75. Get Well Soon(ish)! Laying the Groundwork for Much-Needed, Sustainable, Holistic Wellness Programs. Artwork

Educators Going Global

Our mission is to inform both veteran and aspiring international educators about working overseas - What it’s like and how it's changing, Where to find more information, Why "going global" is so attractive and How and When to work through the recruiting process. We do this via targeted episodes where we give informational interviews as well as sharing personal vignettes related to all aspects of international education. We work to tell the full story so you are really in the know about international schools. We invite you to travel, teach and connect with us!

All Episodes

Educators Going Global

75. Get Well Soon(ish)! Laying the Groundwork for Much-Needed, Sustainable, Holistic Wellness Programs.

March 28, 2025 • Audrey Forgeron and David Carpenter

Where does your school stand in terms of designing, implementing and measuring the effectiveness of its whole-school wellness program? Several of our thought-leader guests have told us that wellness is at the top of the to do list for many international schools.

Along with Wellness, another recurring topic in our episodes is change management, especially around the development of new programs. We hear stories about initiative fatigue and the dropping of programs when their champions leave the school.

With so much talk around wellness and change management we decided to invite Alison Leathwood on the show to share an overview of how to design and implement a schoolwide wellness program that is sustainable.

Alison is an international school physical education teacher who is passionate about wellness. She is dedicated to equipping students with the tools they need for both physical and emotional wellbeing. She extends this passion beyond the classroom, having served in various leadership roles including HS Advisory Curriculum Coordinator, EC-12 Personal Development Coordinator, Wellness Committee Chair and currently serving as the Head of Department for PE. Through these leadership roles, Alison strives to create a lasting positive impact on the social-emotional well-being of the entire school community.

Our guiding question for this show was, “How might international school leaders approach the development of a school- and community-wide wellness program based on Positive Psychology?”

Alison offered such a detailed framework along with so many practical strategies that it is futile to try and summarize them here. So I will share just a handful of the topics to whet your appetite for designing an effective wellness program at your school!

Here they are:

Using a Positive Psychology approach to wellness
Leveraging Character Strengths and the PERMAH pillars
The who, what, when, where, why and how of implementing a wellness program
Other factors that will affect the success of your wellness program

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Alison's Resource folder

David’s Wellness@ES site for integrating Pos Psych into the elementary school

Alison’s Contact Information:

X: @peleathwood

This episode was recorded on February 24, 2025.

Categories: Wellness | Leadership | Change

Remember to access our Educators Going Global website for more information or to subscribe to our newsletter!

Email us with comments or suggestions at educatorsgoingglobal@gmail.com

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.

Listen on your favorite podcast app: connect from our share page.

Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.