Who is responsible for the wellbeing of the students in your school?

Wellbeing is a real contemporary catchword in school communities across Australia.  Normally I am suspicious of fads but student wellbeing does not fall into this category.

As an ex school Principal there is no doubt in my mind that the Principal must regularly sight all the indicators of student wellbeing for their school.  In large well resourced schools it may be possible to have a Head of Student Wellbeing who reports directly to the Principal.  Some schools are developing wellbeing centres, for example my youngest grand daughter's school, which has the resources to do such a thing.  Students will be given opportunities to be in touch with how they feel and to practise activities like meditation and other such calming activities.  I guess students will learn to talk things through getting their issues out in the open in a non threatening environment.

I discussed the Wellbeing Centre with one of the teachers from my grand daughter's school putting to him the view that student wellbeing begins in the classroom and is a prime responsibility for every teacher.  I expressed a small skepticism about having a Centre.  He was somewhat in two minds about the cost of providing the Centre vis a vis my view on the responsibility of each classroom teacher.  Time will tell.

Student wellbeing is in my view the number 1 criterion of an effective school.  It needs to be regularly measured by asking relevant questions of students and teachers.  Key wellbeing indicators need to be established that contribute to a rating of the extent of how students are feeling about their security; the extent to which they are respected by those with whom they have contact within the school environment; their physical attributes and their school performance.  While tapping into their sense of security it may be that some data could emerge about their sense of security at home and in the general community outside school.  The Principal will want a benchmark that tells him/her when all is well with student wellbeing across the school.  The Principal will be looking for courses of action to improve wellbeing if the evidence falls short of the benchmark.

It might seem like a lot of additional work but there are many sources of suitable surveys of student wellbeing out there.  A Principal might also decide to pay for say a PHD student to do the surveying and/or link up with a University School of Education to keep on top of this vital area.

In a school where students feel respected and safe a positive environment for learning will have been created.

A caveat:  I am very suspicious of tell all group therapy sessions having observed this in action in a farming community experiencing severe drought.  I recall reading research on such therapies some years ago and the deleterious effects of such therapy.  I am certain we are now more enlightened on how to manage such discussion : we need to be very careful how we expose young developing minds.

May the Force be with us!


GD