Wellbeing 
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.
SUPPORT US to improve 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
Fast tracking English with online learning
Lan, Year 6, has reaped the benefits of Milpera Live – an online English language program that supports children with English as a second language/dialect (EAL/D).
Learn more >
Breaking barriers for multilingual families
For St Peter’s Catholic Primary School (VIC), prolonged periods of Covid lockdown added to their existing challenge of engaging culturally and linguistically diverse families in their children’s learning.
Learn more >
Success for Complex Learners with VFFF and Clarke Road School
Since 2016, we’ve partnered with Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation to help children and their families to engage in learning and thrive in and out of the classroom. With their support, a group of special schools have developed the Passport for Learning – a ground-breaking tool that is now being scaled by the Department of Education. In our latest video, Clarke Road School spoke about the Passport and the impact it’s having on young people and their families.
Learn more >
