Why Kids Should Be Your Frontline Education Support Staff

Pexels Andrea Piacquadio 3755500 Min

Many of the schools we assist in Geelong, Ballarat and Melbourne spend huge amounts of time and money trying to gain and retain students for their school via websites, social media, newsletters, surveys, community events, open days, school tours, and the list goes on and on.

When I ask them what they do to harness the Superpower of their Education Support Staff, they look at me a little confused and ask what on earth do I mean.

We all have this Superpower, but it often gets forgotten.

Let’s try out your Superpower now. It’s easy to do. Just turn up the corners of your mouth… and… Smile. Go on, don’t worry about who can see you, just smile.

In as little as 6 seconds a “fake” smile sends a message to your brain that you must be happy. This creates a rush of positive endorphins, and before you know it, you will not only look happy, but you will feel happy too. Double win.

Be careful, though, if someone else sees that you’re smiling they can become infected with a smile, and before you know it, everyone around them is smiling too. Triple win. 

Smiling is a universal means of communicating positivity and happiness, but did you know that whilst 30% of us smile more than 20 times a day, those with the greatest smile Superpower are children, who smile as many as 400 times per day. Where did all our smiles go?

The health benefits of smiling and laughing are also impressive. In 1971, Hunter Doherty (more commonly known as Patch Adams) created the Gesundheit! Institute. Patch and his team of clown doctors effectively used laughter as medicine and that method has flowed around the world and exists today in Australia as The Humour Foundation.

Their research tells us that laughter;

  • Relaxes the muscles

  • reduces pain and stress

  • promotes a positive outlook and a feeling of well-being.

Families and the community are more likely to recommend and enrol at a school staffed with people who smile – big genuine tooth showing and eyes glowing smiles. The same goes for the inner workings of your school. And it’s not just the community who benefit from a culture of fun and smiles. A fun-focused workplace motivates employees to be more productive, less negative and have a greater tolerance for and understanding of unhappy customers, unplanned changes and unexpected challenges.

My definition of the Superpower of A SMILE;

A Small Movement Improving Lives Everywhere.

If you want help increasing smiles among your ESS, Chapter F in my book “The A – Z of Service Excellence” is dedicated to FUN. The book contains 250 pages of insights and actions to help your ESS harness their Superpowers and have your school known for more than what people would expect. You will be known for how you make your ESS and your families feel; valued, respected and happy.

In the meantime, rather than hire kids to work with your ESS, remind your teams to get their smiles out. (If they have a problem with smiling, you’ve got a bigger problem and you need to fix it fast so contact us now.)