PIVOT

Dear Parent/Guardian(s),

St John's Regional College is participating in a pilot of the beta version of the Pivot Wellbeing for Learning survey.  This survey aims to help schools better support student wellbeing and to give students more voice and agency in their learning communities.  It has been developed by Pivot Professional Learning (Pivot) under the direction of Pivot's research team.  The Pivot Wellbeing for Learning framework measures student wellbeing in the domains of safety, belonging, and resilience.  Robust research evidence links these domains to learning.

Pivot is a leading education technology company based in Melbourne that provides research-based guidance to help schools improve the learning environment so that students can thrive.  Pivot's feedback tools are used in over 125,000 Australian classrooms.

What will my child be asked to do and how will this information be used?

Your child will be asked to participate in six weekly surveys during their Homeroom period.  In the first week, their Homeroom teacher will spend approximately 10-15 minutes introducing the tool and students will spend 5-10 minutes taking a 15-question baseline survey.  In the following five weeks, your child will spend one minute or less answering five questions.  These questions include: a general wellbeing question; a resilience question; a belonging question; a safety question; and a question asking students how they are going in the areas of family, friendships, health, hobbies, schoolwork and sleep.  Data from the pilot will be used to better understand, refine and administer the Pivot Wellbeing for Learning tool.

What about your child's privacy?

Your child's personal details will remain confidential.  Data will be stored in secured databases hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Sydney.  In order to protect student safety, the Wellbeing for Learning survey is not fully anonymous.  Your child will have the option to request a confidential in-person wellbeing check-in by sending school staff an automated email notification through the Wellbeing for Learning platform.  In addition, members of the school wellbeing team and teachers nominated by the school will be privately notified if your child chooses not to answer the survey or indicates that they are struggling with their wellbeing.  These emails and notifications will use student ID numbers rather than names.

Select staff at Pivot will have access to student ID numbers and names as provided by the school in order to set up the survey.  These will be stored securely and kept strictly confidential.

Outside of reporting to designated school staff, all information gathered from individuals as part of this pilot will be de-identified and aggregated.  These data will primarily be used to inform the revision of the beta version of the Wellbeing for Learning survey prior to its full release in February 2022.  In addition, to the extent possible, the data will be used to establish a body of validity evidence for the survey.  Beyond this, de-identified findings from analysis of the pilot data may be shared in presentations and in newsletters, websites, and other communications of Pivot, such as media releases, meetings with clients, stakeholders, policy makers and journalists.  Data may also be used in the development of resources for teachers and published in research articles.  No individual- or school-level identifying information will be used in any reporting.

What are the risks and benefits of participating?

Your child may enjoy the opportunity to reflect on their wellbeing.  Findings from examination of de-identified pilot data may also provide guidance to schools, systems and policy makers on how to better support student wellbeing and student voice.

Although the survey has been designed to be a positive experience for students, there is a relatively low risk that using the Wellbeing for Learning survey may contribute to emotional discomfort for a small number of students.  In order to minimise this risk, Pivot is taking all possible precautions, including robust safety protocols, close consultation with mental health experts and collaboration with school wellbeing/pastoral care staff.  In addition, students are given an explicit opportunity to opt out of the survey each week, and they can discontinue the survey at any time if they feel discomfort or if an educator observes signs that they are distressed.  School staff will be trained in how to support any student who feels discomfort before, during, or after the check-in.

Participation is voluntary and if you choose to have your child participate, you are free to withdraw them at any point.  If you or your child change their mind about participating after the interview, you or they can withdraw their data, before it has been de-identified, by contacting Pivot at hello@pivotpl.com.