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Empower Your Students: A Practical Guide To Building Wellbeing and Resilience
Resilience and student wellbeing programs are the keys to success, in and outside of the classroom. When we nurture student resilience and wellbeing, we see girls become confident, capable and happy.
May 31, 2024
Author:
Tomorrow Woman
We know that teenage girls are under enormous pressure. They face constant academic demands. Many of them are also grappling with personal struggles, including body confidence, dating and friendships, family issues, and preparing for a future that many Australian schoolkids think looks pretty bad.
But, it’s not all bad news. With the right support, students can thrive and work towards building a better tomorrow..
Resilience and student wellbeing programs are the keys to success, in and outside of the classroom. When we nurture student resilience and wellbeing, we see girls become confident, capable and happy. Their academic results improve, and so does their self-esteem. They’re better able to handle stress, build healthy relationships and actively pursue their dreams.
What Do Wellbeing And Resilience Mean For Students?
While wellbeing and resilience are connected, there are important differences between these two concepts.
Understanding Student Resilience
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks and keep going despite challenges. For students, this means managing stress levels, coping with poor exam results or friendship fallouts, and staying motivated even when school is tough.
Think of the student who failed an exam. Instead of giving up, she’ll ask for help, try again and believe that she’ll do better next time. That’s what it means to be resilient.
Nobody’s born resilient. It’s something we learn throughout our lives. Schools can help students build resilience and celebrate when kids demonstrate their own resilience.
Understanding Student Wellbeing
Student wellbeing is the combination of young people’s physical, emotional, mental and social health. To put it simply: are students safe, happy and healthy?
When student wellbeing is strong, students are more engaged, motivated and able to learn. A girl who’s happy at school is more likely to speak up in class, engage in her school work and maintain positive relationships. And, she’s more likely to be resilient if she gets a low mark.
On the other hand, a student who feels out of place and unhappy at school will struggle. She might feel isolated, anxious or overwhelmed. She’s unlikely to be able to give her schoolwork her full attention. And, if she struggles in class, chances are that instead of showing resilience, she’ll think she’s just not smart enough to get it.
How Wellbeing And Resilience Enable Students To Succeed
We know that teenage girls thrive when they’re happier, healthier and more resilient. You see this in your school every day, but the data also backs it up.
Better student wellbeing and resilience have been shown to lead to improved academic results, more classroom participation and fewer risky behaviours.
Then there’s the long-term impact. When we talk about student success, it’s easy to focus solely on marks and exam scores. But we all know that true success goes beyond the classroom.
Improved student wellbeing and resilience have been linked to better physical health and wellbeing in adulthood. Even more importantly, they result in better mental health and reduced likelihood of depression and anxiety.
Student Wellbeing Programs In Schools
For schools, a student resilience and wellbeing strategy is more important than ever. We can’t just hope that our young people develop resilience and good wellbeing. We have to nurture it.
The Department of Education created the Australian Student Wellbeing Framework to tackle the issue of poor student mental health. It has five key elements: leadership, inclusion, student voice, partnerships and support.
Schools can turn to the Student Wellbeing Hub to help them with this. The hub contains a school wellbeing survey and resources for teachers. These include classroom teaching materials, as well as information to help educators learn about wellness and self-paced training modules.
Schools can also access Be You, another government initiative. It’s an online source of wellbeing information, fact sheets and resources for schools.
Successfully Supporting Students Through School Wellbeing Programs
Despite all the resources published by the Australian government, creating a school resilience and wellbeing strategy isn’t easy. Implementing it can be even harder.
But, the effort is worth it. We know that school wellbeing programs work. We see it here at Tomorrow Woman, when we run our wellbeing workshops for educators, parents and students.
Evidence for Learning and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has also reviewed the impact of student wellbeing programs in schools. When it comes to academic success, they found that wellbeing programs have the same effect as three months of additional learning. That’s longer than an entire school term.
Plus, their review found that wellbeing programs improved students’ behaviour, social relationships and emotional management. Students were less likely to internalise negative feelings, such as sadness, anxiety and loneliness, when compared to schools without student wellbeing programs.
And, students showed greater cognitive adjustment, or the ability to change their thoughts, beliefs and attitudes to better handle new situations and challenges.
Let’s Help You Improve Girls’ Wellbeing And Resilience
Here at Tomorrow Woman, we run wellbeing programs for students, teachers and parents. Our Teacher Training module will help your staff engage with the issues that affect teenage girls today. Your team will walk away feeling more confident in their ability to talk with students about mental health and wellbeing.
Our 1+ year program for female students helps girls learn vital skills for improving their wellbeing. These include developing self-compassion and overcoming perfectionism, setting personal boundaries, and building healthy relationships.
95% of teenage participants felt that the skills learnt and themes discussed were going to change their life for the better.
Find out more about our workshops.
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Tomorrow Woman is a social enterprise in partnership with Tomorrow Man and Tomorrow Architects. Our offices are located in Sydney and Melbourne – and we travel everywhere across Australia.
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We respectfully acknowledge the first custodians of the land on which we live and work, the Wurrundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. We pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging and to all First Nations People. Sovereignty was never ceded and treaties were never signed.
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