Laura Alison is the newly appointed Co-ordinator of Psychology at Catholic Education WA. Today she spent two hours with our staff talking about good health and welfare. At the beginning of her outstanding presentation, she made the point that if you want to improve the emotional fitness of a school, start with the staff. Research shows that when you build teacher mental health, there is an increase in child health. It also arms staff with strategies for empowering and assisting students with their wellbeing and challenges.

Some of the areas Laura covered were: lifestyle and coping skills, sleep and fatigue, mental health issues and relationship building. She gave staff lots of tools and strategies for working together and with students. Her overall message was that we all need to feel safe, heard and valued. A session like this is an affirmation for our staff that they are valued and their physical and emotional health is important.