy it for yourself or at least for your staffroom. In each chapter Hawkes invites the reader to pause and reflect on what this means for them.

Throughout the book Hawkes covers so many ways in which values education can breathe through the life of the school - for individuals, the environment, the curriculum, the community, leadership and school assemblies. Each chapter has great illustrations of real life events it makes it come alive and gives any reader inspiration to try things out.

Values Education is as important as ever it was - and so closely aligned with student and school wellbeing it is virtually intertwined. -˜Learning to be' and -˜learning to live together' as fundamental pillars of education are potentially under threat as the economic arguments for increasing knowledge and skills overwhelm the curriculum. This book reminds us once again that if we are really concerned about the quality of life for the future values need to stay a central platform

Thank you Neil Hawkes for writing this book - I hope many, many people read it and have been as inspired as I was.