Listen up! How to impress the judges and win a National Happiness Award 2017
Nominations for the National Happiness Awards 2017 are starting to roll in as we begin our search for the UK’s happiest people and places. To help you with your nominations this year we thought we’d give you some hints and tips on how to win an award by sharing with you some of the elements that captured the judges’ attention in 2016’s winning nominations.
Last year, over 300 organisations and individuals were entered in the first such awards of their kind in the UK. Winners enjoyed prizes, prestige, kudos, positive publicity and recognition of their brilliant efforts pushing happiness forward in life and work.
Happiest School: Silverdale Primary Academy
Silverdale’s entry detailed some of the practical measures and initiatives that the school took to embed happiness into school life, such as the ongoing Silverdale Sparkles competition which rewards and recognises positive behaviour. The entry detailed how the school has spread the work it does developing happiness and aspiration beyond the school campus and into the community. Judges were left in no doubt that the school has a deep understanding of what realistic happiness means and has taken practical steps to develop it and to ensure pupils and staff are onboard with this vision. The entry was supported by several videos displaying events at the school which judges found helpful.
Below are some of the criteria Silverdale Primary Academy uses in their successful nomination.
Silverdale have worked with The Art of Brilliance running positivity and happiness days for staff, pupils and parents. This awareness and promotion of positivity runs through everything that we do and is understood by all our community. We run a Silverdale Sparkles competition throughout the year to keep the high profile of this ethos, and every class in the school has a display that re-enforces this value – we choose to shine.
We have seen such an impact from this promotion, that over the course of the last academic year, children from Silverdale have visited other schools across the town and delivered happiness workshops to their children. They have then helped these children deliver the workshop to their parents. In turn, the children from these other schools are now visiting more schools so that the positivity is spreading across Hastings. This is part of ‘Hastings Thrives’, a commitment from the 22 schools across the town to raise achievement and aspiration. In 2008 Hastings was the 30th most deprived town in the country according to the national deprivation index. We are now the 13th, with some of our children living in the bottom 0.04% of poverty nationally. In order to encourage and promote our community to become more positive and aspirational we have coordinated and taken part in a series of events across the town. These have included a Hastings Song Contest and a Sky Parade – where nearly a thousand children danced on the pier. The dance is about the power of positivity spreading and was originally filmed at Silverdale and shown to all our parents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKoLAK-Re68We then filmed at every school our children visited with the positivity workshops, and these films were shared with their parents.
In the run up to the parade, Silverdale children went into Hastings and performed Random Acts of Kindness to raise the profile of Hastings Thrives and the drive for positivity across the community.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLv9AHSCGWQ
http://www.silverdaleprimaryacademy.org.uk/about/hastings_thrives/At the parade, we then joined as schools together to dance, and this was filmed and live streamed back to the schools across the town so that those children not in the parade could still take part – we had over 50 hits.
https://vimeo.com/181934036/057c42b295We have already booked again for June 16th - join us!
We have put in place a rolling programme for this throughout the next academic year, extending to other schools in the town as well.
Silverdale pupils have worked with designers and a webteam to design a positivity website for the children throughout our Academy. This is due to be launched next year, with every child having their own login and working their way through the 7 levels of Happiness Ninja. The website will be accessible to parents and the wider community as the children complete their ninja positivity tasks again raising awareness and engagement throughout the town. This website will be run by the children, for the children to promote a positive attitude for life!https://www.amberrudd.co.uk/news/amber-enjoys-learning-more-about-hastings-thrives
Happiest Headteacher: Jane Thomas, St Matthew’s Primary School
Staff nominated Jane and attached a heart-warming video that included staff and children explaining why they believed Jane should win. The enthusiasm for Jane’s work creating a happy school shone through. As in the case of the Silverdale nomination, the video explained many of the practical initiatives Jane had instigated. It also detailed examples of her personality and her caring nature which the judges agreed provided a human touch.
What better way to let us know about the amazing things a school is doing to promote happiness than making a video, and that is exactly what St Matthew’s Primary School did in support of their nomination for their headteacher, Jane Thomas.
We would like to nominate our Headteacher, Jane Thomas. Words are not enough to convey why we think she deserves to win so we have put together a short video. Please follow either of the links below.
To view on youtube, follow this link: https://youtu.be/l6NLcmDP4NU
Happiest Organisation: The Outward Bound Trust
The nomination succinctly detailed the initiatives that the organisation has developed, presented in bullet-points, which made it easy for the judges to navigate. It showed the judges that the organisation had a whole-team, inclusive approach. These initiatives included job shadowing or working with another member of staff (including the CEO) to understand other areas of the organisation, secondments to try other roles and international placements. The entry was also supported by a report of a relevant consultation at the organisation, which highlighted the commitment to creating a happy workplace.
Below are some of the reasons why The Outward Bound Trust thought they deserved a National Happiness Award.
The Outward Bound Trust is an amazing and inspiring place to work. We have an initiative called "The Way We Work Together" which was developed based on staff’s collective thoughts on the type of working culture we wanted to create. Since the publication of this several years ago, the organisation has gone from strength to strength with these values being consistently promoted and "lived" on a daily basis. This really contributes to a happy workplace.
Some examples of this include "We trust each other to do the jobs we have been recruited, trained and developed to do." We have a huge amount of autonomy within our roles, to be creative and plan the best possible programmes for the young people we work with. This leads to a high degree of employee engagement and a positive work culture. People collaborate and share ideas regularly and this is encouraged at all levels. We have outstanding training opportunities, getting funding and paid time each month to develop ourselves. The Outward Bound Trust is an organisation which invests in its people, creating and maintaining on the whole a happy workforce.
Another principle is "Everyone can be a leader". We have a high number of people in Senior positions and aim to be as non-hierarchical as possible. This means people’s ideas are taken seriously and it is often instructors or Senior instructors who contribute to positive change. We have also been given licence to be creative in making things better in whatever role we're in. This is fantastic as when you see something that could be done differently you feel your actions can actually make a difference. This encourages pro-activity within the team and avoids people stagnating in roles. Most people feel like they are progressing and their contribution is valued.
"The more effectively we communicate, the better things will be" is a principle which I have seen improve significantly in the past few years, particularly in the area of feedback. With the introduction of Learning and Adventure Managers who are actively coaching the people they line manage out in the field, positive and constructive feedback happens far more regularly. The effect of this is better relationships, people feeling more valued and staff being more engaged in their professional development.
As well as the above everyday examples there are also a few recent developments and stand-alone interventions which are worthy of mention. The Trust have recently invested in Positive Psychology training for instructors across the organisation. This aim of this is to upskill staff in their ability to deliver high quality personal development courses for young people, however there are also elements of this training which consider personal well-being in relation to job role. Another new initiative is the discussion of health and well-being as part of the annual appraisal process. This is now discussed and recorded which is a fantastic development in an industry where the need for a high level of both physical and mental fitness is paramount.
There are several initiatives which seek to increase positive relationships between departments, including the paid opportunity to “Walk in someone’s shoes”. This is something anyone can do and is a really valuable strategy for increasing understanding of each other’s roles. We also have a biannual conference which is a fantastic combination of work based developmental discussions, celebrations of good work and fun (e.g. cooking, Zumba dancing, ceilidhing and crowd surfing with the directors!). It is always memorable and valued as a significant investment, much of which is aimed at happiness, laughter, fun and togetherness.
Happiest Employee – Rob Smith, The Outward Bound Trust
It’s no surprise that the happiest employee came from the happiest organisation. Colleagues nominated Rob and gave many examples of the qualities that made him a winner. His personality shone through in the nomination thanks to descriptions of how he positively impacted on the organisation and the people he came into contacted with. The entry also gave examples of how he helped both colleagues and clients. The entry was also supported by photographs.
Ian Davidson nominated Rob. These are the reasons he gave why Rob should win a National Happiness Award
This I have been Rob’s line manager since January 2015 and am yet to see him reach the limit of his positivity; it knows no bounds. He’s a grafter, and inspires laughter. Although often this is at one of his plethora of barrel-scraping puns, which he shares with gay abandon. No stranger to controversy, Rob is quick to spot the irony in situations the most memorable of which was his description of “two blokes in their early thirties living together in a cramped flat in a grubby seaside town, earning about enough to live but delivering ‘raising aspirations’ courses to depressed middle-class teenagers; you can’t make this stuff up!”
Rob’s job is about supporting young people to realise their potential. Some of his colleagues achieve this using a hard-line militaristic style, some of them achieve it using a softly-softly approach, but Rob achieves this through pure determination to inspire. I’ve seen him captivate grumpy teenagers with the most dull and innocuous of rocks, just by pouring his heart and soul into making it seem like the most interesting rock in the world. This is traditionally followed by asking if they learned something about geology and explaining that geology had just rocked their world. Cue the groans, but the learning stuck for those young people.
What his colleagues have to say: “This week I had some conversations with Rob’s students and I was blown away by the impact of the course that Rob has delivered. The students were clearly so enthusiastic and engaged in what they were doing. Just listening the students talk about their adventures and how much fun they'd had with Rob was incredibly inspiring to me.”
Never a dull moment, particularly when he’s put on the spot to share a joke at the end of tedious meetings. Never a half day, even when he’s sleep deprived and been working for days on end. Never one to pass up a good punning opportunity
So remember:
Judges will be looking for evidence of a whole team approach to happiness and helping, examples of tangible initiatives and events, personality, precision and supporting material that brings a nomination to life. To make your nomination stand out you can upload video, image and extra information that tells us and gives us examples of your strategy. Last year’s winners also had more than one entry in each category, giving a rounded story that the people and places were truly happy!
Go to the National Happiness Awards 2017 page to find out more about the nominations
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