School Transitions with a RAFT and the Naughty Candle

It's transition time in schools, especially in international schools where staff and student turnover tends to be much higher.

During this time, how can positive psychology guide us in supporting our school community and ourselves? And what exactly is the "naughty candle"?

Bridges Transition Model (2019) outlines three stages: Endings, the neutral zone, and beginnings. Unlike change, which is situational, transition is a psychological process and these stages often overlap with a different phase becoming dominant as you work through the change.  As Bridges and Bridges state:

“..every transition begins with an ending. We have to let go of the old thing before we can pick up the new thing - not just outwardly but inwardly, where we keep our connections to people and places that act as definitions of who we are.”

So what can help us navigate endings? From the SEARCH framework (Waters and Loton, 2019) (more info here for new subscribers), we know that managing emotions is crucial for well-being. During the ending phase, acknowledging and accepting the myriad of emotions—both positive and negative—is essential. As the quote highlights this is more than just a physical separation from people and places but often a shift in our sense of self.

Many schools utilise the RAFT framework to help both their students and staff manage the end of their time in the school. RAFT stands for reconciliation, affirmation, farewells, and thinking about destination (Pollock and Ruth Van Reken). Actively managing emotions through forgiveness and gratitude interventions are two well-researched areas of positive psychology. Forgiveness interventions can promote healing, prevent problems, and facilitate flourishing (Parks & Schueller, 2014), and studies of forgiveness with students found increases in empathy, hope, life satisfaction, and psychological health (Esra, 2019). The affirmation element of RAFT involves expressing gratitude to others, which has also been found to have a positive impact on psychological well-being, including life satisfaction, happiness, and positive feelings (Kirca et al., 2023).

So where does the naughty candle fit in? The naughty candle was a ritual we had in Kathmandu, where a candle that would only light if everyone was well-behaved and listening, was used to light a special candle for every child and staff member who was leaving. Each person lit their candle and blew it out after saying one thing they didn’t like about the school and one thing they did! It was an incredibly tense moment as to what might be said about what the person disliked - school toilets were mentioned often as was in many cases, having to leave! Looking back, I underestimated the power of this ritual to create a distinct and memorable farewell to each person’s time at school.

The end of a school year is a transition for everyone including those staying who also need to navigate the process of saying goodbye to friends and colleagues.

If you are a school leader transitioning to a new school this year and would like to learn more about how positive psychology can support you, then sign up for the free webinar detailed below.