Student Wellbeing

Black Dog Future Proofing Study

On Monday, our Year 8 students began their participation in The Black Dog Institute’s Future Proofing Study. It was fantastic to see so many KWS students participating in Australia’s largest ever Wellbeing study for high school students. As part of their involvement, our students will complete surveys from Year 8 to Year 12 and use specific mental health apps to help identify important issues to young people including health, emotions, friendships, school, and the impact of wider world events. To learn more about the study, please see the video below.

Compass

Last week also saw our second collaborative meeting as part of the AIS NSW Compass Initiative. As one of 12 schools selected for this pilot to further develop whole-school Wellbeing, we will be reviewing the impact of our existing programs and considering better aligning and incorporating new approaches to our Wellbeing program from Pre-K to Year 12. The video below offers a brief introduction to the initiative. To learn more of the intended outcomes please visit the Compass website.

Steer - AS Tracking

At the end of Term 1, we launched our pilot initiative through Steer (AS Tracking) to improve our gathering and usage of Wellbeing data. We see this pilot, currently being utilised in Douglas and McLachlan Houses, as an additional part of the Wellbeing jigsaw which places your child’s voice at the centre of our Wellbeing program. Running in conjunction with our existing program of Wellbeing surveys, currently occurring twice a term, the information from AS (Affective Social) Tracking will help us to track each pupil’s social-emotional development so that we can proactively offer the appropriate pastoral supports in the right way, at the right time. To learn more about the program, which we anticipate will be used to track all pupils in our school over time, please see the short introductory animation below.

Term 2 Theme: Leadership

Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to outline our key theme for Wellbeing in the Senior School this term, Leadership. Having spent Term 1 considering how we can best support and develop our ‘self’, we now turn our gaze outward to consider our impact, both individually and as a collective, upon others. Specific details on the outcomes and topics covered will come to you via contact from your child’s Mentor, our Semester 1 reports, and hopefully some follow up conversations around the dining table at home. Leadership will also frame the focus of our second Wellbeing Wednesday for the year, occurring on Wednesday 26th May. A brief outline for the day is included below, with a more comprehensive document to come to all families next week.