Flourishing in the future with Be You

Geri Sumpter

Welcome, everybody to our last session of our Be You Virtual Conference 2023. My name is Geri Sumpter. I'm the head of Be You delivery at Beyond Blue. You'll have seen me a few times across this conference. I'm delighted to be here with other people you've seen a few times, but we'll all reintroduce ourselves for your benefit. So, first Tina.

 

Tina Martin

Hi, everyone, I'm Tina Martin. I'm the Be You Strategic Relationship Manager at headspace.

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

Hi, everyone. I'm Louis Hamlyn-Harris. I'm the Be You Executive Manager at Early Childhood Australia.

 

Karin Humphrey

Hi, everyone. I'm Karen Humphrey. I'm a Be You Consultant at Early Childhood Australia.

 

Jen Berthold

I'm Jen Berthold. I'm a Be You Clinical Lead at headspace, Victoria and Tasmania.

 

Geri Sumpter

Fantastic. And it's so nice to be here with this with this amazing panel at the end of the day. And what we're going to do within our session is we're really going to reflect on some of the concepts that have been brought up through the conference.

And also think about flourishing into the future with Be You. There's been a lot that we've heard over the two days, a lot of that’s fed our brains, our hearts and our souls.

And we're going to try to reflect some of that back to you. We'd also love to hear some of your conversation if there's any questions that you particularly like to ask us. So please feel free to pop those into the chat if, if something springs to mind. The first thing that we're going to talk about is around how wellbeing resilience and inclusion are really important to thriving.

And one of the things that I want to bring up first in this session is, is that yesterday, we reflected a little bit in our wrap up session on belonging.

And there was actually a question that came through for Louis in that session, which was from Simon, and he was saying around a statistic that have been brought up by Dr Kelly-Anne in her session on belonging. And it was around a differentiated data point between sense of belonging within schools versus within early childhood. So, Louis, I thought it might give you the opportunity to reflect on that question.

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

Yeah, it's funny Geri, I've had this question kind of batting around in my head all day, and I've just come out and have a fantastic session with Amy Shine. And she was really talking about belonging. And she was talking about how important reciprocity is to belonging, this idea of a mutual connection. And one of the tips she shared for promoting belonging that she's found really powerful and aesthetic was to do with asking families to help, asking families to contribute.

And it made me reflect on you know, it's so important to be able to receive and, you know, sometimes we need to receive and to be able to ask for help is so powerful. But I think if we reflect on, you know, some of the more meaningful experiences in our lives, often their experiences of giving, right, and so I think we want to, we want to think about how we give people opportunities to give.

I've got more thoughts about this, Karen, but I'm so curious, your thoughts on maybe that disparity, you know, in those numbers or some of the things you've heard about

 

Karin Humphrey

There's a lot I could add to the disparity, but I don't want to actually get into the sector demands and things like that, when you talked about getting information from families and supporting them around the sense of belonging, I also feel like as educators, and this would go for those in schools as well, we spend a lot of time supporting the children to feel that sense of belonging. And we sometimes take away from our need to feel that sense of belonging as well, we're in an industry in the early childhood sector where we're working shifts, the center is open for a long time, we can be in a standalone center.

So, a notion of support, or our availability for support, isn't there. So, it's about if we're going to thrive, we really need to look at our own sense of belonging and where we get that from? And is it from ourselves? We need to look at that from an individual perspective. Is it from our team? Is it from our family outside? It's that whole self-awareness. And we talked about self-awareness, self-care and the support. So, we talk about that a lot.

So, we need to think about that, from an educator point of view, sure, I can go into the data around the support that early childhood needs, but I don't think that's where we're sitting thinking it's about creating that from within.

 

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

We've been thinking about wellbeing really ecologically, right, we've been thinking about kind of multi-dimensional ways of thinking about wellbeing. And I was thinking about, you know, the connection between wellbeing and things like professional status, and autonomy.

We know that when educators and teachers are really seen and really valued as professionals, that's a huge driver of wellbeing. And we can be advocates for that.

And we can teach people you know, we can teach others to be advocates, and we can think about how we acknowledge and celebrate educators and teachers and one of the panel discussions yesterday was talking about, you know, going beyond self-care and we had the cupcake conversation.

And you know, I'm not one to turn down a cupcake, but I think we can think about how did we acknowledge and celebrate educators, and how do we communicate and elevate their professional status? I don't know if cupcakes do that right? Or maybe cupcakes alone?

 

Karin Humphrey

And as Nicole mentioned yesterday going bowling? Does that work? Is that enough? How does it work? So, it's all about that co-design around that wellbeing as well. How do we work together to find out what supports all of us to feel that sense of belonging. I can tell you what makes me feel a sense of belonging, but unless we work together to figure that out for our learning community, we may not get there.

 

Geri Sumpter

And it's those benefits that are seen from a health perspective, from an enjoyment perspective, from academic outcomes, perspective, etc. And from a professional development perspective, when we can foster that sense of belonging that we know the effort that we might place and the intentionality we are placed into that is very worthwhile. So, we've got a comment in the chat from Anna.

So, belonging and reciprocity, can never say that word, can that be hampered through someone's use of boundaries? Louis do want to take that one?

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

It was so interesting to hear Dr Rebecca Ray talk about boundaries. And I wrote down something she said. Boundaries take away the guesswork. And it struck me that that's exactly the way early childhood educators think about limits and boundaries with children, which is that it's actually not about saying no, it's about creating the yes environment in which we don't need to be constantly policing what you know, children can't do or what we can't ask of the children.

 

 

Karin Humphrey

So, if we can do that with children, can we do that as an educator team? Can we do that with our families? As I said, I would ask more questions, and I would answer.

 

Geri Sumpter

You're all good. I’m loving things coming through in the chat. We've got Julie saying the key takeaway is importance of those personal boundaries and our personal thrive. It is not selfish, but it's important and necessary for us to be able to give our best. Jen, what do you think about this?

 

Jen Berthold

Yeah, I think that's really important. I think one of the challenges that I hear from educators is not knowing how to set those boundaries, not really being, you know, sure of not wanting to say no to someone and wanting to respect them.

I think sometimes, we're good at saying no, I don't have time right now, we'll give you some more time later. We're less able to say no, I don't have the emotional capacity right now. So being able to just get comfortable with those reframes.

I really respect what you're bringing to me, and that you want to talk to me about this, or you need this support from me, whether that's to a parent or a colleague, or a child. But I'm not the best person right now. I can come back to you a little later.

Or I can connect you with someone else who can help you right now, which would you prefer? So, you're giving the person voice and choice, you're respecting, showing respect for their issue and their need, but you're also respecting yourself and your capacity at this moment. Be that about how much time you have, or how much emotional capacity you have to be present with them.

Or your need to just get to the bathroom or get a cup of tea before you teach the next class? You know, that self-care and remembering that you need to actually look after yourself to be able to support those people who need you. 

 

Karin Humphrey

It's almost before the self-care, it's for self-awareness that there's a need for self-care. We admit that we're not that good at that.

 

Geri Sumpter

I really liked in Rebecca's conversation as well today on boundaries. She talked about a mindful, yes, and a protective no. What did you think of that Tina?

 

 

Tina Martin

What I liked about it was it almost aligned to a strength-based sort of approach to it. I think that we can often find as individuals it's hard to say no, like that grates a little bit for me personally. And so, it grates because I need to do more of it.

Not because I don't agree with it. But I think that that description feels like it gives me permission to try rather than feel like I'm immediately walking into some sort of conflict situation. And I think, you know, we've been talking about understanding that our boundaries come from a whole lot of external resources as well.

So, the modeling that we've had growing up or the experiences we've had when we've tried to implement boundaries, and again, being self-aware of, you know, I might react this way because of this experience. And I think that's helpful for us to think about too.

 

Geri Sumpter

Yeah, I definitely think that’s important. Somebody popped that in the chat saying you often need to take a look inwards before, you're sort of looking around you as well. So, it’s a really valuable point. There was also in relation to boundaries. Because we said today was all about those practical tips, etc.

There was Rebecca who put forward a conversation around how we actually might present a conversation around boundaries. And she gave some strategies where, you know, it's all about how we frame those questions when we go in into discussing boundaries with others.

And I think again, Jen, coming back to what you just said, if it's not right for you at the time, then you need to be responding appropriately for yourself. But if you're talking to others, it's around how you present the information. And she used some key phrases like I've noticed that to start a conversation or I'm wondering if, and that makes it then that collective collaborative conversation?

 

Jen Berthold

I think our conversation can power boundary setting in another way as well. Like we can be coaching others to respect our boundaries by asking them about theirs. So, when we're asking a colleague if they could pick up a piece of work for us, saying, do you think you have capacity?

It's okay for you to say no. I'm asking if you can do it, but I will go and find someone else to help me if it's not you. If you're talking to a child about asking them to do a job, it's, you know, I would really like it if you would do this.

Are you the right person to do it right now? If you're setting up spaces for students to say no, for families to say no, for your colleagues to say, no, they're going to be much more likely to accept your note when you need to say no, as well.

 

 

 

Geri Sumpter

Yeah, it's really, it's really important. Well, we're moving on to the next point of conversation. And this was around thinking about what thriving looks like, into the future and what approaches we can take to thrive in this changing environment.

And I wanted to reflect on your presentation earlier on Karen around disaster resilience. And that sort of not snapping back into the old but going into the new and where your thoughts have got to.

 

Karin Humphrey

It was funny, because that came up almost ad hoc within our panel discussion today. Listening to Kerry Harten about everything, the recovery, the resilience, and everything that they've been sharing and showing, they realised that what was before wasn't ever going to be again, but that didn't matter. Kerry almost said that it's better now. And I think that the new normal can be better if we work on it the way Kerry and their learning community has, by looking at the positives.

So, I'll use their bush kinder as an example. They had a bush kinder, that was devastated by the fires, and there was nothing left of that. But they used the opportunity to support resilience and for that recovery, when they saw regrowth happening, and they could talk with the children through that.

So, the new normal for the bush kinder was watching it grow for the children to use the charcoal from the fire, as you know, as almost art therapy. So, it gives you goosebumps when you think about how far you know, in the four years, while they're in their fourth year since the fires, how much that learning community has found their new normal and how beneficial that has been for the whole community. And Kerry touched on that as well. It's not just their kindergarten, it's the whole community.

 

Geri Sumpter

And we know that some of that family partnership, and that community spirit, is one thing that's a real driver and it’s talked through with our Professional Learning modules as well, the importance of that. So, talking again, around sort of trauma-informed practice Jen, is there anything that you wanted to add in this space around how this helps us thrive in changing environments?

 

Jen Berthold

Sure, I think one of the things that was just mentioned was that the new resources that have come out of trauma, so out of, out of all the different traumas that have impacted communities over the past few years, the pandemic having affected all of the world really, there are new resources that we've developed.

Many of us have developed new technology capabilities to connect with people further afield. Many of us have developed a bigger appreciation for our relationships and our points of connection. We've also developed, you know, a new societal conversation about, you know, how we relate as a community, what it you know, what we're doing with our minority groups, and there's bigger conversations bubbling up in our media around these things than we've ever had before. I'm going to throw back over to you guys.

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

We were talking about this before. One of the great things about the education profession is that the issues are always changing and evolving. We were so lucky to have Esma and Nina from Narragunnawali: Reconciliation in Education join us yesterday.

And it was so powerful to me that in that you know, that very first video they played just a couple of minutes into their session, they talked about the impacts of colonisation and the impacts of racism. And I don't know that 10 years ago, if we were having this conference, we would have been talking about colonisation or racism. I think the conversation is changing.

I think we're moving beyond tolerance narratives. I think we're getting more comfortable with acknowledging and celebrating difference. We're talking about voice, we're starting to talk about things like sovereignty, these are national conversations, because they're also conversations, you know, in our services and in our schools. So, I think it's so powerful that you know, to think about diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, these issues aren't, you know, over here and over there, these are really connected.

 

Geri Sumpter

And it's how we embrace all of that and make it part of our sort of normal dialogue, isn't it? It's just the same as mental health is getting, you know, that kind of status. And in, you know, some from a mental health perspective as well, we're starting to talk about okay, well, people now got more of an understanding around what mental health and wellbeing looks like, it all ends up our Mental Health Continuum.

And it's now well, how do we then turn a conversation into some action? And what do we do about this to move from just that awareness now into action, and I think that's where the, the reconciliation Australia conversation was going on yesterday, as well, we're all starting to take these actions, you know, in a Reconciliation Action Plan can be one of those actions.

 

Tina Martin

And I think that for me, that was one of the lovely things in all of the sessions that I listened to or participated in, there was the practical strategies, every session, there were some very practical strategies, then, you know, if I think about the Indigenous session, for me, I thought, Okay, what I can do now is I can actually, perhaps my action is to create an Acknowledgment.

That is not your standard, you know, Acknowledgement that I've pulled off a website, that I actually personalise it in some way, by saying the land on which I'm on the people are connected to the water, or, you know, that type of thing.

And even just thinking about Annette and Libby’s session around neurodiverse, and children with individuals and children with a disability. I'm a mother of a neurodiverse child, and they gave some really practical solutions about what you could do to help that particular group thrive. But in actual fact, a lot of those strategies help everybody. Because you might be a visual learner without the ability, you know, you might come from a cultural background, that's not Indigenous, but that approach to the inclusiveness belonging? Yeah, yeah, makes a start.

 

Jen Berthold

I think we've heard a lot through the whole conference about meeting people where they are and helping them to grow from there. No cookie cutter approaches, but tailored support from educators to young people and children in their care through to school leaders and early learning service leaders, meeting their staff where they are on their own personal wellbeing journey and helping them grow and flourish as well.

 

Karin Humphrey

I love that analogy of the cookie cutter approach because Louis and I were talking about this earlier, people want practical strategies, we admit that I was an educator in early learning for a long, long time. I wanted those practical strategies as well. And then working in the disability sector as an educator for quite some time. People often wanted the magic wand approach where you wouldn't be able to go in and give them all the strategies they need to fix.

And I use fix because that was what was wanted. I guess what I've learned, and what I'm doing more and more of now is getting early childhood educators to own their own magic wand because it's their place, it's your wand, how you waiver and what you do when you waiver is up to you, because we can't do cookie cutter, because what works for me may not work for you, what works in this service may not work in a remote service for a whole range of reasons. So, you build your own wand.

 

Jen Berthold

I think sometimes that magic wand at the end of that referral pathway gives people unrealistic expectations about what mental health clinicians can do for them. And when I hear that kind of talk with our educators that we work with, I try to shift the narrative to one around building the support network, like let's not think about a referral pathway with a magic wand at the end.

But how do we build capacity of the support network for the individual and that can be tapping in a mental health clinician, but it can also be looking at ways to build the capacity of the other people already in that support network, the parents and carers, the educators and building their communication both ways between them.

But I love that analogy of hold your own, the person at the center of that support network, wave the magic wand and let the support network know what you need from them and, you know, build the wall together.

 

Tina Martin

The other thing we have to be conscious of all, or perhaps it's only me that has this expectation. But you often think that you've got to implement something big to achieve. Where in actual fact, small things can have significant outcomes. We have a saying in our family - How do you eat an elephant?

And we say, one piece at a time, you know, because it's too big. You can't even imagine how you could make a difference. And sometimes that could immobilise you, as an individual, as a community. So, I think we have to remember or remind ourselves the value of small things that can lead to bigger things.

 

Geri Sumpter

Yeah fantastic. And what are some of the small things that you've seen happen in learning communities that are the start of a continued and ongoing journey?

 

Jen Berthold

I went along to one of our specialist school settings to one of their meetings, just to be a guest speaker and share some Be You resources with them. But what I noticed when I was observing the beginning of their meeting was that they had built into their practice, a small habit of going like a round robin conversation of just checking in on each other on how they were feeling, what they'd learned in the past week, and who they wanted to give a shout out to for who had helped them that past week.

It was such a dynamic and uplifting dialogue that I brought that back to our team to put at the beginning of our team meeting. So, it’s just little changes in habit, really, that shift the tone of the dialogue and the narrative in the space.

 

Karin Humphrey

Yeah, I think maybe this isn't so little. But part of the work we do with Early Children, Australia. This is probably going to be quite big now I'm thinking about it. But we have Connected Communities.

And I'm part of one called advocating for children's rights. So, one of the little things that has become a big thing is about listening to the children and having their voices and having everyone's voices in what you do.

So, the children in a particular service, Claire if you're watching, I'm calling you out, they write their own program. They sit with the educators, and they talk about what they would like to do. And after they've done something, they talk about what next. So, I could turn that around. And that could be about educators too, you know, we're doing this right now. But what's next?

 

 

Geri Sumpter

Yeah, absolutely. And I really enjoyed the session with the with the school representative today, where she was describing exactly what she'd been doing with the school that she, she's obviously involved in the leadership of, and it was around, you know, sitting with the team and thinking about what is going to resonate with you to make those small steps to start you on that journey and start to think about what your plan is, not just for today, but for the year.

And it is all around, you know, the collective isn't it and that whole learning community approach that will end up having the biggest collective impact.

 

Karin Humphrey

Because it is the ripple effect. We start with this, and the ripple effect just leads to that mentally healthy community.

 

Geri Sumpter

That's right. And so we talk in Be You, and it fits very well into this conversation, around getting that collective understanding through the use of data. So, Louis, what have you seen happening in Be You, and what do you place importance on?

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

I love that we're talking about voice, right. And it's been such a theme in so many of the sessions. And it's such an important reminder, right? We don't actually need to guess what will you know, what might drive wellbeing in our learning community or what educators or children or families need?

Because we can ask them, right, and we can use things like surveys, but really data is, you know, the word data freaks us out a little bit, right. But data is just information. We can also learn by talking to people, having structured conversations, and there are all sorts of ways we can kind of get in touch with what's happening in our, in our learning community.

And then really plugging that you know, you were talking about this before Tina, into a kind of planned and intentional process of change. You don't need to do it all tomorrow. We need to normalise probably that change takes time, it takes longer than we think. But we can plan for that.

 

Jen Berthold

I'd love to pull the data right back and just start talking about when we're working with individual young people, teaching them to collect some data from themselves about where they are, whether we're using a scale of red light to green light or one to five, how are you feeling right now? What's telling you that, let's trial a self-care strategy and then reassess where you are and see if that was effective or not?

And then can we put that lens on what we do as educators for our own wellbeing? And then can we look at what the whole school’s doing, use the Be You surveys. Or do an inventory with the Implementation and Reflection Tool on what we've got happening across the five domains. Gather the data, take some action, look at the data again. You don't have to use the Be You tools.

There are other education systems that have their own wellbeing surveys and things. And your Be You Consultant can help you to analyse that, or to use the Be You tools if you need to, because you don't have other ones. But let's start with the individual using some evidence-based practice for their own self-care.

 

Karin Humphrey

And if you are collecting data, I think it's really important to acknowledge the why of collecting data and what's the data that we need to collect or want to collect, because we can collect all of the data.

But if it doesn't make sense to our place in space, and to what we want to learn and what we want to change maybe, or what we want to become a new normal, then it doesn't make sense. So I think about the Implementation and Reflection Toolkit as well.

But I like to break that down when I work with educators because it's massive. So where do we need to start? What statement actually makes sense for you right now? Let's work on that one, and then move forward. Little things like ripple effect.

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

I love that you make that point Karen, because I think it's so hard to take action if you haven't defined the change that you want to see. And that's where those implementation tools become so helpful, the Be You Implementation Cycle. We've got some new resources coming online over the next few months.

Really taking that time as a learning community to say, Okay, where are we? Where do we want to bet? Where are in that gap might we think about our kind of vision for change, because that gives you the why and you can rally people around the why.

 

Karin Humphrey

You can rally around the why, I love that. I think that's so important.

 

Jen Berthold

And sometimes when we use those tools, like the Implementation and Reflection Tool with schools, we discover that they're doing a whole lot and learning resilience, they've got lots of programs happening there.

But almost too much, they're exerting all this energy. But they don't have a consistent language. And instead of telling them to do more, we're actually saying time back, do less. Pick one program for the whole school, let’s get one set of language so that every teacher every year isn't trying to teach a whole new set of social and emotional learning language.

And when we look at the survey data, sometimes that can be overwhelming, right, because there's just so much data there. But we really work on, you know, let's try and just look at three things that you could celebrate, three things that could be some quick wins that you might just make a small change, like communicate with the parents what you're doing so that then they understand or just little things that you can do for quick wins.

And then maybe two or three things for longer term change, don't have to respond to every piece of the data, you look at it and think, what are we doing well?

What can we do that's manageable and sustainable to move forward?

 

Karin Humphrey

I think we need the quick win to go, all right, we've made that we did that. And so now what's my short-term goal, leading to our longer-term goal, but we need the quick wins in order to keep going. And we need the points of celebration.

 

Tina Martin

I think one of the beautiful things about Be You is that there's so many resources that are available that you can use them in different ways at different times. So, for example, the principal from St. Francis was talking about how she started the journey with the wellbeing plan, where other people would start the journey with the survey, other people would start it through some other resource.

I suppose there's lots of resources and lots of ways to get your data, your evidence, all of those types of things, and that you know, your communities best, and you would be able to make the judgment about what would work well, for you at that particular time at that particular moment.

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

And we've got that framework of the whole learning community. I think Be You is really useful for thinking about how we think about that change at every level of learning community. I think it's always so exciting when we see services and schools taking a look at their policies with a wellbeing lens. Right.

And I think it's a bit hard to find a silver lining from COVID. But I think something we've kind of come out of that experience with is wellbeing has a little bit more gravity to it now. Right? I think we're able to look at things like our, you know, our email policies, our policies around documentation, assessment, marking, you know, communications, and you know, we can really think about educator wellbeing as a consideration that we need to balance when we're putting this together.

 

 

Karin Humphrey

And one of the services I support in this connected community that I've already spruiked once, and I will continue to do, they have developed their wellbeing policy, but their wellbeing policy has been written from their practice, not the other way round. So practice has informed policy and I just go, wow, that's like just a light bulb moment, who would have thunk that?

 

Jen Berthold

That's the true reason for policy. To make sure good things continue to happen when new staff come on board, it's not to impose some or not just to write it for now good reason. It’s to have one. It's to say there’s good stuff happening. Let's document it, so we can continue it.

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

And you know, Jen Leigh’s just put in the chat. What are we doing well is a great beginning. And that's exactly it. It's about saying, what are we doing well? How do we make sure everyone knows about? How can we kind of get it living beyond the confines, maybe of one room or one part of our community.

 

Jen Berthold

One of the things I've noticed coming up in the surveys with schools a lot is that the educators and the students are saying things are going well. And the parents are saying, oh no my child wouldn't know how to get support, or no my child doesn't know this. So the problem there is obviously the communication.

That's such an easy, quick win, to look at how do we communicate the great things we're doing with our wider community with our parents and carers and celebrate this stuff together.

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

And we don't take time to celebrate? Onto the next thing.

 

Tina Martin

And self-critical. I think that’s the other thing too, for anyone who participated in the leadership session, you know, talking about systemic leadership, and that leadership, which, you know, rang bells for me.

I've always had a view that leadership is not about hierarchy. Leadership is about us all as individuals. We all have a leadership role and responsibility. But it was clear in that session, that the Be You initiative very much supports systemic leadership approach. And again, I think that framework for one of a better word, allows you to sort of think about wellbeing.

Our Be You framework allows us to think about wellbeing in a systemic way, but also cover the things that we need to think about, not just forget the voice of the child or not forget communication with parents or not, you know, that type of thing.

 

Geri Sumpter

I think that's really important as well. And it's just made me think about something that we discussed at the Be You National Advisory Council with some incredible experts in, you know, education and mental health, sitting on there.

And one of the things they were talking about recently was the power of the voice, and also the agency of the children and young people in terms of talking to, you know, where they want to go with things.

One of the things this made me think of is there was a comment around, you know, when the student voices being listened to now, the students are also saying that they want their educators to be well and healthy and in a position to be able to support them well. And I think that's really powerful when it's coming. You know, the educators want to support the children and the children is saying, we also want to make sure our educators are supported. And that student voice is really starting to shine through.

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

And that’s the reciprocity.

 

Geri Sumpter

So, I think that the agency piece is something that, yes, is a really important factor in that moving forwards, keeping us focused on what we actually need, because context is king. So, we need to make sure we're thinking about our individual context.

We're having some, some lovely comments coming through in the chat, a lot of people talking about, you know, filling your own tank first, being self-aware, thinking about setting those healthy boundaries, enjoying sort of the conversations around resilience, boundaries, wellbeing, etc, and how important they all are.

We're going to quickly go into a last sort of topic area, which is around how can we support our learning communities towards building wellbeing, resilience and inclusion? So, anybody got any sort of final words?

 

Karin Humphrey

I said it, you have to build your one.

 

Geri Sumpter

I’ve now got one.

 

Tina Martin

I think one of the things that came through for me over the two days was we've had people sort of showcasing the Be You resources, whether they be Fact Sheet or Consultant. We also had people saying we've used these resources, and these resources actually are good and have made a difference.

I think it's a reminder that we actually already have a whole pile of stuff in our toolbox to access immediately without thinking of something new or different. So yes, I it makes me think I need to go back to the Be You website and have another look at about what I could use.

 

Karin Humphrey

I’d also like to add there that the Be You website has fantastic stuff, never going to dispute that. But we talked earlier about Reconciliation Action Plans and a reconciled Australia and all of those things as well.

So Be You doesn't have to sit as a separate piece of work. Your RAP doesn't have to sit as a separate piece of work, your QIP for quality improvement plans and early learning does not have to sit as a separate piece of work. Bringing them all in together so that your Reconciliation Action Plan informs your Quality Improvement Plan informs your mental health and wellbeing focus. I think that's something that a strategy can work towards.

 

Jen Berthold

Yeah, I think seeing Be You as a framework that works really well with all the with all the other things that are going on, like trauma informed practice, Berry Street, Australian Childhood Foundation have great, great resources on trauma-informed practice. That sits really well complimentary with Be You.

We want to streamline things for learning services. But I would say this thriving piece, relatedness, building those relationships, building little changes and habit and routine. Opening up and continuing that conversation that we've started around emotional regulation, social and emotional learning, and respect that agency voice and choice. They're my four key takeaways from the last couple of days.

 

Geri Sumpter

Yeah, fantastic. And I think we're out with time, I just want to call out a message from Leanna. That's come through. And she's saying that what she's going to take away from this conference is learning how to be a strong advocate for herself, just as she is for the families, children and colleagues.

And I think that's, I think that's a really lovely point in there. So, having heard your top tips, gems, anybody else wants to give their top tips or reflections in our last few minutes together?

 

Louis Hamlyn-Harris

I'm having such fun. Comments, which are right in front of me. I think a real theme is this idea, and this is another reframing right, Jen, that educator wellbeing is not selfish. We know that educators don't always put themselves first, we know something about the occupational hazards of being an educator, there's a high degree of emotional labour, there's the risk of burnout in early childhood spaces, you know, that's really physical work. Right.

So, putting, you know, making sure we have what we need, making sure that our colleagues have what we you know, what they need, is how we do best by children. And the other thing, because the other theme that's really coming through in the comments that I see, is to do with boundaries.

And I love that you talked about modeling boundaries. For children, I think this is something that a lot of educators are really good at, thinking about children's boundaries, and children's ability to consent. And we can do really simple things like tell the child what we're about to do before we do it, right. I'm about to touch your arm, so I can help you pull your jumper over your head, whatever it is, right.

And you made this point too Tina, you know, this is how we learn to set healthy boundaries and get out of that kind of uncomfortable space, you know, saying what we're comfortable with?

 

Tina Martin

It's interesting, because, for me, if I think about the things I'm taking away, there's a lot too many to describe. But what I found interesting was some of the data that was quoted today, around for example, people's sense of belonging, but also the OECD data, there was Australian research on 5000 teachers, I think it was, and it was all saying that this was still really important. But what was thought provoking about it was have we actually moved very far? Because some of this data starter was 2021, I think.

So, I suppose for me, it's like, ah, there are lots out there. What can I do to move it forward? Because on one level, there's some data that’s suggesting that it's still a challenge. And so I think that's interesting to think about that in our own context. Is it a challenge in our learning community, or have we moved on? And can we then share that in some way?

 

Karin Humphrey

Yeah, totally agree. I think what's important to acknowledge that it is still a challenge. And so that's one of my takeaways. I think we've learned a lot about what we can do to support our wellbeing, but what I think is really important to acknowledge as well is that it's okay not to be okay. We don't always have to be resilient. Life is hard. Work is hard. Being in the sector is hard. Add, and it's okay to acknowledge that.

So yesterday there was a talk about making sure to, to not run on an empty tank. But sometimes you have to acknowledge that your tank is empty. And I don't quite know how to fill it up right now. And what do I need to fill it up? I actually don't have the answer to that. And that's okay. But if you're in a supportive environment, well, where your mental health literacy is there, and you can have those conversations, someone may be able to fill your tank up just a little bit to keep you going.

 

Geri Sumpter

That's why it's a really good point. So, it’s, and again, it's, you know, we've got that connectedness, and we we’re looking out for that whole learning community. So, we're all aware of what's happening for us. We can start to shift those dials and make people comfortable to have that conversation, which I think is fabulous.

So, I'm going to do just a few prompts at the end of this session, again, sort of like thank you so much for everything that you've contributed through all of your comments and your participation over the two days, we'd really love you to, to join up as a whole learning community, connect with your Be You Consultant.

We've got Jen and Karen here; these are the kinds of fabulous people you can meet when you connect with your Consultants. They really are a differentiating factor for Be You. And that's something that as initiative, we are super proud of you all, you really do make a difference in the learning communities. And that's been reflected through what's been said back through the chat. And you do well, you are the ones that deliver those implementation sessions.

So, join our conversation, we'll be extending the conversation from the conference through our implementation sessions and events, whether that's through a conversation, a connected community, whether it's through one of our webinars, so please keep your juices flowing, keep the conversations flowing, and maintain your connection with us.

And obviously, we've got the website and all of these tools that were said, we'll help you with those practical strategies that you can translate into your work with children and young people. We'd love you to keep in touch with us. We've got our socials that you can see on here, we've also got a new Insta social channel, we'd love you to sort of start following us that to get your information about Be You sort of fed through to you.

We've got a fabulous campaign out there at the minute all about making sure that more people are aware of what Be You can offer, including around our Educator Wellbeing and the fact that we want educators to raise your hands, ask the questions you need to know, because Be You is here to support you. So please use this to your best advantage.

There's so much expertise and loving this coming in your direction from the Be You team. And we'd love you to keep connected with us so that we can help support you and your learning communities. Before we go, I'd like to send out so very big thank yous. So, to this wonderful panel, delighted to thank you all for all of your participation and support.

I'd also like to thank the entire team behind the scenes and I think across the workforce from Beyond Blue, Early Childhood Australia, headspace, we're here working with Cliftons in our venues.

This has been an absolutely fantastic effort building resources, building awareness, raising literacy around Be You and all we offer, and giving people that professional development that helps them to support the children and young people which is that dial that we really want to shift. So, thank you to everybody that's been participating.

And a particular specific thanks to our Virtual Conference Working Group that is a bunch of team across our three organisations. Our One Be You approach in relation to how we go about developing our sessions and that team have been absolute superstars. They've been picking up on a catchphrase we've got around, keep it simple superstars. They've done that, they've delivered and they've done an absolutely fantastic job.

So, big thank you to you all. And that's it. So, enjoy the rest of your evening. Keep in touch with us. We are here for you and go well about your learning communities and take care of yourselves. Thank you, everybody.

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