Building on a first year of national success
Welcome to our first edition of On the Pond for 2025 and the beginning of the second year of our national rollout. We are delighted to have Living Ripples schools in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia and look forward to working with these current schools and those who will be joining us this year.
Our current schools will be thinking about scheduling their annual Survey to gather their 2025 school data along with reviewing their 2024 progress. Please get in touch for 2025 Survey access codes or any other questions (info@livingripples.au). Usually, all schools complete the Survey in Term 1 or early in Term 2, with the development of the Action Plan soon after. Action Plan implementation and ongoing monitoring occur during Terms 2, 3 and 4. In late Term 3 or during Term 4, a brief teaching team Audit is done through an online survey and a more formal online Action Plan convened review ready for the next year.
Why do schools join?
Living Ripples enables schools across Australia to help their students become more resilient and to build wellbeing into a permanent and ongoing part of their lives.
The Living Ripples process provides support to schools by collecting and analysing school-wide data in a way that is inclusive, efficient, robust, accessible and enabling. Using the data collected, schools can plan, measure and evaluate their locally led wellbeing activities and programs by grouping and year cohort. The amalgamated and anonymous data is available in the school’s own portal accessible to them year on year. The data can then be compared with Australian norms, using recognised international measures.
What Living Ripples provides for schools is the capacity to reflect, measure, monitor, and evaluate their existing wellbeing activities and programs using current data. Guided by experts, this enables schools to assess both their strengths and needs, then to differentiate and target their programs to maximise impact, manage their finite resources and support all their learners.
Support for your school’s participation is available and applications are currently open. Apply now and see our Guide for Schools, which is a detailed ‘how to’ booklet on preparing for and implementing Living Ripples at your school.
Who’s who in Living Ripples
The team delivering Living Ripples combines Living Ripples Ltd team members and commissioned strategic partners. Support for schools comes from The Phillips Foundation, a philanthropic fund founded by experienced educators Anthony and Liz Phillips, whose broad, long-term focus is to help enable all young people to achieve their potential.
Our strategic partners assist in different aspects of delivery of the process and include Resilient Youth Australia, University of Adelaide WiLDlab and Champion Life. You will hear from different team members as your school participates in the Living Ripples process.
To help coordinate school participation and provide a central contact for all your questions wherever you may be in the Living Ripples process, please contact the Living Ripples Partnership Team at info@livingripples.au. We will respond quickly and always welcome your questions, ideas, suggestions and feedback.
We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Kathryn Williams, an experienced educator and newest member of Living Ripples who will be working directly with schools in our Partnerships Team.
Rolling out the SWAG
Student Wellbeing Action Grant applications have begun!
Late last year we launched the Student Wellbeing Action Grant (SWAG) and have received our first application. The SWAG is designed to support schools participating in the Living Ripples process to meet a specific identified or urgent need resulting from the Survey and Action Plan process.
The Living Ripples Board is aware that schools have a wellbeing budget but at times, this does not meet what a school requires. It is expected that the SWAG amount is a proportion of the total amount required. In this way, the SWAG is a helping hand addition to support the Living Ripples process. The SWAG is a competitive process and will be assessed by the Board.
Read our SWAG FAQs
Aligned to our SWAG, we have invited program providers or suppliers who are interested in supporting the SWAG program, to partner with us. We are keen to collaborate with providers and partners who are experienced, creative, wide-ranging in their approach and committed to working with schools and their communities.
Most importantly of all, we need partners who want to work with Living Ripples. Providers express their interest to be on the Living Ripples register. This includes a summary of services, completion of details of mandatory regulations and how regular connections with schools are maintained. Because Living Ripples is evidence-based, its approved providers will receive evaluation data as they are committed to contributing to a coordinated and collaborative approach.
For SWAG providers, register your interest in being a Living Ripples partner.
We would like to welcome our first three program partners:
Champion Life, the digital wellbeing platform has developed a customised program for schools engaged in the Living Ripples process, called Living Ripples Plus. The platform enables teachers to support and monitor student wellbeing throughout the year while actively engaging students in their own progress. With regular check-ins, Living Ripples Plus provides real-time, self-reported data from students, offering valuable insights into individual and class wellbeing. The data is tailored to align with each school’s Student Wellbeing Action Plans, developed through the Living Ripples process, ensuring focused effective progress monitoring. The platform includes teacher journal entries, a selection of video brain breaks, and automated reporting.
Resilient Youth Australia: providers and facilitators helping create strong, resilient students, schools and communities with workshops and play-based programs aimed across the primary and secondary stages. Programs include PLAY (Victorian Mental Health Menu approved), WILDSIDE, GAME CHANGERS, Kind Schools, Trail Blazers, and Intergenerational Insights Workshop.
Switch 4 Schools: a digital platform designed to promote student mental health and emotional wellbeing by providing a tool for students to regularly check in on their emotions. The platform offers teachers’ insights and strategies to support their students based on real-time data.
Opportunities and hopes for 2025
With the new school year underway, the Living Ripples team has specific goals we are keen to achieve for the year including:
- Hosting regular Living Ripples information sessions for schools with the first being a brief introduction to Living Ripples (30 minutes) on Thursday 27 February at 8.00 am, register here or on Tuesday 4 March 2025 at 3.30 pm, register here.
- Grow the number of Living Ripples across Australia from our current 110 schools to 200, and have greater representation in all states and territories.
- Povide a helping hand support to 40 of our eligible Living Ripples schools through our Student Wellbeing Action Grant.
- Showcase stories of learning and success.
- Work with interested school communities to pilot and implement a place-based activation of Living Ripples in new and diverse communities which includes funding a part time local project lead for support. If you are interested, please get in touch.
- Find partners and others to build the financial sustainability of the Living Ripples process.
- To participate in local events and national conferences to share Living Ripples and learn from schools and others as to how we can best support student wellbeing.
Keen to know more? Or for any questions, please get in touch at info@livingripples.au
