7 Tips to Support Tired Students (and Educators) in Schools
As we head into Term 4, the weariness isn’t just showing in our students—it’s something we all feel. Yet, as educators, we understand the value of each day. Once it’s gone, we don’t get it back. There’s a saying, “The days are long, but the years are short,” which feels especially fitting as we look […]
A Snapshot of Student Emotions in 2024
Life Skills GO has released preliminary findings from its 2024 annual report, providing valuable insights into the emotional landscape of Australian students. With over 3 million check-ins, the data offers a comprehensive look at how students are feeling and what factors are influencing their emotions. Key Findings What These Insights Mean These findings offer valuable […]
The Importance of Teaching Emotional Literacy in Schools
All Emotions Are Valid: Building Emotional Literacy and Self-Regulation in Schools Emotions shape how students interact with their world, engage in learning, and respond to challenges. For educators, understanding the role of emotions—and helping students understand this role—is key to creating a positive and supportive classroom environment. It’s not about categorising emotions as good or […]
Life Skills GO and Aligning to the NSW School Excellence Framework
When I was in every position in a school, my biggest enemy was time. I had three lists I carried with me, the things I had to do today, the things I needed to do by the end of the week and the things I wanted to do. Unfortunately, by the time I finished the […]
Excel in whole school wellbeing: What does this look like?
What does excelling in wellbeing look like? That wellbeing is important is uncontested. What we mean when we say wellbeing is a little slipperier. The figure below from the 2022 AITSL Spotlight on Wellbeing in Australian Schools articulates the increased prevalence of publications focused on wellbeing over time. Figure 1: Google Ngram viewer for wellbeing With so […]
The Compassion Conundrum
There are many educators in schools today wrestling with the tension between the pressures of hitting academic outcomes and fostering the harder to measure components of whole child development. As educators we know the value of nurturing attributes such as compassion but can sometimes find it difficult to articulate what we did and why it […]
Key Elements of an Effective Learning Space to help your Students Thrive
Setting up a welcoming and effective learning environment is key to helping students thrive. It’s not just about how the classroom looks, but also about how it feels and functions. A positive atmosphere supports both academic success and personal growth, and it’s all about creating a space where students feel comfortable and inspired to learn. […]
Nurturing Realistic Optimism
When we are nurturing students to think about the future it is tempting to jump to the extremes of the spectrum. For example, when we are talking to kids about their future prospects we swing to the optimistic extreme and say things like ‘You can be whatever you want to be!’, ‘Dream big’ and ‘The […]
Social Awareness: 3 ways to help children develop an essential life skill
Social awareness is a crucial element of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and includes essential life skills such as empathy, compassion, and understanding interpersonal dynamics. It involves the ability to accurately interpret social situations and empathise with others’ emotions, which plays a significant role in navigating social interactions effectively. Success in various aspects of life often hinges […]
Measuring Student Wellbeing: What do we want our wellbeing program to achieve?
Before we measure anything, including wellbeing, we need to define what it is we are measuring. In many systems and jurisdictions this is defined for them through frameworks and policy often resulting in highly jargonistic or ambiguous phrasing and measured through blunt instruments such as attendance, frequency of behaviour incidents and annual student surveys. While […]