Creating a happy classroom is generally at the top of our agenda as a teacher. Forget the staffroom camaraderie, the satisfaction of finishing a pile of marking and the joy of finding the missing glue lid; teachers simply want children to be happy.
But how can you create a happy classroom? What can you put in place to ensure that the happiness of everyone, you included, is easily put into place? Well, thanks to our Happy-Centred School programme, we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve to help you.
Why is creating a happy classroom necessary?
In August 2019, the annual Good Childhood Report from the Children’s Society found overall happiness among 10- to 15-year-olds had dipped below 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, with an average of 7.89. Nearly 5% of those surveyed reported happiness scores below 5 out of 10, which equates to approximately 219,000 children in the UK being unhappy with life as a whole. It also reported a ‘significant dip’ in happiness with school in 2016/17.
So, as the report says, ‘As a society, we have to start taking children’s well-being more seriously,’ and as educators, we’re in a prime position to do this.
At the risk of sounding like the sixth Spice Girl, what we really, really want is for children to come in every morning full of excitement, ready and eager to start the day ahead. We want them to leave at the end of the day with smiles on their faces, inspired by the lessons we’ve taught.
But it’s not always that easy. Many other factors can stand in our way, from family unemployment and poverty to young carer roles and neighbourhood issues. Creating a happy classroom, therefore, becomes crucial.
5 ways to create a happy classroom
A classroom should be a space where happiness takes precedence, where children are always met with a smile and positivity. It’s a space where their wellbeing is as important as their academic achievements. So how can we create one?
- Provide support
Creating a support network can help to build happiness in the classroom. From friends, family and the adults within the school, children soon realise they have important people to turn to when they need them. Feeling lonely and with nowhere to turn can do much to damage a child’s mental health and wellbeing. Children's happiness and confidence can increase by creating a classroom with a clear support system in place.
It’s not easy for all children to understand how to support others within the classroom either – it’s a skill that needs to be explicitly taught to some. Working together to establish what that support looks like within your classroom can help those who struggle with this aspect of personal relationships and confirm your expectations to the rest.
- Celebrate achievement and success
Celebrating individual and group achievements can do much to enhance happiness in your classroom. Studies show that reward and recognition can go a long way to boosting people’s confidence and morale. When we achieve our goals, our brain sends messages to our body to say, ‘Well done you!’
We release neurotransmitters such as serotonin (the happy chemical) and dopamine (the motivation and reward chemical), which help us to feel great.
In both children and adults, the levels of dopamine and serotonin in our bodies play a part in our overall wellbeing, digestion and sleep. The more serotonin and dopamine, the happier we tend to be. Celebrating mistakes can help here too. Creating a happy classroom starts with understanding the importance of a growth mindset and learning from our mistakes.
As much as stickers and smiley faces work wonders with happiness, enjoyment from intrinsic happiness is important too. Build in time for children to reflect on things they are proud of and why.
- Teach self-confidence
Confidence can increase happiness, but it’s not something we’re all naturally born with. For many of us, it’s a learned skill that improves with age, experience and practice. A happy classroom embraces this journey and provides opportunities for children to learn this skill in their own time, with the support of those around them.
For children to be successful, they must manage and overcome their fears, worries, limiting beliefs and problems. They also need to look at how other people portray confidence, even though they may not naturally be confident – this can be quite the revelation for some children!
Give children a wide range of vocabulary to indicate confidence. Talk about inner belief, optimism, courage and determination so children understand these traits and their importance.
Make it part of your everyday classroom discussions and model what it’s like to struggle with something, persevering until you get the hang of it. Share relevant experiences from outside of school or your childhood that shows them what happens when you have the confidence to continue.
Gentle encouragement and recognition of their efforts can be all most children need to build their confidence slowly. Slow and steady wins the race every time.
- Build positive relationships
Positive relationships with peers and adults within the school can do much when creating a happy classroom. Sadly, not all children have such positive relationships outside of school, so providing a consistently happy, positive environment within it can contribute heavily to their overall happiness.
Teaching and modelling what positive relationships look like will help children as they learn how to build their own. Some may not have the confidence or the understanding and will, therefore, learn a lot from how you build positive relationships with each pupil and with other adults in the classroom/school.
As the children build these positive relationships, it improves their overall happiness and helps with their feelings of belonging and value. It helps to develop self-confidence and gives them a sense of security and comfort. Most importantly, it teaches them how to communicate openly, trying out new ideas without fear of judgement.
These skills will stand them in good stead as they make new positive relationships later in life. It will also help them identify when a relationship is not a positive influence and how this can impact their wellbeing.
- Develop coping skills
Life isn’t fair. Decisions and situations rise up and are out of our immediate control. Children (and adults) can find this one of life’s toughest lessons. However, what is in our control is how we cope and react when times get tough. To feel happy, we need to feel in control.
If children develop core strategies early on, they can apply them throughout their life and adapt them to suit any situation. If we’re able to teach children to understand their emotions and how their bodies may feel and react during times of stress, they will be able to identify what they need to do to feel better.
It’s not a case of simply shying away from a challenge when it presents itself either; it’s about developing coping behaviours that help children to manage their emotions successfully. Children with a bank of coping strategies up their sleeves can do much to create a happy classroom and for children’s overall mental health and wellbeing.
A positive and happy influence
Creating a happy classroom isn’t just about smiling every day. It’s about developing an environment that looks after the whole child and helps them build strategies to feel happier about all aspects of their lives. All the themes listed above are interwoven and equally important in helping you achieve this.
As teachers, we are privileged to be a constant, positive influence in the lives of our pupils, and this is a position we should feel proud of. Creating a happy classroom is just the beginning.
Find out more about how to create a happier classroom with our free Happy-Centred Schools resources.
