Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Families,

I want to focus this newsletter report exclusively on Mental Health and Wellbeing, and outline how we at Ballarat North Primary School are addressing these ever-growing needs for our students and families. 

What does the current research say?

• Wellbeing positively influences student learning outcomes, and success in learning enhances student wellbeing (Kaya & Erdem, 2021). 

• There is a strong correlation between learning and wellbeing that highlights the co-occurrence of learning difficulties and mental health and wellbeing concerns (Benassi, Erika et al., 2020; Carroll et al., 2005)

• A systematic review of school-based wellbeing interventions found that students who received these wellbeing interventions were up to 4 months ahead in learning compared to control groups. (Dix et al., 2020)

At Ballarat North, 2025 sees the beginning of our implementation of the Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) initiative. This involves the school identifying a person to take on the role of Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader (MHWL) to oversee our school-wide approaches and supports for Mental Health and Wellbeing. 

I am pleased to announce that Mrs Macdonald is leading this work in the MHWL role for our school and will work alongside Mrs Morris (Wellbeing Teacher) and Grace Milne (Wellbeing Officer). 

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader role:

• Building the capacity of school staff to identify and support students with mental health concerns.
• Supporting the school in creating clear care pathways and connecting students identified as needing further assessment and intervention to local services.
• Coordinating targeted mental health support for students by working with school staff, school community members and external agencies.
• Implementing effective mental health strategies aligned with social and emotional learning and adopting a whole-school approach to wellbeing and learning initiatives.

We are very pleased that the Department of Education is now rolling this initiative out to all schools in 2026, and that we can be a part of this a year early (as with all Ballarat public schools), to help the students of our community.

I look forward to communicating more about this as we role this out and the structures evolve.

Until I see you in person,

David Garner

Principal