“Be Kind, Be Brave, Be You” isn’t just a motto at Tenison Woods Catholic School, it’s the guiding principle that shapes the school’s culture and its commitment to ensuring every child feels cared for and supported to thrive. For close to a decade, Tenison Woods Catholic School has been deeply committed to mental health and wellbeing. Beginning with Positive Education from the Institute of Positive Education the school embedded practices such as character strengths across the community.
Four years ago, Tenison Woods Catholic School partnered with The Wellbeing Distillery and their founders, David, Justin and Aimee, to develop a strategic plan for wellbeing at Tenison Woods Catholic School. Since then, wellbeing has become a consistent and intentional part of teaching and learning.
At the same time, Tenison Woods Catholic School also took on a leadership role within the Catholic Education cluster, focusing on community wellbeing and supporting students with disability. With the help of allied health professionals, the school worked together to implement Wellbeing Tier 1 practices across schools in the cluster.
Along this journey, Tenison Woods Catholic School has explored a range of evidence-based programmes. Each step has been part of the school’s continuous improvement focus, ensuring it meets the evolving needs of its students.
The school has also invested in dedicated wellbeing roles, which has allowed the community to be more proactive and responsive. Strategic planning now highlights student and staff wellbeing as a core priority. Staff wellbeing, in particular, has been brought to the forefront, recognising the important role it plays in creating a thriving learning environment. Recently, Tenison Woods Catholic School staff completed training in The Wellbeing Educator program.
At Tenison Woods Catholic School, leaders such as Principal Ben Catalano recognise the value of being a Living Ripples school, particularly in gaining meaningful wellbeing data and insights to guide school-wide practice. This goes beyond individual student check-ins, giving a whole-school perspective on trends and triggers. For example, comparison of last year’s data to this year’s showed that Year 5 girls experienced a significant drop in depression rates. This encouraged the school to embrace targeted programmes for this cohort. This year, the focus is on Year 6 boys, where survey results highlighted low levels of hope. As they prepare to transition to secondary school, the school is designing tailored programmes and guiding questions to support their wellbeing journey.
Each year, Tenison Woods Catholic School shares the Living Ripples survey results with staff, carefully analysing the data so that no child is overlooked. These conversations extend to families, where the school emphasises the value of wellbeing as central to Catholic values of care and compassion.
Wellbeing is celebrated across the school with termly Wellbeing Days, each built around a theme such as kindness. Students take part in activities that strengthen positive relationships- ranging from sharing encouraging words to using HAT Chats, a tool designed to connect people with mental health support and information
The school’s journey is ongoing, but what remains constant is Tenison Woods Catholic School’s commitment to creating a safe, supportive, and thriving community where every student can flourish.
