Understand mental health and wellbeing in learning communities
A mentally healthy learning community is critical to children and young people achieving their best possible mental health, no matter their developmental stage. It significantly contributes to developing a mentally healthy generation into the future.
This module introduces core concepts relating to mental health and wellbeing in learning communities. It explores the role of educators in promoting mental health and wellbeing for themselves, the children in their care and other educators. It also offers strategies to help educators apply this knowledge within the boundaries of their role. Risk and protective factors relating to mental health and wellbeing are also discussed.
Be You uses the term ‘learning community’ to describe the education settings Be You works with to support the mental health and wellbeing of children from birth to 18 years. These include family day care, long day care, preschool and kindergarten, as well as school and school age care services.
Who is this module for?
This module is for educators who want to improve their understanding of mental health and wellbeing in learning communities.
It will help you:
- build your understanding of what mental health and wellbeing, and mentally healthy learning communities
- identify risk and protective factors for mental health and wellbeing
- better understand the role of your wellbeing in mentally healthy learning communities, including the boundaries of your role
- apply skills that promote positive mental health and wellbeing.
Accreditation
This module contributes to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) and ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional development hours, addressing the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
In the ACT, completing Understand will contribute 90 minutes of ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional learning addressing standard 4.4.2 Maintain Student Safety of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
In NSW, completing the Understand module will contribute 90 minutes of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) accredited professional development in the priority area of Student/child Mental health addressing standard descriptor 4.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW. Educators can complete modules individually and receive accredited hours.
All registered teachers in every state and territory must ensure they have added their teacher registration number and state/territory to the My Profile page.
Please see FAQs for more details on the Be You Professional Learning upload process and time frames in which participants can expect their learning to be recorded with their relevant organisation.
Learning outcomes
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- appreciate the importance of developing mentally healthy learning communities
- understand mental health and wellbeing as it relates to your role as an educator
- apply strategies to support the development of mentally healthy learning communities
- begin to take actions that support the development of mentally healthy learning communities.
Using the Notepad
If you’re a PC or Mac user, there’s a notepad feature for you to record notes, actions or discussion points for each topic. If you’re sharing a computer with your team, your notes will be available for everyone to view. If you wish to keep your notes private, please save and delete your notes each time you finish your session. There’s more information in the Notepad user guide on the right.
Using this module
The Be You Professional Learning modules are designed to be used flexibly in the way best suited for you and your learning community.
Consider one section at a time within the modules. At the end of each page, you will be prompted to explore additional resources within Be You that relate to the content. It is suggested that you complete one module at a time and use these prompts to identify future opportunities for learning.
You will be prompted to take breaks throughout; this can aid your learning and retention of the content.
You can further your learning by using the reflection questions provided throughout the module. You can use these questions in ways that suit your learning community’s ways of working and broader professional development. There are also resources, such as the Be You Action Plan and Be You Actions Catalogue, that can be used to further facilitate these discussions.