Corrimal East Public School is in the northern suburbs of Wollongong, between the mountains and the sea. With 300 students, its motto is ‘A small school making a big difference’. And the school is making a big difference to its students and their families and community by prioritising wellbeing. Assistant principal Joseph Dawson says that in this way, ‘we are bringing the best out in our students’. The qualities that wellbeing encourages include the way in which the students adapt to their work, their personal resilience and their staying power.
Familiar with Living Ripples since 2023, Corrimal Public is accustomed to data collection, giving them the most accurate base to find out the needs of their students. This year they adopted the new model of surveying their students giving them data they can compare to the Australian norms.
Through their Student Wellbeing Action Plan meeting with survey researchers and program partner, the University of Adelaide’s WiLDlab, the school has decided to focus on supporting all students feel safe, supported and ready for learning. One of its specific initiatives is the Peer Support Program led by students for students. Hosted by the Student Leadership Team all students participate in the program with instruction and activities held each Wednesday afternoon for an hour. Students meet in groups, building friends and networks. Siblings are not in the same group, a deliberate step to encourage them to make new friends. ‘With the peer support group, we are moving the ranking for healthy minds to over 70% – that’s happening as we speak’ says Mr Dawson.
Another initiative coming from the survey findings and the school’s strong focus on giving the students a voice, hearing them and acting on what they say is more support for Year 5 girls. With the data showing that Year 5 girls needed more support this led to a ‘Girls Pod’ which is held on Monday lunchtimes with a teacher, a day that is chosen to start the week in a positive way. At first, only students that were invited came along, but then they wanted to include their friends, so the group has grown. Other teachers, seeing this, also wanted to be involved. Now there are fifteen students attending the ‘Girls Pod’ voluntarily. One thing Joseph Dawson has noticed is that ‘the students see me, as assistant principal, in a different and more positive way’.
For Corrimal East Public, these initiatives have been possible because we have evidence and from sharing that widely and talking through the findings has brought all staff together to support our students. The next step is to share these findings and successes more widely with the students themselves and the broader school community and continue to listen to and act on what our students need.
