Being My Best

Empower Your Child's Confidence and Resilience Today!

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'Empower and Transform Your Students:
Become a Being My Best Resilience Facilitator'

“Equip your students with essential resilience skills —become a certified ‘Being My Best Resilience Facilitator’ today!”

The Being My Best Programme

What is it all about?

Kia ora and welcome to the Being My Best programme. My name is Sue Lyon, I am the programme developer of “Being My Best” and I have been in the education sector for more than 30 years.

I have a great passion for children’s education, especially having seen how vulnerable many of our children are. Further, I have long-noted a need for supporting schools, teachers and parents/caregivers with effective tools that build resilience and confidence and reduce anxiety in our tamariki. This is particularly essential given our rapidly changing and unpredictable world.

This programme teaches specific strategies that build resilience and ways to cope with new, worrying and/or difficult situations, which are both useful in our educational sector and skills that can be carried into our whānau and home environment.

Empowering tamariki with resilience, coping strategies and positive ways to develop their character, is crucial to the successful development of the individual, whānau, community and the Nation as a whole.

“One in five young New Zealanders will be affected by depression by the age of eighteen. Almost one in five meets the criteria for an anxiety disorder by age nineteen.”
(Prime Minister’s Mental Health Project 2012)

Children's Evaluations of the Being My Best Programme

Child 9 yrs

I felt great, happy and myself when I participated in the Being My Best programme.

The programme has helped me because I’m not worried and anxious like I used to be. I’m more confident to try new things, I’m happier at school, I have more helpful thoughts, I feel calmer and can cope better.

I am more positive and not as angry and I get on better with my friends.

Child 9yrs

I was happy and excited when I was doing the Being My Best programme with Mrs Lyon.

I now feel more confident, and calmer, I have more helpful thoughts and feel more positive.

I don’t worry like I used to which makes me happy and I know what strategies I can use to help me cope and feel more confident in different or new situations.

Child 8 yrs

I felt excited, good and confident when I was working with Mrs Lyon in the Being My Best programme.

I know what strategies to use to calm myself and cope better when I’m worried and frustrated.

I feel happier and more positive, I get on with my friends better, and I’m not as angry and more resilient when things are difficult.

Child 11 yrs

I was really nervous when I first went into the Being My Best programme but now I feel really good, awesome and much better.

I am a lot more confident and calmer, I am trying new things because I use the resilience strategies to help me. I am more positive because I think lots of helpful thoughts.

I don’t feel angry like I used to and I’m kinder to my friends.

The Programme

Many of the skills and techniques taught in the Being My Best programme are associated with the following four areas.

Attachment

Physiological

Cognitive

Learning

The programme teaches children skills such as:

Understanding emotions in themselves and others.
Recognising the signs of worrying, anxiety and body clues.
How to regulate their emotions to help self-manage.
Relaxation techniques.
Understanding how thoughts affect feelings and behaviour.
How to change their unhelpful thoughts into helpful thoughts.
Problem-solving and positive coping strategies.
Positive friendships and coping with bullying and peer pressure.
Using the strategies to help themselves and others.

FAQ's

How do I get my child’s school interested in running this programme for my child?

Direct your school Principal, DP and SENCO teacher to the Being My Best website to see the skills, strategies and benefits of the programme.

I am a teacher, how does my school get the Being My Best programme for the children in our school?

School management makes contact through the Being My Best website to see when they can train a teacher in their school to become a Facilitator. Once a teacher has completed the three-day training they are certified to take the Being My Best programme in the school where they teach.

Currently, only teachers are able to train as a Being My Best facilitator so they can facilitate the programme in the school they teach.

Testimonials - School Principals

I have had the pleasure of knowing Sue Lyon for over 15 years. I have worked alongside her in a range of capabilities; a professional colleague, a classroom teacher and most recently a well-regarded facilitator of a very successful programme that builds resilience and confidence in children. The programme also supports whānau to work together so that everyone’s well-being is nurtured.

Sue is a woman of exceptional integrity, is tremendously dedicated to the work she does and has a very compassionate approach that helps tamariki and whānau feel very safe in her presence. Sue is experienced, open and honest, and will work tirelessly to ensure the tamariki and whānau needs are met so that they can independently help themselves now and in the future.

Sue continues to put her heart and soul into a programme she knows makes a difference. Without hesitation, I would highly recommend the work that Sue does and would have her in my school any day. Sue has a proven track record, she gathers data throughout the programme so she knows that she is addressing the needs of the tamariki she works with.

The positive outcome of her work has meant Sue is constantly in demand across many schools in the Waikato.

Sue has been working with the students of Leamington School for many years to help support children to develop resilience and navigate the turbulent social years of childhood with skills and confidence through the tools she equips them with.

The feedback from teachers and parents alike has been nothing but praiseworthy and the impact of her skills and programme have had a noticeable impact.

If we could expand the programme to be inclusive of all students across our school every year, we would embrace it without hesitation. Her work is reaching across generations and changing lives for the better. Ka maranga te ra!

Sue has been an integral part of the success of this programme. Having worked closely with her for the past 5 years I fully endorse her as a facilitator as well as the programme.

This programme provides our tamariki with many skills and strategies required to manage themselves as well as provide positive outcomes for their future.

The impact of this programme has been felt amongst many of our tamariki as well as their wider whanau members as Sue prioritise them to be part of the programme facilitation by providing whanau workshops delivering key concepts and tools for them to use with other members of the whanau group.

This programme is one I highly recommend to any school or group looking to provide skills for life.

Sue's resilience programme has made a positive difference to a huge number of students at Cambridge Primary School. The programme encourages students to have the confidence to utilise different strategies which ultimately give them the power to seek positive outcomes in situations that they find difficult or challenging.

Through many years experience of working with children, Sue has developed an excellent programme that teaches our tamariki healthy ways to feel happier and build a more positive life. I highly recommend this programme to any school which would like to improve the hauora/well-being of their students to enable them to grow into kind, confident, responsible and successful adults.

The programme has enabled our staff and students to flourish. It brings about an understanding about how to 'be at your best' and the connection between home and school has been strengthened. Sue's knowledge and talent around understanding emotional development shines through and with a whole school approach we have seen major improvements in anxiety related concerns and given students and teachers ownership of skills required throughout life.

Sue is one of the most stunning practitioners and gets the best out of people.

“Ahakoa he iti he pounamu”