The National Excellence in School Leadership’s (NESLI) Staff Wellbeing Toolkit is having a significant and positive impact on school staff around Australia, according to a new report measuring the efficacy of the support program.
The impact report surveyed over 7000 participants, revealing that 98 per cent have reported an increase in their wellbeing and social capital.
The highest degree of impact was on participants’ physical health and their levels of optimism.
The Staff Wellbeing Toolkit was developed in collaboration with Associate Professor Philip Riley of Australian Catholic University, who leads the Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey each year. Findings of this year’s survey, released 27 February 2019, revealed that almost one in three principals are experiencing dangerously high levels of stress.
“The confronting findings released today in the 2018 Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey shows us how important it is that we address this issue as a matter of national urgency,” said Paul Mears, General Manager of NESLI Asia Pacific.
“We know that teachers and principals in Australia are overworked and undervalued. The toolkit is designed to address these concerns and empower educators to better manage their health and wellbeing. The findings of this report show that, overall, teachers show increased levels of wellbeing and organisations achieve higher levels of social capital upon completion of the program.”
Dr Anna Dabrowski, Director of Education and Evaluation at NESLI and Researcher at the University of Melbourne added, “Educators in Australia report some of the greatest levels of job-related anxiety within the OECD, and education policies around student achievement place increasing stress both on parents, and on the profession. The results of the 2018 Principal Wellbeing Survey are unacceptable, but not surprising, and require us as a society to look at our perceptions of the teaching profession, and how we support those who care for and educate our children.
“NESLI’s Staff Wellbeing toolkit is a step in the right direction in addressing some of these issues. Our results indicate that a significant number of participants saw a positive shift in pre- and post- wellbeing and social capital levels. Encouragingly, the gains we observed were highest in very remote and rural schools, as well as in states and territories which often report the highest attrition rates in the profession.”
