Western Australia’s Minister for Education Tony Buti and Federal Education Minister Jason Clare visited Ash dale Secondary College to discuss the funding.
Students at the College, which is located in Perth’s North, will benefit from $47,487 in Student Wellbeing Boost funding.
This funding will offer key enhancements to the college’s existing student wellbeing programs, delivering added support to run events and initiatives to generate a sense of belongings among students and provide further training to staff.
Ash dale Secondary College is one of 1,120 WA schools which will benefit from $22.3m in Commonwealth Student Wellbeing Boost funding for mental health and wellbeing projects.
The Student Wellbeing Boost is an Albanese Government election commitment to provide one-off funding to schools which supports their students’ mental health wellbeing.
Individual schools, to support their students will decide how best to use the Student Wellbeing Boost.
In addition to the Student Wellbeing Boost, all Education Ministers have decided to support the Commonwealth’s five-year $307.18m Federation Funding Agreement to deliver the National Student Wellbeing Program.
For participating, Western Australia will receive $38.64m under this program over 5 school years.
The O’Brien Review into the next National School Reform Agreement is also focused on how the next Agreement can better support student health and wellbeing.
According to the Review’s Discussion Paper, students experiencing poor mental health have double the number of absent days and by Year 9 are on average 1.5 years to two years behind in literacy and numeracy outcomes.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said, good mental health and wellbeing have a significant impact on young individuals’ engagement with education and their learning outcomes.
Western Australia’s Education Minister Dr. Tony Buti said, the Cook Government is committed on providing a quality education for all students, with a focus that includes their physical, emotional, social and mental wellbeing.
This funding will support a variety of services and programs to promote positive student wellbeing and help to ensure that all students feel a sense of belonging at school.
This funding will ensure that students from Ash dale Secondary College and all local schools will have assistance to identify mental health challenges and access to cope up with strategies and strong support.
Students increasingly face a number of challenges which impact on their wellbeing. I hope this additional funding which will permit Ash dale Secondary College to deliver quality support for its student.
