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Growing With Gratitude

Growing With Gratitude

Growing with Gratitude (GWG) empowers students with essential skills through lessons, activities, and games focused on gratitude, empathy, emotional regulation, self-awareness, and ownership. Delivered via workshops and online modules, GWG builds mental wellbeing and resilience, promoting positive relationships to help students thrive academically and personally in diverse school settings.

  • Online
  • ACT
  • NSW
  • NT
  • QLD
  • SA
  • Tas
  • Vic
  • WA

Pricing: Free, Paid

Origin: Developed in Australia for Australian schooling contexts

Affiliations: Approved elsewhere: SA, VIC

Product type: Program; Posters; Fact sheets; Online resources (e.g. videos, games, tools, readings); Activity sheets; Student activities; Reference book; Professional learning; Presentation by an expert or speaker ; Whole school approach or initiative; Educator wellbeing resources or services; Incursion, excursion or immersive experience; Learning modules; Class lesson plans

Contact details

Growing With Gratitude
ABN: 71 577 578 107

https://growingwithgratitude.com.au/

info@growingwithgratitude.com.au

Focus areas

  • Positive relationships

  • Belonging and inclusion

  • Mental health literacy and life skills

  • Self-regulation and engagement

  • Resilience and optimism

Curriculum alignment

  • Health and PE

  • English

  • Language

  • The Arts

Prospective users

Audience: Whole school universal (Tier 1), Whole class universal (Tier 1)

Communities: Diverse cultures or language groups

Context: School or centre-based

Main beneficiaries: Foundation/Prep, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7, Year 8, Year 9

Delivery style: Classroom teacher is trained; Delivered by program staff

Aims & approach

The aim of GWG is to equip young people, primarily in primary schools and Years 7-9, with tools for mental resilience, emotional regulation, and social-emotional well-being. The program serves students, teachers, and communities, fostering gratitude, kindness, empathy, self-awareness, and ownership.

It offers both in-person and online delivery options:

  • In-person workshops: Available in half-day, full-day, or single-lesson formats, featuring tailored activities and games to suit different year levels and whole-school settings.
  • Online modules: A year-long, self-paced program for teachers with access to lesson plans, activities, challenges, posters, and assessments.

GWG helps students build adaptive thinking skills and develop positive habits, improving their mental health and well-being through practical activities aligned with the school curriculum. It supports flexible implementation based on school needs and offers continuous support, including teacher training and optional ongoing follow-ups.

Implementation support

  • Access to professional facilitator, instructor or mentor
  • Implementation training webinars or modules
  • Ongoing helpdesk, email or phone support

Evidence

Positive Psychology Foundation: GWG applies principles from positive psychology, including gratitude, kindness, mindfulness, optimism, and service. These align with key themes from leading positive psychology research by figures such as Martin Seligman and Sonja Lyubomirsky

Theories and Evidence: GWG is inspired by several well-established theories:

  • The Compound Effect (Darren Hardy) and The Slight Edge (Jeff Olson): These emphasize small, positive habits practiced consistently over time to lead to meaningful outcomes.
  • Gratitude Theory (Emmons and Mishra, 2010): GWG emphasizes gratitude as a cultivated habit, which research shows can increase emotional wellbeing and social connectedness.
  • Mindset Theory (Carol Dweck): The program fosters growth mindset elements, encouraging children to reframe challenges and view failures as learning opportunities.
  • Structured Evidence-based Activities: The activities, such as gratitude journaling and acts of kindness, align with interventions like those by Froh, Sefick, and Emmons (2008), which found improvements in student wellbeing, optimism, and academic engagement through gratitude-based practices.
  • Alignment with ACARA and Educational Goals: GWG aligns with the Australian Curriculum (ACARA) in promoting personal, social, and community health outcomes, such as emotional regulation, empathy, and wellbeing. The program is embedded into educational contexts to complement the goals of building social-emotional competencies in students across different year levels.

GWG has undergone mulitple reviews and a trial study, with positive outcomes found.