Naas-based company promotes mental health development programme in Australia

A mental health development programme for primary school children is being promoted by a Naas company in Australia.

The company, Outside the Box Learning Resources is based at Tougher’s business park, Newhall and its managing director is Conor Holmes.

Last month he joined hundreds of education professionals at the Hawker Brownlow Education 16th annual thinking and learning conference in Melbourne.

He was also there to celebrate the launch of the successful Irish-made Weaving Well-Being programme, a mental health resource for primary school aged children, by Hawker Brownlow, Australia’s leading provider of educational resources.

“Just two years ago we published Weaving Well-being and now we are, breaking into, what some perceive as an impenetrable market and licensing the programme to one of the biggest educational publishers in Australia,” said Mr Holmes.

Created by Fiona Forman, a Dublin based primary school teacher and Mick Rock, an executive and life coach, Weaving Well-being is a positive psychology mental well-being programme designed for children aged 8 to 12 years old and sits within the framework of the SPHE curriculum.

The programme comprises of ten lessons tailored for each class from second to sixth and teaches pupils about emotional intelligence, mindfulness and intervention techniques should they experience negative thinking traps.

Some 62% of Irish primary schools use the programme.

Outside the Box is led by husband and wife duo Conor and Kate Holmes, who are Naas residents. It is an educational publishing enterprise providing a wide array of resources for health and education specialists for 15 years.