About this Webinar
This 30-minute webinar explored the funding boost and its application in enhancing student mental health and wellbeing at your school. You will gain insights into:
- Latest research, trends, and statistics around student wellbeing in Australia.
- The purpose and uses of the Student Wellbeing Boost Funding.
- The programs and services offered by Peer Support Australia that help schools build student wellbeing.
The session was hosted by Samuel O’Leary, Wellbeing Education Consultant here at Peer Support Australia, and a former teacher who was responsible for student wellbeing at his school.
Transcript
Samuel O’Leary, Wellbeing Education Consultant, Peer Support Australia: Okay, so we might kick off. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our webinar, which will cover wellbeing and the Student Wellbeing Boost.
My name is Sam O’Leary. I’m a Wellbeing Education Consultant here at Peer Support Australia.
Before we begin today’s webinar, I’d like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land. I’m coming to you from Cammeraygal Country. And I’d also like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land where you are and pay respect to Elder’s past, present and emerging.
And before we begin, as we have participants today from around the country, in both member and non-member schools, I’d like to give you a brief overview of who we are. We are a national not-for-profit organisation. Our vision is through wellbeing all Australian students reach their full potential. Promoting wellbeing is at the core of what we do here at Peer Support. So with that in mind, we’ve put this webinar together for you today.
So thank you all for joining after a busy school day, I’m sure. On the screen now is the outline for what we’ll be covering in today’s session. We’re going to start by taking a look at some of the more recent research into the state of student wellbeing in Australia. Then we will discuss the National Student Wellbeing Boost, what it is, and what it can be used for. After which, we will briefly discuss Peer Support Australia’s program and offerings, and then we’ll have time for a few questions.
Participants who have registered for today’s session will also receive a further reading sheet afterwards, that covers some of the key information I’ll share with you, as well as a recording of this webinar, which you can share with other colleagues if you wish.
So before going into the Student Wellbeing Boost, I thought it would be useful to first look at the context of student wellbeing in Australia and the conditions that have given rise to the Wellbeing Boost. I’m going to be sharing with you some of the latest research statistics and trends surrounding student wellbeing in Australia. It’s not all good news, but I’m sure lots of what I’m going to share with you will resonate with what you were experiencing in schools.
For those of you who have attended one of our implementation workshops, you may have heard some of the statistics from Mission Australia’s National Youth Survey. The survey contains results from questions asked of 18,000 Australians aged between 15 and 19.
Results from the 2022 survey, published last November, have shown that just under half of young people report feeling either very positive or positive about their future. This is down from previous years. It was 55.5% in 2020.
23.5% of young people surveyed said they felt lonely all of, or most of, the time. You may have seen other recent news items reporting that the loneliest Australians are not the elderly, as commonly assumed, but it is in fact the younger generations. The irony is that the generation that’s most connected, in a technological sense, are the least connected in a relational sense. We know that lonely people have significantly worse mental and physical health than connected people. We also know that the problem worsens when children finish school.
Research published in the ‘Ending Loneliness Together Report’ last month, found that 38% of those aged 18 to 24 felt lonely all the time, compared to just 13% of those aged over 75. Additionally, in the Mission Australia survey results, there was a percentage of young people who rated their wellbeing as excellent or very good. This was 42.1% for males, 22.8% for females, and just 12.5% for gender diverse peoples. So whilst the situation is dire for boys, it’s significantly worse for girls and for gender diverse young people.
Moving on now to some other interesting research released from the Black Dog Institute this year. Their study shows the state of Year 8 students in Australia, from a number of cohorts between 2019 and 2020. Their research has found that amongst Year 8 students in Australia 15.1% have severe symptoms of depression, 18.6% severe symptoms of anxiety, 26% said they don’t feel they belong at school, and 24% can’t make friends easily. Additionally, 17% of Year 8s said they felt lonely at school. The Black Dog Institute’s ‘Future Proofing’ study will continue to track students and will publish results for different year levels as their multi-year study goes on. So it’s one to keep an eye on.
In terms of the impact of COVID-19 on primary students, the full long-term effects are not yet entirely clear. Although research is beginning to emerge. Professor Frank Oberklaid, from Murdoch’s Children’s Research Institute, has been researching in this area and has noted that the early years of education – pre-primary school – are absolutely crucial for determining the trajectory of children in school. And there’s not yet enough evidence that’s been established to see how missing preschool may have impacted students who have started primary school in the last two years.
Oberklaid also notes that from the evidence that has emerged, COVID amplified existing differences amongst younger students. For example, amongst those struggling with social relationships and those struggling academically, their struggles have become more pronounced as a result of COVID.
Notably, however, he reports that significant problems for primary students existed pre-COVID, most notably negative impacts arising from the use of technology. And we hear anecdotally, in our workshops around the country, that there are emergent problems amongst primary school students. Even in those states that were not particularly affected by lockdowns and school closures.
Now moving onto some other recent trends relating to student mental health. Prescriptions for drugs to treat anxiety and depression, issued to children and adolescents in Australia, have more than doubled in the past decade. And the sharpest increase occurred between 2021 and last year, where there was an increase in prescriptions of 40% over that period.
Professor Ian Hickey has suggested that the growth in pharmaceutical treatments in Australia is in part due to the lack of access to psychologists. Interestingly, Ian Hickey does not think that the increase in depression and anxiety is all due to smartphones and social media. Instead, he is convinced that the problem comes from social disconnection. He suggests that children need the opportunity to have experiences that help them develop key social and emotional skills, such as those that are developed in the Peer Support Program.
For me, however, one of the most alarming recent trends, and perhaps the most consequential and devastating legacies of the pandemic, is its impact on rates of attendance in Australian schools. We’re going to look at that in a bit more detail now.
This graph here is showing the trend in the attendance level in Australian schools since 2015. The attendance level is the proportion of students attending school at least 90% of the time, and this is accepted internationally as a benchmark rate of school attendance, with 10% of school being equivalent to roughly 20 days.
In 2015, 77.8% of school students attended school 90% of the time. By 2019, just before the pandemic, this had fallen to 73.1% of students. And in 2022 this fell to 49.9%. These falls in attendance have been seen across the board across jurisdictions – primary, secondary schools, in the cities, and the regions – and in government and non-government schools. So to put this simply and starkly, last year, 50% of Australian school students missed at least 20 days of school. And I’m sure I don’t need to explain to the consequences of missing significant tracts of school. And I’m sure many of you will have noticed this trend in your own schools. It is important of course to contextualise and unpack these numbers.
Firstly, there has been a downward trend over time. So this problem is not solely caused by the pandemic. Secondly, no state, territory, sector or age group is immune from this problem. Importantly, whilst the attendance level was extremely low in 2022, the attendance rate saw a smaller fall. The rate is the number of actual school days attended by all students. And ACARA, who gathers and publishes his data, has been at pains to point out the context in schools last year, which I know you’re all familiar with. This was the time of the Omicron variant of COVID with the isolation requirements that came with that, as well as events such as floods, which have had an impact on the attendance rate and level. This explains some of the change but not all of it.
The biggest falls and attendance occur in secondary schools between Year 7 and Year 10. Year 7s last year had an attendance level of 52.7%. But for Year 10 students it was just 41.6%. School attendance also declines as geographical remoteness increases. And in 2022 in very remote areas, the attendance level was just 19.7%.
It would be too easy to merely chalk all of this up to COVID, and to assume that things will go back to normal when we see this year’s numbers, although hopefully there will be an improvement. But these declines have been seen internationally in comparable countries. For example, in the UK, where we have data up to July 2023, the proportion of students who missed at least 10% of school in the 2022-23 year is double the level they recorded in their pre-COVID year. So the trend is the same, although the numbers are actually significantly worse in Australia than in the UK.
So knowing that this is a serious and worsening problem in Australia, the Australian Senate has been inquiring into school attendance and school refusal in Australia. They released a very informative report summarising submissions and evidence from schools, parents and experts around Australia. This report was released last month. And it highlights some important information.
So they summarise what are the factors that influence school attendance. And there are four main factors that influence attendance – individual factors – so this is psychological problems, physical health, learning disabilities and so on. There are also family factors including parenting styles, socio-economic disadvantage. As well as school factors – this is things like school transition, poor classroom management, and failure to prevent or manage bullying.
Interestingly, an OECD report this year found that behaviour in Australian schools was amongst the worst in the developed world and this is also a contributing factor to the teacher shortage.
And finally, there are community factors neighbourhood characteristics and structural barriers, like poverty and lack of transport, infrastructure and remoteness.
So a key part of the fall in attendance is due to an increase in school refusal. Triple P International has suggested that rates of school refusal have tripled in Australia since COVID-19. With Mr Pierpoint, from the Australian Secondary Principals Association, describing that COVID’s effect as: “School refusal, but it’s now on steroids”.
Yellow Ladybugs have explained that COVID-19 had simply exacerbated what has been a long-standing problem for young people with autism. They said that the impact of COVID has essentially been to highlight, and in some cases exacerbate, what was already a systemic problem of school-based trauma for the autistic community.
And other submitters, such as Aspergers Victoria, suggested that the increased prevalence of school refusal was not necessarily related to the anxiety and social dislocation associated with lockdowns. But rather, it contended that these periods of homeschooling simply lead some young people to regard this as a viable and preferable way to learn.
School can often cause sensory overload and other problems for students who prefer the peace and quiet of home learning.
The Senate report also suggests that there’s a complex relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as factors that predated the pandemic, such as illness, disability, as well as increased anxiety and mental health challenges that we’ve discussed.
And another potential cause is the impact that lockdowns had on providing effective transitions for students between schools and preventing them from feeling safe in their new environments as they go from Year 6 to Year 7. Veronica Elliott from the ACT Parents and Citizens Association said this was a particular issue for students with disability.
While some of the information that I’ve just shared might sound a little bleak and disheartening, I’m sure for a lot of teachers it also shows that you’re not alone, and the problems you may be experiencing in your schools are also being experienced at schools right around the country.
The good news is that there is a lot of goodwill from teachers out there, such as yourselves, who are determined to promote the wellbeing of their students. And we also know a lot about the sorts of things that work in supporting students’ mental health and wellbeing through a strengths-based approach.
So it is in this context of worsening mental health and wellbeing for Australian students, that we turn to look at one of the federal government’s responses to this which is the National Student Wellbeing Boost.
So what is the Student Wellbeing Boost? First off, the Wellbeing Boost is not to be confused with the confusingly named National Student Wellbeing Program, which is a program that funds chaplains in schools. The Wellbeing Boost is separate to this. The Wellbeing Boost is a one-off grant from the federal government, that’s distributed by the states, and it aims to support students following the mental health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government is investing $192 million. This is shared between all schools – public, Catholic and independent. Each state has received an allocation based on population and the governments are then deciding on an allocation model. Importantly, the money must be spent or committed to be spend by March 2024.
Just out of interest, I would like to take a poll of our participants today, to get a sense of how many schools have already received their Wellbeing Boost funds. So you should see a question on your screens now. If you can answer that and then I’ll share the results with everyone.
Okay, I’m going to end the poll here and share the results. So, interestingly, just 7% ‘have received their Student Wellbeing Boost funds’, ‘no’ [is] 27% and ‘not sure’ is the majority of people. We are going to go through what we know about the distribution, state by state. But it is an opportunity to maybe have those conversations with your senior leaders – with your Head of Wellbeing, with your Principal – to make sure that students and teachers have an input in how this money is used, and that it goes to good use. So thank you for that. That’s an interesting result there.
Okay, so what can the Wellbeing Boost be used for? So the federal government has given the broad outline of rules and said that it can be used for proven student wellbeing, student engagement and mental health initiatives. As well as extra school mental health professionals. such as psychologists and school counsellors. As well as camps, excursions, sporting and social activities as well that improve students’ wellbeing. So the options are very broad for schools giving you all the autonomy over how you spend it.
Given the modest amounts that schools will receive, and the fact that it is a one-off payment, we do hope that schools will spend the money on initiatives that deliver bang for their buck and that have a lasting impact on mental health and wellbeing for their students.
So I’d like to take you through what we know about the distribution of these important funds, state by state.
The Victorian Government has outlined how they’ve distributed their funds with low fee government schools and low fee non-government schools receiving a base amount of funding of $15,000 plus additional funding per student. And high fee non-government schools in Victoria have gotten a flat amount of $7,500.
In South Australia, public schools have received payments of either $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000 –with amounts depending on each school’s school resourcing standard.
The South Australian government has suggested that schools can utilise the South Australian Wellbeing Programs Directory when deciding how to use their funds. And the Peer Support Program is included and recommended in South Australia on the Wellbeing Programs Directory.
In Queensland, public schools have received a one-off payment of $10,000, $19,095 or $50,000. And again, these allocations have been decided by the Queensland Department of Education based on each school’s school resourcing standard.
We also know that Tasmania, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT have all distributed their funds. Although they have not publicly shared their distribution models – although all states were considering the same factors including size and demographics, when deciding how much each school will get.
New South Wales is the only state that has not yet distributed their funds. We have been in direct contact with the New South Wales Department of Education and at present, they don’t have any information about the allocation model and the timing of the rollout of funds to schools, as those details are still being finalised by the department. We are staying close to this and as soon as we have an update for you, we will share that information with you. Although we do anticipate that New South Wales schools should receive their funds shortly.
So for the final section, I’ll just take a little bit of time to talk a bit about our organisation’s work in supporting whole-school wellbeing using a peer-led approach. This will be useful for those participants whose schools are not members with us, as well as being a good reminder for those from non-member schools.
The Peer Support Program proudly uses a peer-led model. Schools running our program train students to be effective Peer Support Leaders. These Leaders are trained over the course of two days, using materials we have created, and they facilitate sessions for younger students. Again, using sessions that we have created.
Primary schools use Year 6 students as Leaders, who work with groups from all grades in the school. And secondary schools use Year 10 or Year 11 students who facilitate sessions with Year 7s.
The key concepts underpinning all our modules and resources are connectedness, resilience, sense of self, and sense of possibility.
The development of these key concepts and the associated skills contributes to the mental, social and emotional wellbeing of students.
Everyone at school benefits from the school undertaking the Peer Support Program, and the connections and interactions that it facilitates. The school students learn and practice in the sessions also helped contribute to promoting the mental health of all students involved.
As we’ve heard, a contributing factor to falling attendance in Australia relates to the lack of effective transitions between primary and secondary schools. And our secondary Program specifically is run in turn one with Year 7 students to help them with this transition. And the primary Program also helps prepare Year 6s with some of the key skills that they will need to thrive in secondary schools.
At the core of the Peer Support Program are our program modules. And you can see on the screen here, our primary and our secondary core modules. We also have some additional resources that I haven’t listed here.
Each module has a particular focus. Each one has eight sessions and is delivered by trained Peer Leaders. In primary schools as mentioned the Year 6s are trained and they deliver the sessions with students from Kindy or Prep to Year 5. And in secondary schools, Year 10 or Year 11 students are trained and deliver sessions to Year 7s. For all our secondary members here today, we are thrilled to almost to be on the verge of launching our latest module, ‘Best Version of Me’. The module will be released shortly, and it covers themes including values, inclusion, and integrity.
In terms of research conducted into our Program, there has been lots of research done over the years, but I’ll share some key statistics with you here.
So research conducted into our programs has found that 69% of younger students who participated in the Program, reported greater feelings of acceptance and inclusion. 80% of Peer Leaders felt they experienced personal growth and 82% felt they improved their leadership skills with 89% saying it improved their confidence. The Program also enhances key skills like problem-solving and managing stress. Deakin University, who we’ve worked closely with, has said of our Program that: “the Peer Support Australia programs are noted to have some of the strongest evaluation evidence of any peer support program internationally”.
For those who are interested in attending a training session, to learn how to implement the Program in schools, we have a range of options. We have two-hour online workshops, and these are held weekly during term time.
We also have full day face-to-face workshops, and these are held around the country. We also have the option of bespoke workshops at your school. If your school would like to train a number of staff, we can come to your school and run either a half-day or a full day workshop.
On the screen now, you can see upcoming face-to-face workshops for the rest of Term 3 as well as Term 4. I’ll let you look at that list for a moment. Tasmania, we haven’t forgotten about you. My colleague Jill is actually running a workshop in Hobart today. I hope it went well, Jill if you’re watching, and we do aspire to be back in Tasmania very shortly in the first half of next year.
We can also provide more information about any of these workshops or anything else to anyone who’s interested in after … after this webinar.
So in addition to our core Peer Support Program, we also offer a range of further services including SRC Coordinator training, which is delivered via a two-hour online workshop. Teachers who attend will also receive a toolkit to help them run an effective SRC, including a whole day training package for them to use with their SRC members, as well as documents and templates to use.
Each year we also run an event that’s free for schools, called the Talk-And-Walk-A-Thon. Many schools run this during October’s Mental Health Month. We provide schools with a toolkit, including conversation cards on a range of topics, and schools run a walkathon event based around them. Information on this year’s event can be found on our website, or just let us know and we can provide it to you afterwards.
Our Wellbeing Education Consultants – including myself and my colleagues Jill and Sophie – are available to deliver talks to staff, parents and students relating to the Peer Support Program and student wellbeing. And schools looking for a more thorough review of their wellbeing strategy, can engage us for a deeper consultancy, to help you implement a whole-school wellbeing strategy.
For those of you here today from non-member schools who are interested in joining, your school can use the Student Wellbeing Boost funds, and for $1,000 plus GST become a new member of Peer Support. That investment will include a training place at an online workshop with the option to upgrade this to face-to-face. You’ll also get a 12-month licence to use our resources as well as unlimited access to our full program resources on our online portal. You’ll also get one-to-one support provided by your consultant and a welcome pack that will be mailed to you, including a certificate to display at your school and a digital badge to publish on your school website. After your school, joins the ongoing membership fee and licence is $250 per year.
Okay, so thank you for listening to a whole lot of information in a relatively short period of time. I’d love to take any questions from anyone who has any questions or would like to know anything else or seek any clarification on anything. So please do type any questions you have in the Q&A box.
Michelle has asked: “How do you apply for the grant?” The Student Wellbeing Boost will be automatically delivered to your school. So every school in Australia is automatically going to get it –public, Catholic, independent. You will all receive your Student Wellbeing Boost funds. They will be sent directly to your school. All schools in Australia have got it except for schools in New South Wales, and we anticipate that those schools should receive it shortly. Michelle, I would recommend if you are outside of New South Wales, your school may have already received it. So it might be worth chatting with your Principal or a senior leader at your school.
Thank you for that question. Anyone else?
So in terms of: “Do we proactively reach out to schools regularly?” Member schools, and schools that have engaged with us, and are on our email list – we will regularly communicate with. And for our members, we do recommend that you also log onto the portal, and make the most of those resources, or reach out to us if you have any questions.
And we have another question here: “Can you receive the recorded webinar?” Absolutely. Anyone who is registered for this webinar, we will send you an email probably tomorrow morning. That will include a recording of this webinar, that you can share as well as a survey and a reference sheet, and so on.
Any other questions? Well I’m surprised that we have done pretty well for time. So thank you for attending today’s webinar. Those of you who have registered, as I said, you’re going to get an email tomorrow that will include a reference list to the research I’ve mentioned today, as well as a link to a video that we have just published today. And this is a video that shows the Peer Support Program in action in three different schools. So look out for that email. It’s a beautiful little video. I recommend you check it out.
This is our first time running a webinar like this and we hope to continue to run more in the future. So you’ll also be sent a very short survey, in the email you’ll get tomorrow, and we would love any feedback that you have on today’s session, including suggestions for future topics you might like to hear us talk about.
So thank you for taking the time to join today and we do hope to engage with you again shortly. Thank you very much and goodbye.
