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Enabling NSW primary schools to understand student wellbeing – the trialling of a student wellbeing pulse survey

  • This trial project included the development and implementation of a short student wellbeing pulse survey in 14 NSW primary schools in Term 4, 2022.

    Student wellbeing is integral to learning outcomes and engagement with school. Measuring student wellbeing is one important mechanism for understanding the wellbeing of students and for schools to provide appropriate, evidence-based and early intervention responses. Yet many schools don’t have access to evidence-based tools necessary to measure the wellbeing of their student population. 

    From September 2022 – February 2023, the NSW Department of Education and the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) partnered to develop and trial a student wellbeing pulse (12 item) survey with 14 primary schools across metropolitan and regional NSW.  Using items from the published evidence, the survey considered the wellbeing domains of safety and belonging, resilience, social-emotional wellbeing, general health and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their life. The survey used age and developmentally appropriate wording and emoticons to assist student and parent/carer responses.

    Figure 1: Example of survey item and response options

    Survey-item_response

    Over 220 students in year 4-6 self-completed the opt-in survey and over 490 parents/carers of students in K-3 completed the survey on behalf of their child/ren. Approximately 28% of respondents spoke a language additional to English in the home and just over 10% were born outside Australia. Just under 7% of participants identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

    Results indicated that overall student wellbeing was positive. The survey also captured some minor variations in some student wellbeing domains across sub-population groups, such as between genders and between the K-3 and 4-6 age cohorts. 

    As the trial included a small sample of schools, results are not representative of a of all primary school students within the NSW public education system. However, given the project aimed to test the feasibility of survey implementation, it was encouraging that focus groups at participating schools indicated that the delivery of a short, pulse student wellbeing survey is both feasible and beneficial to gain a ‘temperature check’ on student wellbeing. 

    The school-level survey reports provided to schools were easy to understand and will support existing wellbeing programs and activities provided by schools. 

    A comprehensive report, along with accompanying recommendations, was developed and provided to the Department.

    Acknowledgments

    We would like to acknowledge the principals, teachers, students and families from participating schools who volunteered their time and insights to ensure the success of the project.

    Collaborators

    Centre for Community Child Health (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute) and NSW Department of Education.

    For more information on the project

    Centre for Community Child Health: Rachel Whiffen, Mental Health Advocacy Lead, Rachel.whiffen@mcri.edu.au.

    Project received ethics approval: Royal Children’s Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee, HREC 91023.

    Authors: Rachel Whiffen, Megan Keyes, Suzy Joachim, Elsa Santo, Sharon Goldfeld. 

     

 

Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

The Centre for Community Child Health is a department of The Royal Children’s Hospital and a research group of Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.