Student Wellbeing
WHOLESCHOOL APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING & STUDENT WELLBEING DATA
As well as teaching academic skills, it is part of the core business of schools to promote student resilience, wellbeing and positive social attitudes. One way that schools can achieve this is through the teaching of evidence-based programs that explicitly foster personal and social capabilities.
At St Joseph's School, we adopt a wholeschool approach that aims to maximise student wellbeing. Using the principles and practices of the Berry Street Education Model and the explicit teaching of SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) through school-wide programs from Prep to Year 6, primarily using the Respectful Relationships Curriculum, we aim to provide learning experiences that build and allow students to apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to:
• Understand and manage emotions
• Set and achieve positive goals
• Feel and express empathy
• Establish and maintain positive relationships
• Make responsible decisions
• Develop resilience to deal with change
• Create positive gender norms
• Contribute to social cohesion
Social and emotional learning and the promotion of student welbeing is important in the context of data highlighting that Australian young people face a range of stressors and anxieties, and a high incidence of mental health problems (see Figure 1).
Regularly tracking the wellbeing of our students through surveys and other tools is important in directing our wholeschool approach to the teaching of SEL and ascertaining the needs of our students so that they can be ready and able to learn.
Recently, the staff unpacked the Term 1 Student Wellbeing Data from a survey distributed to all of our Year 3-6 students. Designed by Smiling Mind, the survey provided an innovative tool for us, as educators, to monitor and evaluate students' well-being across several domains.
It measured :
Mindfulness:
Paying attention to the present moment with openness, curiosity and without judgement.
Happiness:
The overall feeling of contentment, joyfulness, and satisfaction with life.
Engagement:
This refers to being engrossed, focused, or wholly concentrating on an activity.
Connectedness:
An emotional bond such as that of being valued, supported, and respected by others.
Perseverance:
The drive to pursue an aim, even when there are obstacles.
Gratitude:
The positive emotion or attitude of acknowledging and appreciating what one has received or experienced in life
Using the report interface, we were able to explore how our students experience these areas across your school.
See the Overall Report BELOW for the Term 1 Student Wellbeing Data for our 82 Year 3 to 6 students (green column) compared to over 11,000 other students from similar schools within Victoria (blue column) in each of the above domains of student wellbeing. We are very happy to report that St Joseph's students average scores FOR EVERY DOMAIN were HIGHER IN PERCENTAGE, compared to the average scores for the other 11,000 students from other similar schools, which was very encouraging. Take a look!!
Warm Regards,
Jenny Todd
(Student Wellbeing Leader)