Key
Focus
Areas

Wellbeing

Enabling positive and holistic wellbeing for children and young people.

OUR GOAL

To enable children to experience positive and holistic wellbeing that allows them to engage in learning and improve their lives throughout school and beyond.

By 2027, we aim to impact 150,000 children per year.

Children show improvement in social, emotional and mental wellbeing, through their behavour, attitudes and social connections at school.

Children show improvement in learning engagement and outcomes.

THE NEED

Persistent inequity is impacting the wellbeing and education of many Australian children.

Children and young people facing disadvantage are:

  • twice as likely to experience poor mental wellbeing and by Year 3, are nine months behind their peers.
  • more likely to experience a lower sense of belonging which affects their motivation, participation and academic outcomes.

Our work to support children’s wellbeing

33,837

children

3,466

teachers

139

school communities


Our unique
model drives
our impact

Schools Plus’ model combines three interdependent components that work together to drive change.

Place-based approach

We take a place-based and community led approach to target the unique needs of children within a specific community. We engage a broad range of stakeholders including teachers, health practitioners and families to be active participants in the development and implementation of interventions, because we know it is the community that knows its children best.

Investment to effect change

We support school communities with critical resources that help them to effect change. This includes funding to help access physical and professional resources as well as coaching to enable the project’s successful implementation and evaluation.

Influencing systems change

Some of our larger-scale projects are now playing a key role in influencing systems change at a sector level with some projects incubated by Schools Plus expanding and scaling into mainstream educational programs.

How we give children more opportunities

We partner with schools to help children develop their social and emotional skill, their ability to engage emotionally and cognitively and to build healthy lifestyle habits, so they can thrive in school and beyond.

Some examples of our work include:

  • Building capacity of teachers
  • Programs that enhance and develop children’s social and emotional skills
  • Access to services including social workers and psychologists
  • Activities that promote healthy lifestyles

Read our ‘Every Child, Every Opportunity: Children’s Wellbeing’ report.

Learn more about our work in wellbeing.

Where we work

Schools Plus works with school communities across all states and territories in Australia. Our work supports children from schools with an ICSEA score (Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage) of less than 1000. We also partner with special needs schools.

STORIES OF IMPACT

Restimulating the learning journey

Ava, a Year 4 student at Bruthen Primary School (VIC), responded honestly when teachers asked her and her classmates what they thought about maths; Ava said: “we told them we hated maths.”

Learn more >
Shining a light on a different future

Roxy, Year 10 student at Wynyard High School (TAS), never felt she had a role model. Her mum and older sister never had a job and much like other children in the area, the household she grew up in caused a bit of trauma. Feeling like her prospects were bleak, Roxy did not regularly attend school.

Learn more >
Lighting the spark

As a school already providing opportunities for students to develop entrepreneurial skills, Kepnock State High School (QLD) sought to do more and with a focus on First Nations students.

Learn more >