There is a growing awareness and appreciation of the place of well-being in schools. Over the past two years, staff and student well-being teams have working to promote the idea of well-being as an essential part of life at Riccarton High School “well-being as a prerequisite for reaching our potential as learners”.

The idea of well-being in schools is not a new idea. 

In 2004 Geelong Grammar School in Australia noticed that their students were struggling to cope with the combined pressures of school life and modern day living. 

Stress levels, rates of anxiety, depression, drug use etc were high. 

The school decided to take action to better support their students. 

Over several years the school worked with Professor Martin Seligman, a foremost authority on Positive Psychology. 

The concept of Positive Education was the outcome, elements of Positive Psychology infused in the teaching and learning practices of a school with the aim of students and staff achieving better well-being.

Five years ago, well-being started to feature on the New Zealand school landscape with the introduction of the Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health project. 

This initiative was in response to the fact that New Zealand has some of the most troubling statistics around youth depression, stress, anxiety and suicide. 

A review of guidance, counselling and pastoral care in schools was carried and with indicators of well-being and guidelines for supporting student well-being in schools being the outcome of the review.

More recently all 32 secondary schools in the Christchurch region have joined a community of practice that is focusing on developing and implementing school-wide well-being initiatives in schools to support the well-being of both students and staff.

Our own statistics are telling us that there is a need to build a school culture that has well-being central to student learning.

In 2018 we are making a concerted start to bringing well-being into ‘how we do things’ at Riccarton High School. 

This will involve working with students, staff and our community. 

Our Well-being Committee, led by two of the school’s prefects are working hard to ensure that the well-being message gathers momentum amongst our student body and that well-being promoting activities / action is happening. 

The Well-being team (staff) are working through the process of planning and implementing a school-wide well-being programme and will communicate progress being made with our parent body and community as we move through the year ahead.