Only 57% of Australian school staff report that work positively affects their mental health, and 1 in 2 are currently experiencing burnout. When I sat down to write the State of the Nation: Staff Wellbeing Across Australia report, I originally set out to produce a concise 10-page summary. One hundred ...

Conditions in primary schools are more likely to be reported as positive according to our State of Staff Wellbeing in Australia report. Above-average ICSEA primary schools recorded the strongest results in the national dataset, with 67% of staff reporting high morale and 77% a positive culture. However, below-average ICSEA primary ...

Staff in below-average ICSEA secondary schools reported the toughest conditions in the State of Staff Wellbeing in Australia report, with poor leader-staff communication at an average of 71%, staff shortages at 63%, and lack of trust amongst staff sitting at 58%. The data tells a clear story of stacking stressors, ...

Most schools have spent years working on staff wellbeing. They’ve written policies and frameworks, funded programs, and scheduled wellbeing days. And yet the workers' compensation data reports that education now sits among the worst-performing sectors in the country for psychological injury claims, alongside healthcare and first responders. In this episode, ...

Most school leaders understand that psychosocial safety is a legal obligation. Very few have figured out how to make it feel like anything more than a compliance activity. In this solo episode, I unpack the gap between obligation and opportunity, and what it actually takes to move psychosocial safety from ...

What if the one thing that would make the biggest difference to your wellbeing, strategic clarity and positive school culture as a school leader isn’t another strategy or initiative, it’s simply more time to think? In this episode of Well-Led Schools, I’m joined for the third time by Aimee Presnall ...

Most schools have wellbeing programs or initiatives. Very few have wellbeing embedded into the way they function and flourish. That is the difference between bolting something on and creating real, lasting change. In this episode, I am joined by Justin Robinson, co-founder of the Wellbeing Distillery and formerly the founding ...

It’s the start of a new term. And if you’re honest, some of your staff are walking back into school running on empty, not because they don’t care, but because they’ve lost sight of why it matters. What educators actually need to feel purposeful again isn’t another wellbeing afternoon or ...

Burnout in school leadership is rarely dramatic. More often, it looks like a principal who has driven home in tears after holding it together all day, or a leader who lies awake at 2 am running through tomorrow’s decisions, or someone quietly building a wall between who they are at ...