On-screen text: David Young – Principal – Lucas Primary School]
David: Lucas Primary School is the newest primary school in Ballarat. It services the western area of Ballarat, which is a high growth area. We have about 120 new enrolments every year, so we currently sit at around 530 students. Cass is our Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader for the Mental Health in Primary Schools program, but she's also our Wellbeing Leader for the school as well.
[On-screen text: Cassandra Jackson-Lee – Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader – Lucas Primary School]
Cassandra: In terms of how it's been implemented here, it's changed over time and it's had a few iterations. It's part of the fabric of just what we do, so people wouldn't know Lucas Primary School really without it, and MHiPS isn't done in isolation to anything else I do. It's just part of what we do and part of what I do every day.
[On-screen text: Jacqui Nash – Assistant Principal Wellbeing and Inclusion – Lucas Primary School]
Jacqui: Cass is a driving force behind the wellbeing of students at Lucas Primary School, and she's extremely passionate in that space.
David: Mental health is a big part of our priority and the fact that mentally healthy students are also great learning students. A big part of what Cass does with our assistant principal and inclusion, is to look at all of our wellbeing programs in terms of Respectful Relationships, in terms of our Social Emotional Learning, in terms of our behaviour management and our School-wide Positive Behaviour programs and try and mesh them together to create a really coherent pathway forward.
Cassandra: MHiPS is absolutely complementary to other things that we've got going on here, and it was a catalyst to start other things. We've been able to set up processes that my training through MHiPS has supported, and also the connection to the Mental Health Fund will help guide us down a pathway where we can choose things that are backed up in data so we know that they work. And it also means that with these different things, we can get not only a lens of wellbeing across the school in the way we operate with students and families and the community, but we are getting it into the teaching and learning too. There's lots of things that we've started that MHiPS helped us get going with.
David: Teaching the staff the skills and the knowledge to work with students to help them become mentally healthy, is a really important skill. If we can support teachers to build that knowledge, then we have effectively 30 different wellbeing leaders across the school.
Jacqui: She does a really good job of leading that space in terms of her own training and then bringing back the information and sharing it with us.
Cassandra: I think that the training that I've done has absolutely informed how we've been able to build capacity of staff here, and we're all trying to do the same thing. We're just doing it in different schools, but I think it's that collaboration that's just so important. We've done lots of professional development here at Lucas. Initially it started with trying to build everyone's mental health literacy, just explaining like what even is mental health? What is wellbeing? What comes under those umbrella terms? And also trying to reduce stigma around mental health. Also multi-tiered systems of support, beginning with the Tier 1, which is we're trying to get information out there to everyone. We want there to be Tier 1 initiatives so that we are not just responding to point of need where things may be get a bit tricky or sticky.
[On-screen text: Rebecca O’Keefe - Classroom Teacher – Lucas Primary School]
Rebecca: So, the main thing I think that we see at Lucas Primary School is that you could ask any of our 530 students about mental health and wellbeing and they'll be able to tell you something about it.
[On-screen text: Leon – Grade 6 Student – Lucas Primary School]
Leon: Mental health is calming yourself down, finding a way to get regulated. With the Social Emotional Learning groups, it makes me focus quite easily. With her, I've became happier to be at school.
[On-screen text: Eli – Grade 4 Student – Lucas Primary School]
Eli: She encourages kids and me to come to school and to be happy.
[On-screen text: Charlotte – Grade 6 Student, Student Wellbeing Leader – Lucas Primary School]
Charlotte: I like seeing Cass here, because she's always helping us. I would probably say a big thank you to her for everything that she's done for the school and that she should be really proud of what she's done.
Cassandra: Improvements and outcomes are really hard to measure in the wellbeing space. So, a lot of the time we do look to anecdotal moments, the things like seeing kids seeking help, seeing teachers seeking help, having connection with family, and getting feedback from parents around the fact that they know we've got a wellbeing lens here.
[On-screen text: Casey Jenkins – Parent – Lucas Primary School]
Casey: We've had a little bit to do with Cass over the years, and she's a great influence on all of the kids. We're very lucky to have her in the school grounds, and the programs that she's bringing in and the support that she's giving the kids is amazing. It's very reassuring to know that someone is just purely focused, not only on the education side of things, but also on the mental health side of things.
David: The MHiPS program has made a big difference in schools. It was the part of the puzzle that was missing because it has someone there with the passion, the time, and the drive to actually support mental health in primary schools. We didn't have the person that was able to really drive the professional learning, drive the connections, and drive the referral processes across the school and the links to, you know, outside Allied Health support.
Jacqui: The impact can be seen in our students when you see them using strategies that classroom teachers are implementing. The students that Cass are working with, you see them turn a day around, you see them turn an hour around. It's one of the most impactful parts of our school.
Cassandra: I think that MHiPS is a fabulous initiative. With all things, people are going to implement it differently in different spaces, but I think that's also the beauty of it. Schools are able to tailor it to support the needs within their school. So, it's really a fantastic thing and I'm really proud to be part of it.
[End of Transcript]
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