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Episode 1: Student wellbeing

8 April 2022

Term 1 2022 has been unlike any other. With this in mind, we’ve turned our focus to student wellbeing and taken a look at how our teachers can support students to be mentally well and ready to learn. Thanks to Shaun Walsh and Lucinda Yates from Norwood International High School for sharing your insights.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Dale Atkinson: Hello, and welcome to teach a podcast about teaching and learning in South Australia. I'm Dale Atkinson from South Australia's Department for Education. And this year I'm joined by a new co-host by the name of Georga Tyson, who we have pulled out of Largs Bay School, Georga welcome.

Georga Tyson: Thanks Dale, it's good to be here.

Dale Atkinson: So tell us a bit about your background. Why have we gone out and drawn you out of your school? What are we getting from you today?

Georga Tyson: Well, I've been teaching for the past 20 years in a few schools across South Australia, including some valuable experiences in my hometown of Whyalla, I've taught in a number of schools across metropolitan Adelaide. And at the moment I'm at Largs Bay, as you said, and I 'm in a unique role there as a specialist NIT teacher, taking kids for functional grammar and, and writing, which has been amazing. So I'm working with kids from R to 6

Dale Atkinson: Well, it's great to have you thank you very much for agreeing to join us this year.

And I think we'll have some, some fun adventures together. And the first of our adventures is today and we're at a Norwood International High School. Now for a lot of students returning to the classroom this year has been a fairly substantial challenge. I think it's safe to say we've had a staggered start. We've had COVID there's been a lot of unsettling activities nationally and internationally with flooding the situation in the Ukraine. It's a lot for any child to digest. And on top of it, Is the process of being a child and being a teenager. So given all of that, we thought the first podcast for 2022 should focus on student wellbeing and in particular, how our teachers can support students to be mentally well and to be prepared to learn when they come to the classroom.

Georga Tyson: And how lucky are we Dale to be here at Norwood International High School and this new facility, which is really impressive. I have to say. We acknowledge that we're on in the Eastern suburbs of Adelaide on Kaurna land. We pay respects to elders past, present and emerging. We're speaking to Shaun Walsh, director of wellbeing for learning and Lucinda Yates, a student wellbeing leader at the school. Welcome to you both.

Shaun Walsh: Thank you.

Lucinda Yates: Thank you.

Georga Tyson: What has the start of 2022 been like for both of you and the school community?

Shaun Walsh: Where do we start? Where do we start? It's certainly, I think it's going down in history as one of the most unique years that education's ever faced. Our school has nearly 1700 students in it. We've gone on to a one campus model. Prior to that, we had a middle school campus down the road and the campus we're on now was, currently that was the senior school. So we've had the complexities of 1700 students aged from around 11 years to 18 years of age, finding their niche areas and their little market spots within the school and accessing online learning right from the get go. So that's been a challenge.

Lucinda Yates: Bringing in year seven and eight new cohort has been particularly challenging. So at the start of the year, we had a lot of parents waiting out the front and there's been a lot of changes in regards to kids coming to school, leaving school, with the addition of masks, some kids have never seen our entire faces. So it's, it's quite difficult to make those connections sometimes as well.

Dale Atkinson: What you're describing there is something that a lot of other schools are experiencing, but you perhaps on a larger scale, which is students having to settle in, in a number of different ways facing a number of different challenges, like you say the seven to high school thing is creating some issues. You've got issues around the patriation of kids from two campuses into one, you've got the backdrop of of COVID and all those sorts of things. So what are the strategies that you guys are putting in place to kind of address some of those big issues for kids?

Lucinda Yates: So we started some of these last year. So for five of our year levels, they hadn't been to this campus at all. So our year twelves are the only cohort who have been on this campus. So we started by doing a transition day. At that point we didn't have all of the facilities open so they just did a walk through. It was about, you know, transitioning them, making sure that they were aware of where everything is having, just having a look generally. And then we also had the, have the addition of the new house systems. So we're trying to bring in a lot more community and relationships with staff and students and build up a connection to school. So we have a new house system. We have four houses. We recently, we previously had three and then we embedded things into our connect curriculum, things like a Kahoot quiz, every Thursday, a fitness Friday. so going out into the yard and just really getting them to think about wellbeing and things that make them healthy and connect to school.

Georga Tyson: Is this space that we're sitting in now, this wellbeing hub is this new to the school or was this at your previous site as well?

Lucinda Yates: Yeah, so the entire kind of wellbeing web is new to the school. So previously we did have a director for wellbeing, but it was, he, he was based on the middle campus. It was just one wellbeing leader on the middle campus, one on the senior campus. So there was no kind of group approach to wellbeing. We were separate. We met regularly, we did case management together and we worked very much as a team, but in terms of the support, it was just very separate. And so having now we have the director for wellbeing here. We have three wellbeing leaders. So we deal with two year levels each and then we have kind of a whole community approach up here. So we did previously work very heavily with the year level management and now we're able to separate that and go you level management deals with academics, attendance, behaviour. We are very much about wellbeing and the whole person approach.

Dale Atkinson: What sort of difference has that made in terms of how you're able to support the kids?

Lucinda Yates: It makes all the difference because yeah, we're able to support each other as well as supporting the students and if one person's workload is too much we're able to kind of separate that and say, hey, this has come up, is anyone available to deal with it? And so we have one person that's based here for every double lesson so then if students do come up and they're experiencing a heightened state of awareness, we're able to deal with that on the fly.

Georga Tyson: As I was coming in today, I saw a student coming in, actually, and, and I thought what a welcoming space. They'd just brought themselves in to catch up with one of your colleagues, I think.

Shaun Walsh: And it's great I think having three or four of us up here, because if a student can't find a connection with that person that's allocated to their year level, it means that they can go and work with another person sort of thing and I think that that's really important. I mean, the whole value of, it's not therapeutic, what we do, but the whole value of that relational safety and that connection to, to someone in your site is really important. So the fact that they, every kid in the school would have someone that they could come and connect with on some level is, is, is really great.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah. That's amazing. Isn't it? I mean, I think like what I'm hearing from you and what I can see around here is that there's a, there's kind of a multi-layered approach here, where, you know, the overarching strategy is to create a sense of belonging for the kids and to create a real sense of kind of wellness in the space. But then there is, you know, resourcing there's, there's a really kind of intense focus on being able to support kids in, in like the acute circumstances that they might be facing. Is that, is that fair to say?

Shaun Walsh: Yeah, definitely you know, and I mean, I think it, and it's, it's brilliant in the sense that we have a principal that sees the, you know, the measurable value of having a wellbeing focus within her school and our focus is not just on our, our students. It's also on our staff and particularly at the moment with everything that's happening around, you know, staff coming out on COVID leave and all sorts of things, you know, we've tried to make as much focus as possible on making sure that our department's most valuable assets it's teaching an SSO and support staff you know are a huge priority alongside of our students too.

Georga Tyson: Which is really that whole school approach. Isn't it. And that's what the experts tell us is the best way to support mental health and wellbeing is with a whole school approach. And we understand as well that the wellbeing engagement collection, the survey data has been a big part of forming that whole school strategy. Can you tell us a little bit more?

Shaun Walsh: Oh, look obviously like every school, the WEC data, all form attendance, you know wellbeing, referral data, all adds to our vision and where we, where we see that we need to drive our supports. I think the 2021 data highlighted things like connectedness, school belonging, motivation to achieve, and students actually knowing who they can go and talk to and what they could talk to that person about, whether it be academic challenges, whether it be wellbeing challenges. Obviously things like bullying and keeping themselves safe and keeping their friends safe as well. So, I mean, obviously that data formed the focus for 2022 in relation to the way the program was structured, in the way the resourcing was structured, the staffing levels and what the teachers would actually be delivering in that, around, you know, the, the child safe curriculum, anti harassment, bullying programs, but also it drove where teacher training needed to be invested as well to make sure that the teachers were armed with the resources and the skills needed to actually deliver the programs and support the kids in their classes.

Georga Tyson: Connect program, does that take place where maybe in the past it would have been your home group?

Lucinda Yates: Yeah, we also had a look at the structure of the role of the connect teacher as well. So we worked with our staff around being mentors and not so much just the teacher that stands in front of the class, so when we say, where do you go to for support? We not only say the wellbeing team and year level teams, but we say very much that that connect teacher is someone that you can go to if you need to talk to someone, and if you need support in any area.

Dale Atkinson: I think one of the interesting, that you kind of touched on Shaun is like in a school of 1700 kids that will have vastly different backgrounds, how do you make sure that you provide kind of a differentiated, kind of personal support to the kids that meets them where they are?

Shaun Walsh: There was a massive amount of work that went into the transition for the year six's coming into seven and the sevens into eight. And I mean, I've only been in the school eight weeks, put my hand up and say that, but I was blown away in that sort of initial week, zero time when we came back together just at the learning community leaders, how they just knew who their kids were, and they'd worked extensively with the primary schools in the lead up through the transition programs. So that sharing of information and not just with students from six to seven and seven to eight, but also within the school itself. So the eights moving into nine. And I think the structure of the learning community leaders has actually meant that the handover of information is quite spectacular for a school this size, but also the fact that everybody knows something about one of the students in there in their cohort of kids, in their class sort of thing, there's always information and the learning management system as well, we use Day map, we put a lot of information and maybe not highly sensitive, but a lot of sort of, you know learning information, but also wellbeing information about students on that. So it's a ready tool for teachers to access if they've got a student that they're a bit concerned about.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah, right. Is there like, is there a way that you guys kind of foster nice interactions between the teaching and the staff to kind of share that information? Is that a formal thing or do you kind of just do it on a kind of one-to-one basis.

Shaun Walsh: It's a mixture. I think it's a mixture. Yeah. I think we get you know, you'll have, you'll have really switched on staff who will come and say, look, I'm really concerned about this student in my class. I've noticed that their attendance or their looking a bit sad or a little bit under the weather today. Obviously the learning community leaders track attendance data and that's in a school I think one of the biggest indicators that something's not quite right for a student is looking at that data. So obviously we flag students in relation to those that are the ones who, even if they're approved absence, you still start looking at the mount up and think maybe something's not quite right. So obviously, you know, the wellbeing leaders in, in consultation with the learning community leaders will connect with families, will connect with students and almost create that, I guess, a team around the child approach in, in relation to sort of making sure that that child is supported.

Lucinda Yates: It kind of comes naturally as well with our leadership team. So we've got the different levels of leadership teams. There's exec, then there's wellbeing team. Then there's the different management teams of the senior and then the middle. And then there's the curriculum leaders. And then, of course there's the year level teams. So the learning community leader will work very closely with their year level team. And we would work very closely with the teachers that have those high level well-beings students in there. But I think just the, the leadership structure, the way that they all work so well together kind of bleeds out into the general staff as well.

Dale Atkinson: Yes. So got to be a real big kind of culture piece for you guys.

Georga Tyson: Who do you turn to for support?

Shaun Walsh: Each other, each other, each other. I mean, even though I've only been here eight weeks, I feel like I've worked here for a very long time and I'm very blessed and fortunate to have an amazing team that I get to lead. But certainly, you know, we all bounce off each other and if one is in crisis, then we're all there alongside that person. Obviously accessing external supports, like incident management team, the SWISS team, our own private networks as well outside of school. I think they're all the things that we amongst ourselves promote, but also promote them amongst the staff too. And as I said earlier on we, we, you know, one of my passions is staff wellbeing and we've really started to work on that sort of thing around, you know, how do our staff look after themselves and what's their window of tolerance and you know, how much time do they spend outside of the window of tolerance and you know who is their trusted colleague or their trusted person that they can just purge when they need to sort of things. So they've got the opportunity. Sometimes that's us, you get the kids purging at you and sometimes the staff purging, but that's the nature of the job that we've chosen to do.

Georga Tyson: Along with the pandemic, more recently, we're seeing mages of record-breaking floods in Eastern Australia, and the war in Ukraine, how do you help students deal with these, with understanding these events that are happening in the, in the broader community?

Shaun Walsh: It's about establishing, not just about individual events, but a culture of safety and connection. I think that any, any natural disaster, anything globally that happens, and I mean, we have a massively diverse student cohort from many different backgrounds and cultures. So you don't necessarily know, at the time who's being impacted by what's happening around the world. So, you know, through, through our, our language that we use through our you know, our our sort of, you know, commitment to young people through our leadership, as Lucinda's already mentioned, it's around our core value is safety and diversity, and actually making sure that every student that comes through our doors as much as we possibly can with 1700 feels safe and that they've got someone they can connect to. Our teachers, I mean, I had the opportunity to walk around to the classes a lot and you watch the very topical discussions that happen in the morning connect and during extended connect time and things like that, and there's a real culture amongst the, amongst the teachers that have talking with kids about what's happening around the world and actually unpacking it and giving them probably that educated view rather than just what they read on social media or what the, you know, the media itself is barraging at them as well.

Dale Atkinson: Now Shaun just finally, before we wrap it up, you've been in a number of different settings, so you've, you've spent a fair bit of time in the Southern Behaviour Centre leading that up, you've been in Willunga High School. What are the differences and similarities between, you know, places like that, which would be perceived, I think, to be very different to, to Norwood International. What, you know, what's the experience across those sites?

Shaun Walsh: When I won the job here, people said, oh, eastern suburbs you'll have no behaviour issues. I scoff at that because we have our fair share of, of students with challenging behaviour and, and who will test the boundaries but that's adolescents. The similarities is, is kids are kids. They bring with them, the complexities they bring with them, the joy of coming to school. There are lots of kids here and there's lots of kids at Willunga and there were lots of kids at the learning centre who found a sense of comfort and joy in actually attending school because it's a safe haven for a lot of our kids, you know, sort of thing. And I say that sadly, and I don't mean that, but you know, they don't necessarily get that at home. I would say that probably, I notice here families are in the whole far more proactive in seeking external support for their children than I've experienced in previous schools. When you do talk to a family, they'll say, look, we've been to the GP, we've got a mental health care plan. We've got them connected with a psychologist. I would say this area particularly has highlighted to me that there are more services, I think as well, because I think maybe financially people are able to pay for things more than they necessarily might be able to do in some of the southern areas as well. Not to say that there weren't amazing families at Willunga or through the learning centre as well, but I just get the feeling too, because we're closer to the CBD, there's a lot more option for families to sort of shop around for supports and they might in the southern area.

Dale Atkinson: So there's issues of capacity, engagement.

Georga Tyson: In your role over that period of time, have you had to have more connection with outside agencies then than before, or.

Shaun Walsh: Definitely. And especially the last three years at the learning centre, our role was really to be, I guess, the intermediary between schools and support services. And I'm a huge advocate of support services, schools, building relationships, setting up effective student review teams. That's one of my goals here for us to work on developing those relationships, accessing services through the department, like the HEI, like complex case review group, the SWISS team, they're amazing, and the incident management team, even though we report and we have incidents, I've always found when I ring them, they've always been a wealth of information, and if they haven't been able to answer a question, they'll always get back. So it's about reaching out because you can't do this job without establishing those relationships and accessing what our department actually has on offer.

Dale Atkinson: That's great, Shaun, Lucinda. Thank you very much for your time. This has been a great chat just to learn how you're going about it here at Norwood International and the challenges and the, and the programs that you've got in place to overcome them and really actually pretty inspirational.

Georga Tyson: Catch you next time on Teach.


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