About
At the core of all behavioural choices and a child’s capacity to learn lies their sense of wellbeing. Join us for Fostering Children’s Wellbeing, a comprehensive course that delves into the underlying factors influencing children’s behaviour. This course introduces and delves into the Phoenix Cups Framework which is used as a practical tool to help early years professionals understand and support children’s wellbeing.
Through examining children’s fundamental human needs, the need for Mastery, Connection, Freedom, Safety, and Fun, the course explores how these needs manifest when unmet, equips educators to identify them, and provides strategies for proactive planning to meet these needs in ways that enhance learning and engagement.
This course advocates a play-based, child-centred methodology, supporting educators in refining their skills and expanding their knowledge when working with young children. By fostering a shared language for understanding and addressing children’s needs, the course empowers educators to collaborate effectively towards shared goals.
The course acknowledges the individuality of each child, recognising that their needs may be met or unmet depending on their experiences and environment. Educators will gain a deeper understanding of the needs driving children’s behaviour and develop strategies to support each child’s unique circumstances. This approach nurtures children’s natural capacity to learn and grow at their own pace, regardless of their background.
By focusing on meeting children’s needs, this course equips educators with a comprehensive understanding of fundamental human needs and empowers to create environments that foster children’s sense of belonging—within their family, community, and early years settings.
Fostering Wellbeing Live Event Melbourne
Saturday 3rd May 2025
Quay West Suites Melbourne
26 Southgate Avenue Southbank, Victoria 3006 Australia
This Workshop Will Cover the Following Topics:
Phoenix Cups Framework
The workshop will introduce and examine the Phoenix Cups Framework including what drives human behaviour, our unconscious drives and basic human life needs.
Deep dives into the 5 basic human life needs
Exploration of children’s need for Safety, Connection, Freedom, Mastery and Fun – explored through the Phoenix Cups Framework as our Safety Cup, Connection Cup, Freedom Cup, Mastery Cup and Fun Cup.
Symptoms versus behaviours
Identifying when unmet needs influence behaviour. Through each Cup, explore the signs of unmet needs and brainstorm the impact of this on your practice and children in your service.
Practical Strategies
Discover real-world, practical strategies to weave into everyday pedagogy, program planning, physical environments and everyday interactions to bring the Phoenix Cups Framework to life and enact a needs-based approach to supporting children’s wellbeing.
Participant Outcomes:
- Understand how children require a sense of Safety and security. Strategies explore physical activity, sleep and rest, food, predictability, rhythms and rituals, sensory exploration and the impact on emotional regulation.
- Appreciate how a child’s sense of self-worth and belonging is influenced by their need for Connection. Strategies to support children’s need for connection will include positive to negative interaction ratios, communication strategies such as ‘serve and returns,’ and exploration of other common theories that influence children’s relationships.
- Build an appreciation for a child’s innate need for autonomy and Freedom. The necessity for children to be empowered to have choice, agency, discovery and free speech supported through strategies such as risky play, exploration of routines and group experiences and open-ended play and artworks.
- Consider children’s need to experience a sense of self-competence through their need for Mastery. Understand children’s innate ability to lead, challenge themselves and yes, sometimes to grasp some control in their little fists.
- Appreciate Fun as a basic human life need, supporting children’s sense of joy in their world. Understanding various play forms and types, the necessity for play, engagement, laughter and humour in their vital role to support children’s wellbeing.
Activities Include:
- Brainstorming observed behaviours
- Guided exploration of “Flow” through memories of play
- Mind mapping strategies to implement in everyday practice
- Reflective questions to consider your own pedagogy
- Reflective journals with questions to prompt thinking and discovery
This course is a valuable opportunity for educators to enhance their practice and create meaningful, supportive learning environments for children.
Online Course Option:
Prefer to engage in this training from the comfort of your own home? We get it!
That's why we created the self-paced online course, with video content and downloadable workbooks.
Here's what's included:
- Self-paced course broken into six separate lessons.
- Over 5 and a half hours of recorded videos.
- 5 downloadable reflective journals to guide reflection and deepen learning.
- 5 resource libraries with links to further content to explore.
- Interactive content.
- Downloads and downloadable resources.
