Wellbeing in the classroom

Students spend a large amount of time at schools and in class. A teacher may be the first person to notice that a student needs extra support. They might notice signs of an emerging mental health concern. Students often trust their teacher to help them.

Teachers can:

• form positive relationships with their students
• promote student voice and agency
• hold high expectations of all students
• create a safe, welcoming and inclusive classroom.

Teachers also support students to develop social and emotional skills. They can also help students develop a positive attitude about self, school and civic engagement. These skills and attitudes support academic engagement.

If you become aware of an incident, receive a disclosure or form a reasonable belief that a child has been abused or is at risk of abuse, you must follow all procedures for responding to and reporting abuse, including the Four Critical Actions for Schools.

Supporting student mental health and wellbeing

There are many ways teachers can support the mental health and wellbeing of their students. Many of them are things teachers do on a day-to-day basis, with every class and every student. Some students may need tailored or additional support.

It is also important that you take care of your own mental health and wellbeing.

As a teacher you aren’t expected to be a therapist. But you do play a key role in supporting student mental health and wellbeing. Evidence shows teachers can have a profound impact on the mental health and wellbeing of their students.

You can do this by:

• building strong and positive relationships with your students
• reducing stigma surrounding mental health and substance use issues
• promoting help-seeking and assist students to access support early
• encouraging students to listen to and check in with each other
• reinforcing that talking to a trusted adult about a friend isn’t betraying trust, but an important part of looking after each other
• referring students to the school’s wellbeing team.

Before having a sensitive conversation with a student

When considering a sensitive conversation with a student, ask yourself:

• Is this conversation within my role?
• Do I feel equipped to have this conversation?
• Is the time and environment appropriate?
• Do I know my school’s referral pathways and processes?
• Do I understand conditional confidentiality?

Teaching for wellbeing

The Victorian Curriculum

The Victorian Curriculum supports teaching skills that provide strong foundations for mental health and wellbeing of all students in schools.

Personal and Social Capability

This involves students:

• learning to recognise and regulate emotions
• developing empathy for others and understanding relationships
• establishing and building a framework for positive relationships
• working effectively in teams and developing leadership skills
• handling challenging situations constructively.

Health and Physical Education

Health and Physical Education enhances students understanding of their own and others' health, safety, wellbeing and physical activity participation in varied and changing contexts. The curriculum focuses on supporting students to develop the understanding and skills they require to make healthy and safe choices that will boost their own and others' health and wellbeing.

For more information:

• FUSE Teacher Learning Areas - resources aligned to the Victorian Curriculum
• Personal and Social Capability Rationale and Aims - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
• Health and Physical Education Rationale and Aims - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
• Abilities Based Learning and Education Support (ABLES) - for use with students operating at Levels A-D in the Victorian Curriculum
• Digital Assessment Library - free, high quality online classroom student assessments, aligned to the Victorian Curriculum F-10.

Social and Emotional Learning in the classroom

Social and emotional learning (SEL) can help students learn the skills needed to build resilience. SEL can help them learn to manage their emotions, behaviour and relationships with others. It involves giving students opportunities to learn and practice social skills.

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships

The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) learning materials have been designed for teachers in primary and secondary schools to develop students’ social, emotional and positive relationship skills.

The RRRR learning materials cover eight topics of Social and Emotional Learning across all levels of primary and secondary education:

• Emotional Literacy
• Personal Strengths
• Positive Coping
• Problem Solving
• Stress Management
• Help Seeking
• Gender and Identity
• Positive Gender Relationships.

Resources for social and emotional learning

• Respectful Relationships resource kit - gives schools Victorian school strategies and tools to implement a whole-school approach to Respectful Relationships.
• Building resilience in children – a literature review for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) - information on social and emotional learning at all levels, including for the classroom.

Intercultural curriculum area

The Intercultural capability curriculum enables students to explore their own and others’ cultural practices and cultural diversity in Australian society.

The curriculum promotes mutual respect and social cohesion and helps students to develop vital skills for living and working in a multicultural world.