Lessons from schools in Canada: Wellbeing
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 No 4, 9 June 2023, page no.24
Since 2019, the Queensland Teachers’ Union and the Alberta Teachers’ Association have been engaged in a program of professional learning, cooperation and assistance. This year, the QTU delegation was hosted in Edmonton, Alberta.
We were privileged to visit five unique schools:
- Oliver School – a K-9 school with three different programs, including an all-girls leadership and community service academy.
- New Horizons – a publicly funded charter school for gifted and talented students.
- St Dominic’s School – a Catholic, inner city elementary school.
- Amiskwaciy Academy – a First Nations school with an Indigenous focus, which covers years 7-12 and has a significant cultural land-based learning program.
- WP Wagner School – a STEM and technology high school with grades 10-12, which has a targeted anti-racism program led by the students, enacted through a student senate.
In visiting these five very different schools, what was immediately noticeable was the calmness and focus of the students. When speaking to the school leaders, they explained that their first priority is wellbeing of the students, and this was evident in specific spaces for the students in the schools.
The emphasis on student welfare was a system (education district) response to how the students presented post the COVID lockdowns. In 2021 the Alberta Government commissioned a cross-ministry research project to discover the full scope of psychological, social, educational and physical effects the pandemic had on children and youth. The resulting recovery-oriented Child and Youth Wellbeing Action Plan made specific (funded) recommendations for child, youth and community stakeholders, including a significant recommendation to “recognise and enhance the essential role of schools in interdisciplinary wraparound services and supports for mental health and wellbeing of students” (https://open.alberta.ca/publications/alberta-child-and-youth-well-being-action-plan).
Specialised learning support grant funds are available for schools to access funded mental wellness programs, including mental health workers and other social-emotional supports where needed. An example of the system resource commitment to student welfare in high schools is the partnering of deputy principals with a partner guidance officer to better proactively and reactively address student needs.
Observing these five schools in Canada highlighted to the QTU delegation the inextricably linked interrelationship between wellbeing and learning; when you nurture one the other thrives. In our observations, these were healthy and balanced school communities with high staff morale and a positive growth mindset focused on learning. This suggests that investing in school staff wellbeing supports, programs, spaces, and relationships are essential considerations in maintaining school community resilience and a responsive capability to help children and youth to work through adversity and successfully navigate the challenges facing them, thereby making them more successful learners. Actively focusing on building student wellbeing has had a positive impact on staff wellbeing and creates self-sustaining systems.
Highlights
Paige: The anti-racism program at WP Wagner – we had 15 and 16-year-olds explain to us what unconscious bias was and how 150 students from the student senate were going to surrounding elementary schools to do a workshop on racism with the elementary students.
Cindy: The system-wide focus on and the proactive investment in the wellbeing of students, families and school communities appeared to have a profound impact on the wellbeing and balance of teachers and leaders and school communities as a whole. Learning efficacy was grounded in wellbeing.
Amanda: The schools’ enactment of Division priorities supported a sense of belonging and social, emotional and physical wellbeing. Age appropriate and/or cultural spaces complimented social emotional learning (SEL) and a calm learning environment across schools. Teachers were actively using SEL strategies to support learning stamina and engagement.
Andrew: The clearly established and embedded role of support and collaboration between school leaders and their district superintendents. The school leaders all spoke about this relationship being focused on providing support, being built on trust, and only having minor components of collaborative supervision. This included the district superintendents being highly responsive to the need to provide additional resourcing to schools to further support students with complex learning behaviours.
Chris: In addition to programs and safe spaces for students, schools have prioritised student learning as opposed to student achievement. Concepts such as “distance travelled” and “demonstrating what has been learned”, as opposed to measuring achievement, have taken on more importance in school priorities, operations and culture.