The Teachappy Team
Teachappy founder - Adrian Bethune
Communications Director - Sam Bethune
Sam Bethune, Communications Director
Sam Bethune, Communications Director
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Adrian Bethune, Founder
Hi! I'm Adrian and the founder of Teachappy. I've been teaching happiness and wellbeing to primary school children and teachers since 2010.
My passion for children and teachers' mental health and wellbeing comes from my own experience of suffering poor mental health after I had graduated. I learned that there is nothing more important than your emotional wellbeing. On my road to recovery, I discovered the 'science of happiness', based on thousands of empirical studies, showing us simple evidence-based things we can do to look after our physical and mental health. In 2017, I set up Teachappy to share that knowledge with others, so we can all lead healthier, happier lives in and outside of school.
As well as teaching part-time, I also wear a few other hats:
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Lead author for Oxford University Press' International Wellbeing Curriculum
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Deputy Chair of the strategic board for Well Schools.
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Associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University
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Wellbeing Governor at Broughton Community Schools
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Dad to two young boys!
In 2018 I wrote, Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom – A Practical Guide to Teaching Happiness (the Second Edition came out in July 2023!) and I'm thrilled to be the co-author of A Little Guide To Teacher Wellbeing and Self-Care published in October 2020.
I hope you find this website useful and the ideas and resources shared inspire you to teachappy too!
Sam Bethune, Communications Director
I’m Sam, and I head up all things Comms at Teachappy. You might have noticed Adrian and I have the same surname. That’s because Teachappy is a family affair! In fact, this is me with our youngest, Raif, at Adrian's first book launch back in 2018.
I officially joined the team in 2020, mid-pandemic, to help spread the word of Teachappy as far and wide as possible at a time when a focus on wellbeing in the education system had become more important than ever. That need continues to grow as does our remit and coverage which is now global.
I bring 14 years of Comms experience to the team and love getting creative with content. If there are any topics you would love to see us cover, please get in touch!
Teachappy Associates
Dr Emma Kell has been a significant contributor to Teachappy. As co-author, with Adrian, of A Little Guide For Teachers: Wellbeing and Self-Care, Emma also co-wrote our flagship online course, Staff Wellbeing & Self-Care in Schools.
Emma is director of Those That Can Ltd. She has 25 years of experience as a teacher and leader in UK secondary schools and currently teaches in Alternative Provision. She is a qualified Performance Coach and speaks regularly on teacher wellbeing, recruitment and retention. She writes for a variety of publications including TES and BBC Teach. She has completed a doctorate on teacher wellbeing and parenting at Middlesex University and is author of How To Survive in Teaching and A Little Guide for Teachers: Engaging Parents and Carers.
Yvonne Biggins brings over 20 years of experience across the Education sector having been a Secondary English teacher, worked in senior marketing roles at SMART Technologies and Apple and having co-founded two Education focused start-ups, Movellas and Young Happy Minds. Most recently she applied her wellbeing expertise in the healthcare market where she built the wellbeing product for a health-tech company called DayToDay Health, now part of Bablyon Health. She recently became a mum so currently spends her time looking after her daughter and coaching and consulting with start-ups on their wellbeing product strategy.
Professionally, she holds two master’s degrees; an MBA from Cranfield School of Management in the UK and a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in the US, where she studied under the grandfather of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman. Yvonne is also a trained coach (Co-active) and Mindfulness teacher (MBSR, MiSP).
Yvonne is the co-writer of Teachappy’s award-winning Seeds of Happiness curriculum.
Our Vision
We believe that happiness and wellbeing should be at the heart of education and that school should be an enjoyable and fulfilling experience for children and teachers.
Our Mission
To work with children, teaching staff and school leaders to train them in the science of wellbeing, giving them an understanding of what wellbeing is and how they can take good care of themselves and the people around them.
Our work so far
