Choose the response that best describes your whole school wellbeing program/s:

1. We are black belts in wellbeing. Our whole school approach is consistent with best practices and can’t be improved.
2. We are aligned in our values and foster wellbeing across the school but measuring impact is difficult.
3. We have an ad hoc approach to wellbeing across the school, it looks different in different classes and year groups but it works pretty well.
4. We have an ad hoc approach to wellbeing across the school, it looks different in different classes and year groups and it doesn’t work very well.
5. Wellbeing? We are more focused on academic performance.
6. Other….

If you answered "A" or "E", this blog is not for you.

If you answered anything else, read on for a summary of the things that are working in schools with successful wellbeing programs. While every school is different, we also have a lot in common, particularly when it comes to wellbeing.

1. Process over people – this feels counter intuitive when looking at wellbeing, but the processes have to rule the day. If wellbeing programs become the province of individuals, then two things happen; 1. the person driving it eventually burns out and/or leaves and 2. Other people are attracted to or driven away from the work because of their relationship with the drivers. Processes can eliminate personality from the equation and keep the focus on student wellbeing
2. Shared understanding – as with any whole school program, a shared understanding of what we are doing and why we are doing it is critical. This also needs to include what success looks like, how we will measure it and when we will reflect.
3. Data we can trust – measuring the impact of wellbeing programs is critical. Ensuring that data is timely, relevant and reliable for all stakeholders, particularly, teachers can make or break wellbeing in the school. If data used to justify the success or failure of a program is deemed unreliable by teachers then programs will have a very difficult time gaining traction and becoming ingrained as core business.
4. Create the space to reflect on the data and take informed action – collecting the data is only worth doing if something is done with it. This is easy to deprioritise, in fact if you don’t deliberately create the space to reflect on the data and commit to an action then it won’t happen, and the opportunity will be lost.
5. Suspend judgement and be prepared to pivot – if you go to all the effort to collect data, analyse it and consider future actions, then all actions need to be on the table. This can include the findings that the program we have invested in, is not doing what we hoped it would do and we need to consider stopping the path we are on and going back to reviewing our options.
6. Focus on positive and negative deviance, avoid the average – “My feet are in the freezer and my head is in the oven but my average temperature is fine.” Averages can be misleading with wellbeing data. Consider the individuals, what does the data look like for each student, not just the average of a group of students.
7. Empower teachers – Invite teachers into the test and learn cycle. They care and have great ideas too, bring them inside the tent.

[ Rydr Tracy is the Head of Education at Life Skills Group and former Director Strategic Priorities at CESE. He is a specialist in evidence-informed practice in educational innovation, with a career focus on strategic change that improves student outcomes. He draws on a rare blend of successful experience in schools, system leadership roles and industry practice – experience that has given him deep understanding of the complexities of the education sector from the classroom to the boardroom and a demonstrated capacity to generate practical recommendations that are grounded in context and evidence. ]