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Quirky Kid introduced The Best of Friends® to an international education audience at the 2016 Positive Schools conference in Singapore, extending the program's reach beyond Australia.
The two-day conference was held on 25 and 26 November 2016 at the United World College of South East Asia East Campus in Singapore.
Independent school coverage of the event records a program focused on positive education, student wellbeing and mental health, with speakers including Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, Professor Donna Cross, Janet Etty-Leal and other specialists working across school wellbeing.
Bringing Australian social and emotional learning to Singapore
Quirky Kid used the conference to introduce The Best of Friends®, its psychologist-developed social and emotional learning program for children.
The program was designed to help children build practical skills in friendship, communication, emotional awareness, empathy and social problem-solving through structured stories, discussion and activities.
Part of a wider international education network
Positive Schools records that its international conference activity expanded into Singapore from 2015, creating a forum for educators and wellbeing professionals to share approaches to positive mental health and learning.
For Quirky Kid, participating in the 2016 Singapore event created an opportunity to speak directly with educators from different school systems about how Australian-developed psychology resources could be used in classrooms and student wellbeing programs.
The conference came during a strong year for The Best of Friends®, which had also received recognition through the London Book Fair, the Australian Book Industry Awards and Speech Pathology Australia.
Growing the program beyond Australia
The Singapore appearance formed part of Quirky Kid's broader effort to take its social and emotional learning work into international education settings.
That international activity continued through book fairs, school partnerships, publishing collaborations and later professional events across Asia, Europe and the Americas.
The 2016 Positive Schools conference remains an important milestone in the program's early international development.
