Cultivating inclusive practices to enhance mentally healthy school communities

Katie Lack

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So, welcome to today's Be You In Focus: Cultivating inclusive practices to enhance mentally healthy school communities. I'm Katie and I will be co-facilitating today's In Focus with my colleague, Aislinn.

We're also very fortunate to have with us today a great panel to share their expertise. So, thank you for joining us as we explore the ways schools can create a stronger sense of inclusion and belonging for students within their communities.

And now I'd like to Acknowledge Country. I would like to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia's first people and Traditional Custodians. I value their cultures, identities, and continuing connection to country, waters, kin, and community. I pay my respects to elders, past and present. Through headspace and the Be You framework, we are committed to making a positive contribution to the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, by providing services that are welcoming, safe, culturally appropriate, and inclusive. As an initiative with national reach, we extend our respect to all First Nations people across Australia. I'm coming to you this afternoon from the land of Lutruwita, and I'd like to thank all Palawa and Muwinina people for their care of this beautiful island and of course, I would also like to extend my greatest respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us for this webinar today.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Thanks so much for that wonderful acknowledgment, Katie. I am joining today from Tandanya, down here in SA, the lands of the Kaurna people. My name is Aislinn, and I am a Be You consultant with the SA team. My background is in social work and psychology, and I was really excited to be a part of this In Focus session today, because I think that it's so important to empower educators into these spaces, and to have the confidence to ask the questions, and really engage with this sort of work. So, I'm going to pass down our wonderful panel and ask everyone to introduce themselves. Katie, would you like to introduce yourself. Katie Lack Thank you. My name is Katie Lack. I'm the Be You State Coordinator in Tasmania. I have a background in primary and secondary teaching, and today I'm really wanting to highlight the great work and the strategies that lots of schools are trying hard to do, to build inclusion into their communities. And now I'd like to pass it on to Kirstine.

Kirstine Hand

Thanks, Katie. So, my name is Kirstine Hand, and I'm the Project Coordinator of the Capability, Confidence & Diversity Initiative at True Relationships and Reproductive Health in Queensland. My background is in education, secondary, early childhood, and special education context. But within my role at True I work to support school-based staff in Queensland on how to maintain the wellbeing of LGBTQIA+ students, so really excited to be here today. I'd now like to pass on to Meredith.

Meredith Melville-Jones

Thank you, Kirstine. My name is Meredith Melville-Jones. I'm the director of Bradford Senior College, which is in St Leonards in Sydney. My background is, in fact, in television, and the airline industry, which is completely not related to this. But, what we pride ourselves on at Bradfield is having a truly diverse community, and we work very hard at it every day, and I'm really happy to share some of those strategies with you today. So, looking forward to this afternoon's webinar.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Thanks so much everyone. Before we dive in, I do just want to make a note for everyone on the importance of looking after yourself and others in the process of doing this work. So, you can see on the screen there just a little three-part model for looking after yourself, and I think it's really important as we're working in this diversity space to be aware that strong emotions can come up for us. There is also just a note at this stage that there may be mention of loss to suicide in a deidentified sense later on in the presentation. So just do be sure to take care of yourself in this space. If you need to step away or take a break, that's totally okay. And we also definitely encourage you to access any supports that you may have, some of your Help Plan, Lifeline, those sorts of people, or EAP through your workplace. And there's also some resources and links being posted in the chat box for you to have a look at if you would like to. But yeah, just a note to make sure that you're looking after yourself as we're going through this webinar today.

Katie Lack

So, in today's session we'll provide you with an understanding of why inclusive practices in school communities is so important for young people. We'll also have the opportunity to hear from Kirstine and Meredith in a panel discussion where they'll respond to questions about inclusive practice from our audience. We'll also focus on the actions that educators can take to increase the sense of inclusion, and belonging for young people in their communities, and hope that you can take away some strategies for providing young people with early support that may be experiencing the early signs of mental health concerns. And also following today's session, as mentioned earlier, you'll get to take away a certificate which will be available via the follow up email after today's session.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Another thing that we wanted to mention as we're moving into this, one of our last bits of housekeeping, I promise, is this concept of hindsight bias. So, something to be aware of is that humans are really good at making connections and making meaning out of information that they come across. And what can happen when we're working in spaces, particularly spaces like diversity and inclusion, is that it can lead us to a space where we start to feel uncomfortable about our past actions or our past inactions, and it's really important that if you notice that happening for you, you take a moment to remember that everyone who's here today is here because they really do genuinely care about the children and young people in their care, and because they want to do the best that they possibly can. So, anything that you have done in your life has come from a place of trying to do the best that you could with the information that was available to you at that time. If you do find yourself getting caught up in the could have, or should have, or shouldn't haves, just take the moment to take a step back from that and notice that that's happening and remind yourself that you really are doing such a wonderful job.

Katie Lack

Thanks, Aislinn. So, we really want our young people to flourish, to feel included and connected in our school communities. And I think, as part of our focus today it's really important to consider the whys. So, if you're wondering why we may consider implementing inclusive practices as educators, it's important to consider the impact on young people if we don't, and we know that some young people are at greater risk within our school communities, and at times feel disconnected to school and their peers. So, young people who experience distress and exclusion may unfortunately disengage from their learning and not attend school regularly, which also may impact on their capacity to seek help or to build positive relationships with others. This is an important consideration when we know one trusted person within a school community can have such a positive impact on a young person feeling supported and connected. Specific groups that may be a more at risk, include our LGBTQIA+ community and our First Nations youth.

Aislinn Whittenbury

And just to cover some of the stats that are behind that, so the evidence that we have access to shows that, at the moment, almost 2 in 5 young people aged 16 to 24 report a mental health condition within a twelve-month period. But that’s greater for young people within those LGBTQIA+ and First Nations groups, among others. The reports of those very high or high levels of psychological distress, similarly go quite a lot higher. And this results in young people missing school because they don't feel safe. And this is true for both of those groups that we've mentioned earlier. It's really important to note that those attendance rates aren't getting better over time, and, like Katie mentioned, oftentimes educators really do provide that first point of contact for young people seeking support. And so, what we really want to be able to do is try and encourage them to be attending, and be in that space, so that they can access those really wonderful supports that are available to them. So, going to hand over to our lovely panellist, Kirstine, who's going to talk a little bit about the work that she does now.

Kirstine Hand

Thanks very much. So, as was just mentioned, we know that LGBTQIA+ students do face unique challenges, and unfortunately still are at a much higher risk of experiencing discrimination or bullying. And of course, this is going to impact on their social, emotional, wellbeing as well as their ability to feel like they can engage safely in school. Which of course, then impacts on academic achievement. So, it's really important that we're working together collectively to address this in school environments. And in order to do so, it's also critical that we're drawing on research literature to make sure that the inclusive practices that we're putting into place are informed by evidence. So, to be effective in supporting LGBTQIA+ student wellbeing. It's really critical that schools implement a whole school approach towards LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and an approach which also considers intersectionality. Now, by doing this, it will help to ensure that LBGTQIA+ students, are very well supported, and that diversity within the school environment is being embraced, respected, and also celebrated. Now, you can see a bit of a framework there, hopefully up on the screen. The whole school approach to inclusion. So, there's several key components of this whole school approach that really should be considered when we're looking at embedding LGBTQIA+ inclusive practices. So, you can see one of the areas there is having strong leadership. So, leadership teams within the school that show a very visible commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusion and wellbeing is critical, and that can be within staff leadership teams as well as school leaders, as well as from within peer groups is really important. It's critical that we're establishing inclusive school values and an inclusive school culture, one where diversity is respected and where it's very clear that bullying and discrimination is not accepted within that school environment. Now something that can be really important to help us achieve that is making sure that we've got very clear explicit policies, procedures, and processes in place where consideration of LGBTQIA+ people has been embedded and very explicit protections for LGBTQIA+ people are stated. We move on to an inclusive curriculum, and it's really critical for a number of reasons that we're embedding that LGBTQIA+ representation into curriculum. The ACARA curriculum does support that, so it is evident there in ACARA. It’s critical that we are embedding that representation because it helps to ensure equity of education. So, making sure all students’ individual needs and educational needs are being addressed. But we also know from the research that where we are embedding inclusive curriculum it actually helps to remove that stigmatisation that has historically existed around LGBTQIA+ identities which then reduces the amount of peer bullying and discrimination that LGTBQIa+ students are likely to experience so really really important to make sure that we're doing that. We also need to make sure that we've got resources that represent LGBTQIA+ people within our school environments, and that we've got accessible facilities for LGBTQIA+ people. So that might be considerations, for example, around bathrooms or change rooms, and making sure that everybody feels safe and comfortable to access the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity, for example. Now, something else that's really important is making sure that our staff are provided with appropriate training and support as well. It's particularly critical around LGBTQIA+ inclusion, as it's very typical for staff to be at very different stages of their learning and understanding in this particular area. And then we move on to student support and also very importantly, student voice. So, making sure that we're listening to students and collecting data, whether that's through surveys, providing opportunities for broader education for the whole of the student cohort as well. And also something that's been found to be very beneficial, again supported by research evidence is establishing LGBTQIA+ student groups as well. This helps enable students to form connections with community, with similar peers, as well as get that social, emotional support. Having those strong relationships with school staff, which can also be a really pivotal factor to ensuring that LGBTQIA+ students feel safe and supported, and a sense of being connected to school. And it also can play a critical part in helping to improve that broader school culture as well, around LGBTQIA+ inclusion by building that awareness within the broader school community. And finally we come to the importance of engaging with our parents and carers as part of the school community, and other community groups which might also include local LGBTQIA+ organisations where relevant. Okay, so that's the whole school approach to LGBTQIA+ inclusion. So, what we do tend to find is when schools review these different areas, they might find that there are different starting points. I know I've engaged with several schools where they found that, actually, they were very limited in what was currently occurring within their school environments, but then work through a process over a period of about twelve months. So, the starting point for those schools was getting some professional development for their staff, more detailed professional development for the key support staff, such as guidance officers, and then looking at implementing student groups, updating policies. And what's really lovely to see is the huge amount of change and growth that can occur in schools when they do apply that whole school approach to inclusion. Now, I just want to touch briefly on a couple of resources that have been developed at True to assist in this space. So, you can see the ‘Being Me’ animation, this was developed for young people who might be questioning their gender or sexuality or are wanting to talk to somebody about it. It helps to send that strong message that they’re not alone, and that there are possible supports that they will be able to access, and it can also serve as a useful conversation starter for our parents and carers and school staff as well. And you can also see there the ‘Safe Space’ posters. So, they are available for free download, and they help to signify whether a room or a school or a particular staff member is a safe location or person for an LGBTQIA+ person to access. It's been designed deliberately, so that it is suitable to be used in all school settings, and it's been really lovely to see them get embraced, including in primary schools. I know I’ve gone into primary schools where those posters were up in every classroom so, a really great thing to see, because that type of visible representation is really important. It sends a very clear message of respect and inclusion within school environments around that LGBTQIA+ diversity, and gets that message across, not just to students, but also to staff, and parents and carers. So that's just a little snapshot from me. I'll hand over now to Meredith. Thank you.

Meredith Melville-Jones

Thank you very much, Kirstine, and wonderful frameworks there for everybody to access. There is so much available at the moment which is fantastic to see. So just a little bit about Bradfield. We are a Senior High School, in an adult learning environment. We are a TAFE New South Wales Department of Education co-funded agreement, and we specialise in the creative industries here for students, but students can do a regular academic pathway as well. Around 336 full time students, and they come from all over Sydney. So, from 187 different suburbs across Sydney, with around a 50/50 share between government and non-government schools and some other educational offerings, such as home schooling. So, we have a very, very diverse bunch of students who arrive to us in Year 11. We also have 156 students who come just to do one course such as TVET, and so on. I think you can see there by the stats that we have quite a complex cohort. Around 92% have risks for disengaging in education, and they can range from everything, from family, to social, to health issues, with very close to 50% having been bullied in their school environment previously and leaving their school environment because of social issues. Around 10% say that they enrol with Bradfield because they're a safe school. And I would suggest that that's probably a lot higher. And in addition to that, around 16% identify as transgender or gender questioning. Again, I would say that that numbers probably double. That's the figure that they tell us coming in. So that's the college, and we'll move on to the next slide, which tells you a little bit about our journey with the LBG Community, and the culture here is really important. So we have done some work on something, it actually came to us by a Pullman Hotels funnily enough. They had a wonderful way of approaching values and cultural principles. It's called Peopleology. So, look it up because it's really worth looking at in terms of looking at how to create a culture at your school, and the important thing is that it really does talk to who your audience is, it really does talk to who’s in your class, and I know talking to educators, that's the important thing about being a quality teacher. So, we acknowledge here that we value and celebrate diversity, and we talk about that, and it's in our narrative and everything that we do. We also acknowledge that students, everyone who comes to Bradfield has a story, and we have to honour that story and value that story and help to be a part of their story going forward. We’re respectful and genuine, I think that's in most school mission statements, and so on, but also that we set clear boundaries and we all make Bradfield. So, everything that everybody does every day contributes to making Bradfield. So, they are loosely based on Peopleology. And were developed with our school, with all of the students and all the staff, so that they truly represented who we are. So, about six years ago we had started to get a lot of referrals from places like the Gender Centre, Twenty10, also from psychologists and GPs, students who were transitioning or wanted to transition, or were gender questioning, and they came in quite a rush, so it meant that we needed to start a learning process very, very quickly about how we needed to respond to these students. So, our first step was to do some staff professional development, with Twenty10 and Gender Centre. Those two organisations have fantastic resources on their website so highly recommend you go and have a look at them, And it was everything from just understanding the initials and understanding exactly what that meant. The Gender Unicorn, if you haven't seen, is a fantastic way of really being clear about what some of those initials mean, and the difference between them. We were introduced to pronouns, which are sort of old hat now, but at the time they were quite revolutionary. I think couple of the most important messages for staff were being open to change, because these young people are questioning their identity at the time, and so being open to change and allowing that change is really important, not locking someone into a particular identity. We have had students change their identity two or three times across their time with us, and that's okay. And also, obviously being trans, being LGT is not a choice, and I think that was, at the time, important for our staff to hear. I love this quote from Ziggy, who's one of our gender diverse students who graduated last year, she said that “As a gender diverse teen, I came from school that didn't teach in a way that I could grasp, and I never felt as if I fit into the crowd there, but a Bradfield that all changed, I still don't fit into the crowd. But the difference between now and then is that here I don't have to fit in” and I think, hearing that for us at that graduation speech was really important. We've got a video now that we'll play that a couple of our students put together last week, they’re some of our wonderful LBGTQIA+ community, and they put this together to help you understand a little bit of what it's like to be student at Bradfield.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Just a note for everyone. There is no sound on the video until the second student sits down. So don't worry about it. There's not a problem with your sound, so we'll kick it off.

VIDEO

Student 1

Bradfield College and it’s diversity is very important to its culture, and it's seen mostly with the fact that we don't have a proper school uniform. We can dress however we want and express ourselves however we want. So, there is a lot of diversity in how people pride themselves and how they dress, and how they act in the school, because they can be their true self here with the lack of restrictions to uniforms.

Student 2

It's also really great that there's no uniform, because it helps people express themselves in different ways.

Student 3

I felt more comfortable not having to wear the uniform and being able to wear my casual, whatever I want.

Student 4

It's also just nice, because I guess you have more independence, and, like teachers here understand that as well. I have independence of clothing. I have independence of how I study, and the fact that the school also is very lenient to all its periods, they’re easier on you, especially in understanding your mental health. It puts a lot less pressure on me, and it allows me to do my best without worrying about my mental health.

Student 2

My experience at Bradfield is very different to past school experiences in a very positive way. I feel much more safer and much more accepted for my sexuality which has helped my mental health improve so much more to the point where it's a little weird that I'm not as sad as I used to be, which is also great.

Student 5

Well, Bradfield has supported me through a lot of things, before Bradfield I wasn’t in a great school. It didn't really help support my disabilities that well in class. I am a member of the LGBT+ community, and there was a lot of homophobia at my old school. But Bradfield is really supportive with all of that. I don’t feel scared to go to school anymore, I feel safe, I feel like I’m thriving, and Bradfield has made all of that happen for me.

Meredith Melville-Jones

So, yes, some of our wonderful students who put that together for the presentation today. One of the other really great things that we learned is, you know, diversity or inclusion of any kind is not about tolerance or acceptance, it is about celebration, and when you can get to celebration, that's when you know that it is truly embedded in the culture. So, we always, at our open days, talk about being a safe school and talk about having a very strong LGBT community, and we always hear a sigh of relief when parents and students hear that, because they know that this is a school where they will be supported And right down from the very first point of the application, where we ask for their pronouns on the application form, which can be a point at which they start to have a discussion with their parents. That can be a nice starting point for them, but it also just shows them that it is something that we care about. Fairly early on we do an inclusivity survey, and I'm happy to share that as part of the resource package that you'll get a little bit later on. It's quite complex. So, we need to understand for students how they want to be addressed in class, how they want to be addressed in front of their parents, and quite often they are very different things. So, students sometimes feel safe to come out at college, but not yet safe enough to come out to their parents. And so, having this inclusivity survey helps us to understand the complexity of those arrangements. And we can amend all of our systems, and so on, to make sure that we are using the correct pronouns. We also remove their dead names, so transgender students that prefer not to use their dead name, or their birth name. And it is quite distressing for them to see their dead name. And so, we have to go to quite a few lengths to make sure that that doesn't happen for them. And so, TAFE New South Wales, a fantastic, diverse, and inclusive culture, they cooperated and worked with us to remove those dead names because it was actually a barrier for them during COVID to actually be logging into their Team sessions because they had to log in with their dead name, and so they just refused to do any work. So, that was a really important one for us. We also ask them whether they want two school reports. So, generally for our gender questioning and transgender students, we always provide one in their birth name for legal and family reasons, but we also provide one in their preferred name. On the first day of orientation, you can see one of our students there holding up their badge. We do pronoun badge making. So, this is great, again for the LBGT students, because they know straight away that they're accepted. But it's also a really important exercise for our non-LGBT students, because they start to understand how important that is to the culture that they’re about to come into. Of course, we have all of the celebration days, so Wear it Purple Day, IDAHOBIT Day are absolutely important. And in the bottom right there you can see a picture of me in 2020. This was just one week prior to lockdown, where I marched down Oxford Street as an ally with our LGBTQIA+ students in the Mardi Gras as part of the TAFE New South Wales float, and I have to say that was probably one of my proudest days. To be able to do that, it was pretty fun being part of Mardi Gras. But a student later came up to me and said that was, for them, one of the most profound things that happened to them, because it made them feel absolutely and utterly valid that their principal would walk with them as part of a gay parade. We have our lunchtime clubs, which is, you know, the usual Dungeons and Dragons, and digital creatives, and poetry, and so on. And Gender Diversity is one of those clubs where anyone can come along and discuss issues around gender, and they can learn, and also share in a safe environment. Importantly, we did lose a student, a trans student, a couple of years ago. And at this point, I have to say the resources of Be You and headspace were absolutely critical. We felt so supported by them and the framework that they put in place for us to help us deal with that. And they are a really truly wonderful team. So, each year we do honour the Trans Day of Remembrance with a vigil, we've brought in guest speakers and a wonderful doula from Sydney, who talked about Trans Day of Remembrance, and it helps students to really understand the importance of that day as well. So, it is about celebration. It's about embedding it in community alongside all of the other celebrations that we have at the college, and I think that's really how we have developed a culture where our LGBTQIA+ students and parents feel truly connected to the college. Thank you.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Thanks so much, Meredith. We are going to go into our panel discussions. I'm going to turn off my sharing so we can hopefully see everyone. That's all of us, beautiful.

Katie Lack

I just want to say a quick thank you, Aislinn, because I could really hear some clear actions that schools that are in the early stages of creating whole school improvement around inclusive practice or wellbeing could really latch onto through both what Kirstine and Meredith said, so thank you.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Yes, it's been really fantastic. And as there has been a little reminder in the chat, don't forget to send through any questions you have for any of the people in the panel today through that Q and A box. We may not get to them today, but we will be able to take some of them on notice, and send them in our various documents after the fact. So, very excited, this is my favourite part of any of these webinars, is getting to have a good chat. First off, I just wanted to have a bit of a quick chat with Meredith. So, we've talked a lot about creating safety for students. And I'm just wondering if any of those processes might be similar or different when we're looking at safe culture for staff. And I ask that because we did have a question come through around teacher diversity and how to support staff to feel included and understood.

Meredith Melville-Jones

Well, I think it goes back to the values. Everyone is valued here, and we do have a wonderful LGBT teacher community and a trans teacher who helps lead some of our programs. And again, there's some pretty disturbing stats out there about the employability of trans people which my trans teacher shared with me recently. And so, it's just so important for our students to see that we have a trans teacher on staff, and that seeking employment, getting employment is possible. And so, all of this applies to both staff and students. It's a very equal kind of environment that we have here. And again, we have pictures, posters up from Gender Centre and Twenty10 all around the school that indicate to anyone who comes in that this is a safe place for anyone who comes in here.

Katie Lack

Thank you for sharing that, Meredith. I can really hear from what you're saying that the visibility of wellbeing for all, and also visibility of diversity between students and staff has really empowered your community. I now have a question for Kirstine, this is speaking to some questions that were raised by our attendees around school cultures that are perhaps resistant to change or struggle through the process of change. So, my question is, how do we implement change in schools that are resistant to change?

Kirstine Hand

Yeah, that's a really great question. And, I'd say it's really important to meet people where they're at, and to help engage, if we're talking about staff, for example, or parents and carers, for that matter, engage them in the process so that they feel like they've been part of that process. I know I've had, just recently, a Deputy Principal talking to me about facing this issue within their school, and they found by really taking the staff and parent/carer community through the steps, along with the admin team, made a critical difference, because it helped to give them some of the information and education they were needing. Everyone's got different starting points on their learning journeys around inclusion. So, it's really important to recognise that and provide those opportunities for that education and that opportunity for learning growth to occur. By involving them in each stage, giving them a chance to have input into what was being developed, it really helped to get them to have buy in to the process, which then got them understanding why it was important. And being actively engaged in trying to help be part of a positive solution in creating an inclusive culture. So, hopefully that gives some ideas on a way to approach that.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Yeah, thank you so much Kirstine. And I really love that piece about taking people along on the journey with you and helping people to find their own sense of ownership in the change that's having to happen. And I think that leadership can be so important in that space, and so one of the other things that came through was around that modelling of inclusive practice. And Meredith, I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on how teachers, educators, leaders, could model that inclusive practice to those around them?

Meredith Melville-Jones

Well, I think, as has already been mentioned, visibility is really important, and being seen to support the initiatives as they come through. The celebration days, and so on, it’s really important to be there for the training, and to allow people to come and speak to you at any time about any of the matters that come up. That can just take a little while for people to grasp. I know our journey was quite rapid because it had to be because we had so many students come so quickly. And so, people really needed to get on board very quickly. But they made mistakes, so misgendering happens. Our wonderful trans teacher says that he often misgenders himself. And it is about saying “This is not about you, and the mistake that you've made over pronouns”. You apologise and move on, and don't make a big deal out of it. Because that was what was happening in the beginning, people saying “I’m so sorry! I’ve done it again!”, no, this is actually not about you, just apologise and move on. So, modelling those types of things so that people can see you are genuine about it. It's not just something that you're doing because it's a flavour of a month. Modelling it and doing it every single day, and every single interaction with everybody, from staff to students, I think is the most important thing.

Katie Lack

That's great advice, and so reaffirming, because sometimes we shy away from those conversations, or that ability to truly connect with the individual student, because we might make a mistake. So, I really appreciate what you had to say there, Meredith. The next thing that come through from our attendees was about parent and carer connection with diverse groups of young people, and the need for parents to have information and support, so that they can do better to guide their own young people at home. And perhaps to touch on how we empower parents, and how do we bring them along the journey to be included in some of those safety messages that are occurring in the school of environment. So, this next question I have is for Kirstine, how can parents reflect what young people are learning at school around diversity and inclusion?

Kirstine Hand

In terms of reflecting it at home or involving them within the school community?

Katie Lack 

Yeah, I think it's more about, if students consider the school environment a safe place to express their true identity, and perhaps in the home environment they may not feel this, and parents want to make a change themselves, how can they reflect what journey they're going on to be supportive of their young people at home?

Kirstine Hand

Yeah, that’s a really great question, and this does come up a lot in my line of work, and I know sometimes parents and carers can feel quite upset. For example, if they find out that their child has felt comfortable to talk about their gender identity or sexuality at school but hasn't felt comfortable in disclosing that information to their parents and carers first. So, I think it's really important that we, first of all, if that sort of situation has occurred, reassure parents and carers that actually disclosing identity to family, and parents and carers in particular, can be the hardest thing that a young gender diverse or sexuality diverse young person ever needs to do. So, it's not necessarily a personal reflection of them, it's just that, that's who a young person probably cares about most in the whole world, so it can be really scary for young people to feel confident in having that conversation. So, there are things that parents and carers can do if they are wanting to sign post to their young person that they are open to LGBTQIA+ people and supportive of diversity. And it's the little things, it's how you respond if there's an LGBTQIA+ person on the TV or it's how you respond if something negative is shown or said, or if there's a homophobic or transphobic joke or comment made. It's showing that you don't agree with that. You actually are supportive and inclusive of LGBTQIA+ people. It's establishing open communication as well, with children. Right from a very early age. I know I've overheard a conversation between a parent and her daughter once just being out in public, and it was talking about when she gets older and perhaps meets someone that she'd like to date, and how the mother didn't mind if it was a boy or a girl or somebody else as long as she was happy. So, it's sending those clear messages right from an early age, so that hopefully, by the time that child becomes aware of their diverse gender or sexuality they will already be well aware that their parents or carers are going to be open and receptive to that.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Definitely. Those little sign posts on the way are so fantastic. I could absolutely chat with the three of you all day, but I'm just very mindful of the time, so I will get back into our presentation. Katie and I have a few little resources to whip through quickly, so that we can let everyone go on time. But thank you again so much, Meredith and Kirstine. It's been so wonderful chatting with you today. So, let's hope that it all goes well with me, sharing back up again. And we are going to just very quickly have a little bit more, a brief conversation, because I do want to touch on this concept, and Katie has a really wonderful story about it, but this idea of being comfortable in that space of discomfort, and I think Meredith mentioned as well, understanding that people make mistakes, and people make errors, but it's not necessarily about us. It's about being supportive and finding ways to acknowledge it, apologise and move on, but not being too afraid to be in the space. So Katie, would you like to share your little story just very quickly.

Katie Lack

  It's perhaps not a story, but it's more about the vulnerability, going back to my early teaching career, and perhaps thinking I’m not the expert or not the right person to step in the space to have the connection with the young person, but could obviously see that they needed extra support and help, and the courage that it takes to be the person of white privilege, perhaps, or the person that doesn't come from a diverse gender identity, or LGBTQIA+. But being the teacher that has courage to go into a conversation, to gently inquire, and to maybe consider what aspects do make us feel uncomfortable, and seek support as educators, to then be able to manage that discomfort. So, we are providing unbiased support to our young people. So, to consider what sorts of things have gotten in the way for you in the past, to giving open and honest and genuine positive regard to young people and building those relationships. To consider aspects of racism, discrimination, your experiences of those things in the past which may have caused you trauma that could impact on your dialogue with that young person, and also to think about whether you've held on to information, rather than having the courage to escalate or share. And just to really reflect on your own barriers and seek help and support, and maybe lean into some of those Be You resources that we'll mention in a moment to give you the courage and empowerment to do so.

Aislinn Whittenbury

That's absolutely fantastic, Katie. And I really want to thank you for being able to have that vulnerability to share the space that you've been working from in the past, and I think today we've spoken quite a bit about risk factors. We've spoken a little bit about protective factors as well. We've got some of them on the screen at the moment, but, I guess, some of the things to think about in this space is that risk factors tend to be things that can be quite stable over time and things that can be quite difficult to impact. But where we can really make a huge difference for the other people in our lives is in this protective factor space. And in the protective factors space you'll see that a lot of those have really good relevance to the school community and the school climate. So, we're teaching those social emotional skills, we're connecting with families, we're enhancing that school climate. And as educators quite often you can be that caring adult that provides support at those critical times and connections to community. So, it's really exciting to be in that position, to be able to support the people around us to be able to enhance their protection. And so, bearing that in mind, we have a little bit of audience interaction here. So, if you just want to scan the little QR code there, or you can also join at slido.com with the little code. What we would love from you is a couple of examples of protective factors that you have seen within your school environment that can support inclusion for your students.

Katie Lack

Well, I can see some responses coming in. We've got 122 participants that I can see, so I’m expecting a lot of answers here Aislinn. Hopefully got your mobile devices out and you're scanning the QR code.

Aislinn Whittenbury

I really like that one there that I’m going to spotlight “Using gender neutral terms”. It's so difficult to get out of the habit of saying, “Hey, guys!”. That's been one of my big challenges on my own journey. So, I love seeing that one in there. Empathy, look at that getting bigger and bigger every time. And that really is key. Any that you’re seeing in there Katie that you really love?

Katie Lack

I saw a few around when students are feeling disconnected or vulnerable, that opportunity to go to a safe space, to have quiet time, or then the next step to actually have a check in with a trusted person within the school. And I can see a really important one there too, student voice. So, in what ways are we getting students actively involved in our school procedures, our policies, or creation of school events to be more inclusive.

Aislinn Whittenbury

Fantastic. Now I do have to move off this beautiful word cloud because we are running out of time very rapidly, but keep them coming, keep sending them through because they will keep coming to us, and lovely to see everything that's coming through. So, thank you so much everyone.

Katie Lack

So, Be You has five professional learning domains for educators and for today's session we're really going to shine a light on the Early Support domain. So, the Early Support domain helps educators understand and improve knowledge about mental health and wellbeing and teach them the skills to know how to inquire about a young person, and how they're going, and when and how to access supports for that young person as well. At the end of this session, you'll be provided with a link to be able to assist you to connect with your schools Be You consultant. So, if you'd like to learn more about the early support domain, or attend a future Early Support Be You spotlight session. One of the best tools that comes as part of the Early Support domain is the BETLS observation tool that stands for behaviour, emotion, thoughts, learning, and social relationships, observation tool. This is a fantastic tool to empower teachers, to identify the early signs of mental illness, and to record and document what they're observing. And in doing so they can share this information with the wellbeing team or with specialists internal to the school, or external to the school that may be needed to support a young person. And it's also super helpful to have there as a tool, to refer back to, to empower educators to have those delicate conversations with parents and carers about the young people as well. So, what can we take away from today, some of those really important key messages? It's okay to make mistakes and feel vulnerable as an educator, and that you're not an expert potentially of LGBTQIA+, or First Nations young people. But it's important to be aware, and to know that curiosity is caring. Don't feel that you need to walk on eggshells, and to have the courage to walk into the space, engaging and caring for that young person, potentially to lean into some of the resources just mentioned through the Be You early support domain and build your capacity around those skills. And also, consider connecting students with appropriate community services to their needs. And think about what it's like to come together as a whole staff, with the whole school improvement plan for wellbeing, and to have staff and student involvement around active planning for inclusive practice within your school communities too.

Aislinn Whittenbury

When Katie was mentioning understanding what supports you can connect your students to, just wanted to highlight some of these groups. Some of them are national organisations. Some of them are only in specific regions, or States or Territories. But the evidence that we have access to shows that young people are more likely to rate support services as being helpful when they’re a support service that's tailored or dedicated to the experiences that that young person has had in their life. So, whether that's LGBTQIA+ specific organisations, First Nations organisations, or places like the Refugee Council, or the Migrant Resource Centre for people who have come from a migrant or refugee background. Moving on from here, and we might just squeeze in under our finish time. Let's really try and keep these conversations happening. Have a chat with your colleagues. Talk to your students about it. Like Katie said, get in touch with your Be You consultant and talk about some of our resources and planning that we can do. Utilise those resources and think about implementing some of the strategies that our panellists today mentioned. There were some fantastic ideas. Celebrate diversity, and we would love for you to share your story with us, because we always love to hear from educators and school communities about what they're doing, and how they're working in these spaces.

Katie Lack

Thank you so much for attending today's webinar. As we head toward the end of the session, I invite you all to participate in a short survey. We not only appreciate and value your feedback, but we'd also like to hear from you some ideas for future directions or themes our In Focus sessions could take. Please see in the chat, a survey link. So, the Be You framework offers so much helpful information and resources. The main thing is to sign up and register for Be You, and to seek guidance from your consultant, because there's so much there. Today we highlighted the Be You professional learning domains. One particular domain was the Early Support domain, and in association with that we have tools and guides. So, it was the BETLS observation tool that we mentioned today, and also to remember that we have a range of fact sheets and handbooks to guide you at any step of the journey when you're talking about whole school improvement for your community.

Aislinn Whittenbury

This slide just highlights some of the national supports available. This graphic is also available on the Be You website as a PDF and can be really useful for sharing with your broader school community to make sure that people have access to some of those support numbers. You're also more than welcome to note some of these down if you're feeling like you want to reach out and access support for yourself as well.

Katie Lack 

That's a really good one to help normalise help seeking in your school. So put it in conference rooms where you have regular parent and carer meetings with young people, email it out at the end of the term for the holiday period and just really normalise that idea that anyone can reach out for support for their own mental health and wellbeing within your school community.

Aislinn Whittenbury

We also have a couple of other sessions and events coming up. They are a bit more interactive than today. So, if you do come along to those ones be prepared to have a bit of a chat with the presenters. So, we've got a spotlight on the Mental Health Continuum, and the Notice, Inquire and Provide Model coming up on 21 November. And then on 1 December there is a conversation around Leading Mental Health Work in Schools. So that is us for this afternoon. Thank you so much for coming along. We really appreciate everyone coming and learning with us today. I've learned so much today as well. So, thanks so much, and we would love to hear from you soon.