Charlotte has recently been appointed to the role of Action Team Leader in the York District High School’s wellbeing team. In this role, Charlotte leads the Action Team to support children and young people by building a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing. This approach sits at the core of York District High School’s values.
Charlotte is discovering and acknowledges ‘being new to the mental health space, I’m continuing to learn and develop my own mental health knowledge and skills.’
Being in the role of Action Team Leader provides Charlotte with opportunities to build her own mental health and wellbeing capacity.
This focus extends to Charlotte’s team: wellbeing is a core learning area through professional development opportunities. A help-seeking environment is also cultivated for staff, students and families.
Charlotte and the team understand the benefits of monitoring and reviewing action plans to ensure the school’s mental health and wellbeing needs and objectives are met. To support this, the school conducts an annual staff, student, and families survey to identify the needs of the school community and identify a focus area.
“Each year we conduct an annual survey to identify a theme to base our activities around our chosen area of focus. This year's focus area is Family Partnerships.”
The Action Team then plans activities around the identified focus area. Regular activities include the annual Be You week, which aims to build on raising awareness of the school’s whole of school approach to mental health and wellbeing.
The Be You week also coincides with Mental Health Month in October, which helps the school make the most of opportunities to connect with local services and events.
This year planned activities include a whole school assembly, a drone photo on the sports field promoting inclusion, a petting zoo, face painting, and a scavenger hunt for the high schoolers. In keeping with the focus area of ‘Family Partnerships’, families are invited to join in the fun with a lunchtime picnic and water play.
Activities aren’t just for the benefit of students and families. Through Bendigo Bank’s sponsorship, the school has initiated several mindfulness, and wellbeing activities for staff. Activities included a sound meditation session, a morning tea, and a staff check-in dinner.
For Mental Health Month, we asked Charlotte to reflect on what mental health and wellbeing means to her:
Why is it so important to promote a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing?
As educators, our focus is on the students and helping them to succeed. To do this, they need to feel supported and valued. Having a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing and a framework like Be You, provides educators the tools and resources they need to provide support to students, as well as providing a sounding board for any questions and ideas they may have.
What are your top 3 tips for supporting students with their mental health and wellbeing?
- Keep it simple: A simple check in. Just asking a student how they are going and genuinely listening to their answers is helpful. Being in a small town, most teachers, and families know each other well, so showing you are invested in their lives by doing something as simple as asking about their recent hockey/football/netball game can really help to form meaningful relationships and show support.
- Celebrate achievements: This could be highlighting individual success, no matter how small, in your class or at a school level (not just academic or sporting achievements either).
- Be approachable: It’s important students know you care. No matter how hard a day they are having, they need to know that you are there for them and will listen.
If you could make one small change to support your school community’s wellbeing, what would it be?
If I could change anything I would like to focus on the educator’s mental health and wellbeing more. As the saying goes, ‘You can't pour from an empty cup.’ I think educators have a lot on their plates and if more could be done to prioritise their mental health and wellbeing, that would benefit everyone in the long run.
Mental Health Month is celebrated every October and prompts all of us to think about our mental health and wellbeing. It also gives us the opportunity to understand the importance of good mental health in our everyday lives and encourages help-seeking behaviours.
Reflective questions
What can you do to promote mental health and wellbeing in your learning community?
Consider strategies and resources you can use to promote and protect your wellbeing in and outside work, or to manage any difficulties or disruptions at work.
Not sure of your next steps
Be You Consultants can provide support in building a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing. Connect with a Be You Consultant.
Not a registered Be You user? Register today.
Resources
Wellbeing Tools for You - Be You explore tools, resources in supporting yourself and your team implementing wellbeing.
Be You Actions Catalogue includes a collection of suggested actions that your learning community can adapt and implement to support positive mental health across your whole setting.
To access the following resources, you will need to log into your Be You account. It is free to register. Register now
Be You surveys provide data to support a whole school approach by including educators, families, young people, and children. The data can help highlight strengths as well as areas for improvement.
Make Be You Visible and show your commitment to improving mental health and wellbeing across your learning community. Explore a range of Be You tools and resources to make Be You visible.
