Session 1 – Engaging with the Wellbeing Framework for Schools

Presenter notes

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Refer to slide

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This activity is aimed at generating discussion and thinking about the concept of wellbeing.

Suggest participants discuss in pairs or small group for 5-10 mins.

Ask people to share back with the group.

Wellbeing will be discussed more fully in the next slides.

Background information

Wellbeing is difficult to define. This is largely because the concept of wellbeing has so many applications across a broad range of disciplines. Different definitions can be found in relation to health, education, psychology and philosophy, to name just a few.

In very broad terms, wellbeing can be described as the quality of a person’s life. Wellbeing needs to be considered against a background of how we feel and function across several domains, recognising the multidimensional nature of wellbeing with a focus on the whole child.

Difference between welfare and wellbeing:

Wellbeing in schools is for all students. A focus on wellbeing goes beyond just welfare needs of a few individual students and aims for all students to be healthy, happy, successful and productive individuals who are active and positive contributors to the school and society in which they live.

Student welfare operates from the basis of student need and does not always take a whole child view. Welfare, rather than building on strengths of students, operates from a deficit model of individual student problems or negative behaviours.

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Presenter notes

Different definitions can be found in relation to health, education, psychology and philosophy, to name just a few. A useful working definition may be to see wellbeing as the balance point between an individual’s resource pool and the challenges faced.

One definition developed by Fraillon states that ‘wellbeing is the degree to which a student is functioning effectively in the school community.’

The Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations report drew on this definition and broadened it, to come up with the following definition of student wellbeing:

A sustainable state of positive mood and attitude, resilience and satisfaction with self, relationships and experiences at school.

This definition, synthesises the most common and relevant characteristics that appear in most definitions of wellbeing, namely – positive affect; resilience; satisfaction with relationships and other dimensions of one’s life; effective functioning and the maximising of one’s potential – and applies it to an education setting.

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Presenter notes

Wellbeing is associated with better student outcomes, across a broad range of domains from academic achievement to mental health and responsible life choices.

There is evidence that shows that students with higher levels of wellbeing are more likely to be higher academic achievers, complete Year 12 and have better mental health and a more pro-social and responsible lifestyle.

Promoting and supporting student wellbeing also acknowledges the pivotal role of education in preparing students for a rewarding life beyond school.

By ensuring that wellbeing is a focus of Australia’s education system, Australia can also ensure greater participation in the workforce, more social inclusion and more effective building of Australia’s social capital.

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This was the first formal recognition in Australia that schooling has a broader role to play in the development of Australian school children, above and beyond academic outcomes.

Achieving these educational goals are the collective responsibility of governments, school sectors and individual schools as well as parents and carers, young Australians, families, other education and training providers, business and the broader community.

The Melbourne Declaration identifies essential skills for twenty-first century learners – in literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology (ICT), thinking, creativity, teamwork and communication.

It describes individuals who can manage their own wellbeing; relate well to others; make informed decisions about their lives; become citizens who behave with ethical integrity; relate to and communicate across cultures; work for the common good and act with responsibility at local, regional and global levels.

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Presenter notes

Wellbeing is implemented in the context of various national and state educational reforms:

Click once: The National Safe Schools Framework is based on the overarching vision: All Australian schools are safe, supportive and respectful teaching and learning communities that promote student wellbeing.

Click once: The Australian Professional Standards for teachers. Wellbeing implementation in schools can be mapped against the standards.

Click once: The NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum- General Capabilities as students learn to understand themselves and others, and as they gain the skills to manage their relationships, lives, work and learning more effectively. The general capabilities align with essential skills identified in the Melbourne Declaration.

Click once: Strategic Directions: Creating Futures Together includes wellbeing as a key reform.

Click once: The Wellbeing Framework for Schools. The Department is committed to achieving school excellence and successful students by including wellbeing in the Click once: School Excellence Framework. Supporting students to connect, succeed and thrive at each stage of their development and learning. The Wellbeing Framework for Schools is an important tool to support schools in implementing the School Excellence Framework.

Click once: Wellbeing is underpinned by a Behaviour Code for Students which outlines the standards of behaviour expected in all NSW public schools.

Click once: Wellbeing and whole school approaches to positive behaviour for learning are included as part of the school planning and implementation cycle.

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We all know that when students feel safe and their learning is supported, the likelihood that students will be successful is increased.

The Behaviour Code for Students outlines the standards of behaviour expected in all NSW public schools: Respect, Safety and Engagement. When we use an instructional approach, we teach and model the behaviours that we value and expect in our schools. Teaching students our school expectations supports us to maintain high standards of behaviour. With consistent expectations across all of our schools, students will know the standards of behaviour required. Positive Behaviour for Learning supports schools to design systems and practices to provide safe, supportive and responsive learning environments in their own local context.

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Presenter notes

What works best: Evidenced based practices to help improve NSW student performance brings together seven themes, (refer to slide), from the growing bank of evidence we have for what works. The article makes the point that wellbeing and quality teaching are mutually reinforcing- if students with high levels of wellbeing are more likely to be engaged productively with learning, it is also true that improving intellectual engagement can improve wellbeing.

These seven themes (refer to slide) overlap and connect with one another. They are not confined to what happens in individual classrooms. The evidence suggests that their effectiveness is stronger when they are implemented as part of a whole-school approach. For example, the literature indicates that:

teachers are more likely to make effective use of student data when working together than when working alone

when the whole school, including school leaders, parents, students and community members, share a commitment to the school’s vision and the mechanisms for achieving these goals, they are more likely to collaboratively engage in responding to the challenge.

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Presenter notes

Information taken from - Student Wellbeing Literature Review, Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE), May 2015:

A safe school is one where the physical environment does not lead to harm or injury for students, the emotional environment is a positive one, and a healthy lifestyle is promoted.

School connectedness refers to students’ sense of belonging, commitment to school, relationships with teachers and peers and opportunities to participate in the school community.

Engagement – students need to be emotionally, behaviourally and intellectually engaged with school for best outcomes

A whole school approach with strong school leadership, a focus on universal student wellbeing and an emphasis on whole school change. Rather than a siloed approach, a whole school approach can focus on the protective factors that schools can provide as well as the skills, knowledge and understandings that schools can teach to enhance student wellbeing.

An emotionally safe school environment means students feel safe to attend school and know they will be supported on an emotional level should they encounter any issues. In schools, the behaviour most likely to undermine a safe emotional space is bullying.

Bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological, and is intended to cause fear, distress and/or harm to the victim. Many studies have shown the link between bullying others at school and later violent, antisocial and/or criminal behaviour.

Students who are victims of bullying are more likely to display a range of mental health difficulties such as anxiety and depression. Studies have found links between bullying and low academic achievement.

Reading: https://www.cese.nsw.gov.au/images/stories/PDF/student_wellbeing_litreview_v6.pdf pages 4-9

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Presenter notes The School Excellence Framework supports all NSW public schools in their pursuit of

school excellence by providing a clear description of the key elements of high quality practice across the three domains of learning, teaching and leading. Wellbeing is included as an element of the learning domain.

There are strong links between school excellence and wellbeing. Schools should consider teaching and learning and the development of wellbeing as parallel, integrated, complementary processes.

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Refer to slide.

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This slide provides a graphic representation of how the different components of The Wellbeing Framework interact and align.

1. Themes: the themes that will drive wellbeing in our public schools are ‘Connect, Succeed and Thrive.’

2. Enable: an enabling school environment is pivotal to the growth and development of our most important assets – our children and young people. Our schools strive for excellence in teaching and learning, connect on many levels and build trusting and respectful relationships for students to succeed.

3. Domains: Schools support the multi-dimensional nature of wellbeing by addressing the cognitive, emotional, social, physical and spiritual wellbeing domains.

4. Elements: All schools are required to have a planned approach to wellbeing in place that incorporates these elements of the wellbeing framework.

5. School Excellence Framework (SEF): Wellbeing is addressed through school planning and school self-evaluation.

The following slides will explain each component in more detail.

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Presenter notes

The themes that will drive wellbeing in our public schools into the future are ‘Connect, Succeed and Thrive’ in an enabling school environment. Our commitment to our students, parents and members of the community is that public schools will be teaching and learning environments that enable the development of healthy, happy, successful and productive individuals. The themes are:

Connect

Connection to learning is through meaningful and engaging personalised learning experiences. A sense of belonging respects diversity and identity and enables students to connect to their cultural, religious or spiritual backgrounds. Students have positive and respectful relationships with each other, their teachers and the community and have the social and emotional skills to engage in prosocial behaviour. The school is focused on building individual and collective wellbeing that includes parents and the broader school community. Staff have a responsibility to nurture professional relationships which are safe, respectful and supportive.

Succeed

Students are confident and resilient learners who strive toward and achieve meaningful goals. They demonstrate self-discipline and effort toward their learning. Staff enable success by providing a positive, supportive and encouraging learning environment and personalising student learning that supports students to achieve. Parents and the broader school community actively participate in supporting and reinforcing student learning.

Thrive

Students are self-directed, take initiative and grasp opportunity. Students contribute to the learning of other students and to the school community more broadly. Staff contribute to environments which allow students to thrive by delivering high quality learning experiences. The school has high expectations for every student.

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In schools that excel there is a strategic and planned approach to support the cognitive, emotional, social, physical and spiritual wellbeing of all students.

School excellence and student wellbeing are interrelated and dynamic. It means having confidence that each individual child will be known and understood, and

their individual potential developed. As students develop, it means knowing that they are well supported as increasingly self-

motivated learners – confident and creative individuals, with the personal resources for future success and wellbeing. (School Excellence Framework, p. 1).

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Presenter notes

• The literature sets out a range of contexts in which wellbeing is experienced. These contexts recognise that wellbeing needs to be considered against a background of how we feel and function across several domains including cognitive, social, emotional, social, physical and spiritual wellbeing.

• Read definitions.• Rather than separate categories or types we consider the domains as contributing to

overall measures of wellbeing. Each school will develop a continuum of supports that will include any or all of the five domains depending on the wellbeing needs of their students.

Optional - An example:

• Some schools may have a strong focus on the domain of emotional wellbeing to support the mental health needs of their students. These supports could have a multi-tiered approach that include a whole school focus, additional supports for a targeted group of students and intensive support for a few. By including a continuum of supports for emotional wellbeing the overall wellbeing of all students will improve. Similarly another school may identify the need to improve social wellbeing and change approaches or put in programs to address lack of social skills or physical wellbeing through physical activity approaches or programs.

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Presenter notes Each school develops a continuum of teaching and learning practices that promote

student learning and wellbeing. Importantly, students have access to more support when they need it. (Point to the white arrows within the triangle)- These white arrows demonstrate that learning and wellbeing is dynamic- at different times, and for different reasons, social, academic, behavioural - students will need additional supports to be successful.

Universal approaches or programs support ALL students (point to whole triangle). Prevention is a focus.

These approaches and programs lay the foundation and serve as the core focus of the school-wide system. There is a shared understanding and responsibility by all staff for all students wellbeing. The school develops systems to assist staff to implement universal approaches or programs consistently and successfully for all students within all settings of the school.

Targeted supports are for SOME students. When developing a continuum of support, a key focus for the school is to establish and refine systems and supports for students who need additional support or opportunities to be successful. These supports are designed to intensify and build upon what has been taught to students at the universal level.

It is likely that a FEW students will need a more personalised approach to meet their learning and wellbeing needs. These students will need more intensive individualised approaches or programs to help them access opportunities to build their skills.

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Information for presenter: This is an animated slide.

The circle is the school, the dots within represent the students within the school.

This slide illustrates a whole school approach to for wellbeing for All, SOME and FEW.

Presenter notes

When the first dot point and circle appears: This represents all students within the school. What school processes and practices are

in place that support the wellbeing of all students? At different times and for different reasons students may need additional supports and

opportunities in order to be successful and achieve their potential.

When second dot point and circle appears: This represents SOME students. Supports and opportunities should be intensified to meet the learning and wellbeing

needs of some students.

When third dot point and circle appears: This represents FEW students. Supports and opportunities should be personalised to

meet the learning and wellbeing needs of few students.

Critical aspects to supporting wellbeing at the school level are: strong school leadership which emphasises and promotes the importance of wellbeing at the school and within the broader school community; and a culture of high expectations for all students with teachers who emphasise continuous improvement.

In other words, wellbeing must be integrated into the school learning environment; the curriculum and pedagogy; the policies and procedures at schools; and the partnerships inherent within and outside schools including teachers, students, parents, support staff and community groups.

Optional :Whole school or small group activity

Staff provide examples to the questions for All, SOME and FEW

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Presenter notes

All schools are required to have a planned approach to wellbeing in place that incorporates the six elements of the Wellbeing Framework. The elements include:

Teaching and Learning Schools will consider aspects of and factors contributing to wellbeing in the delivery of

teaching and learning. Students should be provided with opportunities to connect, succeed and thrive that are

relevant to their stages of learning and development. The child or young person’s subjective view of their own wellbeing is recognised by

schools, peers and parents as an important measure to inform decisions about the child or young person.

Whole school approaches to physical health and fitness, social skills and friendship, empathy and resilience, peer support and mentoring, student leadership, citizenship and community engagement contribute to the growth of individual and collective wellbeing.

Behaviour, discipline and character education Every school will implement a comprehensive and inclusive strategy to create an

environment with clearly defined behavioural expectations. All members of the school community should consistently implement the agreed strategy

to create a positive teaching and learning environment. The school recognises the importance of developing and shaping the character of the

individual and maximises opportunities for personal growth. Students have responsibility to be active learners who exercise self-regulation

appropriate to their age and level of understanding. Parents and caregivers play an important role in working with the school to develop their

child’s understandings, skills and character. Teaching and learning is not disrupted by unacceptable behaviour in the classroom, on

the playground and in activities for which the school is responsible.

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This slide is duplicated but hidden so that the notes print on 2 pages.

Learning and Support Students with identified learning needs benefit from personalised learning and support. Aboriginal children and young people will have an individual personalised learning

pathway. Students with identified healthcare needs have an individualised health care plan. Parents are consulted and contribute to the planning to support their child’s individual

learning. Adjustments to the learning environment are made and documented as required. Assessment of student achievement informs individual learning.

Professional practice Professional learning is linked to the needs of the students, teachers, schools and the

system. All staff undertake mandatory training to comply with legislative and policy requirements.

Effective leadership Leadership is evidenced at every level of the school environment. Students, staff and

parents contribute to the leadership of the school and to the achievement of its goals and priorities.

The principal implements systems to meet accountabilities relating to wellbeing policies in the school environment.

The principal effectively uses school and system resources to support the learning and wellbeing of all students.

School planning Wellbeing is an element of the School Excellence Framework and is addressed through

school planning and self-evaluation. A self-evaluation of wellbeing incorporates the stages of learning of the students,

environmental factors and the influences and domains of wellbeing. Schools use qualitative and quantitative evidence to inform and guide school planning for

wellbeing.

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Presenter notes

The wellbeing self-assessment tool includes a number of processes that schools may engage with to identify and assess their current wellbeing practices, identify evidence to support their assessment and provide opportunities to identify areas for future growth. The robust evidence collected by using this tool should directly support schools to make sound judgements on their progress across a number of elements of School Excellence and in particular the wellbeing element.

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Presenter notes

The Wellbeing Self-assessment Tool has been developed to assist schools in understanding wellbeing by engaging with the Wellbeing Framework for Schools and the key concepts that underpin the development of healthy, happy, successful and productive individuals. The self-assessment tool includes a number of processes that schools may engage with to identify and assess their current wellbeing approaches or programs, identify evidence to support their assessment and provide opportunities to identify areas for future growth.

The tool supports school communities to: Engage with the Wellbeing Framework for Schools through professional learning:

School communities will develop an understanding of the five domains of wellbeing and the elements of an effective whole school approach to wellbeing. The domains and elements of effective wellbeing combine to create learning environments where students are supported to connect, succeed and thrive at school.

Identify current or future approaches or programs using the mapping scaffold: Mapping current wellbeing approaches or programs against the five domains of wellbeing will not only strengthen understanding of the domains but support schools to identify areas for future development.

Evaluate how current or future approaches or programs support students to ‘Connect, Succeed and Thrive:’ Schools can use the Connect, Succeed, Thrive scaffold to consider how individual approaches or programs impact on wellbeing and identify the evidence to support this process. The scaffold can also be used to evaluate an individual program as part of annual self-assessment, as part of a comprehensive whole school wellbeing evaluation or even to assess the potential impact of a new approach being considered by the school.

Connect wellbeing and school excellence: There are strong links between school excellence and wellbeing. As part of annual self-assessment schools are required to assess their approaches or programs using the School Excellence Framework. The robust evidence collected by using this tool should directly support schools to make sound judgements on their progress across a number of elements of the School Excellence Framework and in particular the wellbeing element. The Wellbeing Self-assessment Tool supports the school to identify “here’s how we know.”

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Presenter notes

You can access additional information about wellbeing from the Wellbeing framework or your Educational services team.

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