Ambassadors of National Check-in Week
We are passionate about education and encouraging new conversations about student wellbeing.
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National Check-in Week Ambassador
Head of Wellbeing, St Brigid’s Catholic College
ABC Radio Presenter 0:04
With school students back in the classroom after two years of predominantly online learning, parents and educators are being urged to start conversations about their emotional wellbeing. The National check-in week campaign is providing educators with tools that will provide timely data to help understand student’s state of mind. Tegan Bayliss is a leader of wellbeing at St. Bridget’s Catholic College, at Lake Munmorah on the New South Wales Central Coast, and she says some students have found it difficult returning to the classroom.
Tegan Bayliss 0:36
National checking week allows our students in our classrooms to check-in via a platform, which allows our staff to get a good collection of data, which allows us to make sure that our students are going okay. And when they’re not that we can have those conversations with them. So it’s absolutely critical that we get it in a timely manner, it’s often way too late that we find out that students are struggling. And it’s critical because we need to be able to get students the support they need. And that might mean an array of things through school, but also anything any extra supports that we could have outside of school as well.
ABC Radio Presenter 1:15
And how do you think students are feeling about being back in the classroom after such a disruptive two years due to COVID?
Tegan Bayliss 1:23
Yeah, I think this is a really important and concerning part of where we’re at, I think that some students are actually thriving. And you know, being home was a real struggle and not having that engagement with their friends. And there’s a range of different people, you know, teachers and things like that. And we hear a lot about school being the safe zone for a lot of students, I don’t know that we hear enough maybe about the amount of students that are struggling to get back into the classroom. So a lot of our kids that potentially have anxiety or another form of mental health challenge will find it and have found it really hard. And we’ve seen some students actually not come back into the classroom due to this. So they are there they’re struggling in terms of that, they’re also struggling with the overwhelm classrooms are very different to being in the home by yourself.
ABC Radio Presenter 2:10
What needs to happen, then to help those students with anxiety or other mental health issues, to encourage them to be able to come back into the classroom.
Tegan Bayliss 2:18
So we need to set up a safe environment. And we need to apply wellbeing strategies in classrooms. So now more than ever, it’s really important that we’re using programs or our own skill sets around social-emotional learning, in order to give our kids the skill sets to build that resilience to be in the classroom.
ABC Radio Presenter 2:40
You’re at Lake Munmorah on the New South Wales Central Coast, what are students telling you about their emotional wellbeing needs?
Tegan Bayliss 2:48
I think, definitely, from our perspective, up here on the coast, we have a high, I guess, statistic rate in terms of mental health struggles for us, they’re telling us that they need to have safe people that they can go to. So building that relationship with our students, and giving them safe platforms in order to be able to check-in has been really, really important. I guess that’s the main thing is providing those spaces or check-ins
ABC Radio Presenter 3:16
For parents, what are some of the signs that a student may be struggling?
Tegan Bayliss 3:20
I think this is also a really, really important question. So look, it presents differently. So often, when I’m speaking with parents, sort of things that we’ll hear that would flag for us know, withdrawn, students not wanting to or their children not wanting to be part of the family, they don’t want to talk, they don’t want to come out of their bedroom, potentially, they’re on social media a lot more than they were, they might see signs of potentially different emotions coming out that they hadn’t seen before anger, or just defiance in certain different ways that they hadn’t seen before. They could be as simple as something as I don’t want to go to school today. Or you know what, I’m not wearing the right uniform today. And I know those things. They’re not indicators that we would only use, but sometimes those are indicators, that something is wrong. And it’s actually a really important part of what we then can say, You know what, let’s have a conversation about how you going.
ABC Radio Presenter 4:13
I know that the focus of this week is on young people, but how important is it that teachers are checking in with each other as well, especially after such a tumultuous couple of years?
Tegan Bayliss 4:24
Yeah, this is actually an area really close to my heart. It’s so incredibly important at the moment that we are looking at staff wellbeing, not just our teachers, but our counselors, our support staff, everybody that works within the culture of a school because we’re coming back in, I guess that culture that we would have had moving out into those home-based learning has changed, you know, the world has changed. The way we educate has changed because there are a lot of unknowns and there are lots of unknowns even around, you know, are we going to potentially have to be home-based learning again, is there. And I know that you know, whilst it’s fairly made clear that we won’t be going back into that those are some of the anxieties, I guess, that are presented for staff. Yeah. So I think it’s really, really important that we just not only check in with each other, but we’re checking in, across the system. So, you know, our leadership, and teachers, everybody checking in together and having really, I guess open conversations about how important staff wellbeing is, in order to help our students because we’re not checking in ourselves. We can’t ask our students to do the face.
ABC Radio Presenter 5:31
It’s been a pretty extraordinary couple of years for all involved in teaching at our schools in Australia. Tegan Bayliss, the leader of wellbeing at St Brigid’s Catholic College at Lake Munmorah. That’s on the New South Wales Central Coast.
ACSSO
Australian Council of State School Organisations
As the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO), we represent the interests of the families and communities of more than 2.4 million children attending government schools in Australia. We are one of the oldest continuously operating parent organisations in Australia and possibly the world. We were formed in 1947 to bring together various state and territory parent groups to develop national policies reflecting the way families wanted public education to be offered for their children.
Life Skills Group
Life Skills Group began in 2009 by running in-school programs in metropolitan New South Wales and Victoria. The Life Skills GO online platform began in 2018, created from working hand in hand with more than 850 schools and reaching around 500,000 students nationally to build technology that they need to explicitly teach and measure the social, emotional and physical wellbeing of every student.
Life Skills’ program content is evidence-based, aligned to the Australian Curriculum and each state’s syllabus and its programs have been assessed and approved by BE YOU (Beyond Blue), enabling Life Skills GO to be delivered by teachers in all schools across Australia. The programs have already been successfully used by teachers to minimise bullying and other problem behaviours within the school environment, and to address a range of mental health issues, such as anxiety, in individual students. Students and our schools are currently dealing with a worldwide pandemic in COVID-19 this is where Life Skills Go can now assist the Department of Education to meet the current demands placed on students.
Unlike other SEL products, a major advantage of this online blended learning platform is its capacity to generate reports that measure individual student emotional wellbeing and progress for a range of desired skills such as self awareness and self regulation, resilience, critical thinking, social skills, creativity and collaboration. We can assist with reports on an individual, school, cluster/district or State level.
Life Skills GO has been developed, tested and used in hundreds of schools with great success. Educators and Principals have contributed to the development and evolution of Life Skills GO.
Sentral
Sentral is Australia’s leading cloud-based school management platform trusted by more than 2,500 Schools. With its web-based suite of modules, Sentral provides a single comprehensive interface for the management, tracking and reporting of data for school administration, online learning and student management. Sentral supports National Check-in Week through its integration with the platform powering the event, Life Skills GO, to reduce teacher workloads and allow check-ins to be conducted simultaneously with class roll calls.
Eric Jamieson
Education strategist and innovator
Eric Jamieson is an accomplished education strategist and innovator with extensive experience in the field. He currently serves as the Director of Education Innovation & Strategy at Circumference 360, a position he has held since June 2020. Prior to this, he was the Chief Education Officer at GEMS Education for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt from September 2018 to June 2020, where he oversaw educational programs and initiatives for the region. Before joining GEMS Education, Eric held several senior positions in education, including Director of High Performance and Director of Educational Measurement and School Accountability at the New South Wales Department of Education. He has also served as Principal of Plumpton High School, a position he held for seven years. Eric is widely recognized for his expertise in educational leadership and has been invited to serve on several academic councils
Lori Schwanbeck
Subject Matter Expert- Psychology and mindfulness-based emotional intelligence
With a background in marketing, positive psychology, and mindfulness practice, Lori brings a unique set of skills and expertise to working with individuals and organizations. She has taught thousands of people in diverse global settings and is known for her ability to foster connection with warmth, humor and authenticity, while inspiring the best in others.
She is a senior faculty member at Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), an organization born at Google, where she mentors and trains teachers, and designs and facilitates both in-person and virtual mindfulness based emotional intelligence programs. Lori recently completed a multi year project in Bhutan working in partnership with the Gross National Happiness initiative bringing SIYLI’s program of mindfulness based emotional intelligence skills to all of Bhutan’s 10,000 teachers. The program was subsequently rolled out to all levels of the Bhutanese government.
Lori also supports diverse organizations build cultures of connection and compassion through customized program design and facilitation. “I’m honored to be an ambassador for National Check-in Week. Letting our children know we are aware of them, that they matter, and giving them a language for and way to be with emotions… not only supports their resilience and surviving during challenging times, it also gives them skills that will support their thriving as adults.”
Nikki Bonus
Founder and CEO, Life Skills Group
Nikki Bonus is an experienced ed-tech founder and CEO of Life Skills Group, harnessing more than 20 years of deeply personal and professional experience in the development and delivery of social-emotional literacy programs for individuals, organizations, and most importantly, teachers and students. Nikki’s work has helped give voice to more than 850 schools, connecting with 20,000 teachers and 500,000 primary school children to build a continuing evidence base of what works to measure, report and implement real improvements in Social Emotional and Physical Literacy for school communities.
She was one of a 100 CEOs that was invited to participate in the Google – Engage – Search Inside Yourself leadership program, San Francisco, training her to deliver Transformational Professional Development experiences backed by world experts in neuroscience, leadership, mindfulness and emotional intelligence.
Nikki’s intrinsic motivation is to show that no matter where you were born, no matter what family you were born into, anything is possible with the right education.
Dianne Giblin
Chief Executive Officer: AM
B.Ed (Adult) Dip Mgmt, Family Engagement Consultant
Di has worked in education in both paid and unpaid capacity for the past 32 years.
Di has a passion for education, in particular public education, and the opportunities it affords young people. She has led the ACSSO secretariat since 2011 but has been a significant player in parent activism since 1984 when her eldest child commenced school. She is proud of her four children’s achievements – all successes of public education.
She has held various volunteer roles in the parent movement finishing her P&C career as President of the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW.
Di was a founding Director of Public Education Foundation whose board position she held for six years; a founding Director of Primary Ethics Board and also a founding Director of The Parenthood board.
She worked in a paid capacity for the NSW education department in a number of roles across a large area of Sydney. Her roles were all in the area of parent engagement and home-school partnerships including school-based community officer, across district Community Development Officer and regional Partnership Officer – all through the Priority Schools Program.
Recognition of her work saw her commended for Meritorious Service to Public Education and Training in 2010. In 2012 Dianne was admitted as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for her service to public education and the community.
Di’s greatest love is her family but coming a close second is her love of music. Whilst an amateur guitar player she likes to spend downtime with it, her grandchildren and her playing her vinyl albums on the new turntable.
Sharron Healy
President, Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO)
Sharron was an active member of her three children’s school Parent Clubs for over 20 years, serving as an ordinary member and president at both primary and secondary levels. She also served on the school council for over 10 years, as a councillor and president.
Sharron has volunteered with Parents Victoria Inc. for 15 years and is currently the president of Parents Victoria, the Victorian member organisation of ACSSO. Founded in 1925 as the peak body representing the collective views of parents in public education in Victoria, Parents Victoria was also a founding member of ACSSO.
Sharron’s interest in promoting and advocating for public education comes from a desire to see every child in our country having access to a first-class educational experience.
Antony Mawer
Co-founder, Sentral
Antony Mawer has over 25 years experience in a diverse range of technology roles. He is the ‘accidental’ founder of Sentral, having joined up with 2 ex-NSW DoE teachers in 2001 to help schools make better use of technology.
Ant is an Industry representative on various forums (e.g. NSIP, EduGrowth) with a passion for helping people solve problems. (which usually – but not always – means using technology!)
Cheryl Edward
Psychologist working in schools
Formerly supporting Inclusion Support Services and Pastoral Care and Wellbeing in Catholic Education, NT
Cheryl is a psychologist who has worked in the Northern Territory, supporting Inclusion Support Services and Pastoral Care and Wellbeing in Catholic Education, NT. She started as a School Counsellor with Katherine Group School, in the Department of Education, in 2010, working in 8 schools east of Katherine. By the time Cheryl moved to Catholic Education, NT in Term 2, 2017, she was working across what is known as the Big Rivers region, covering 28 schools and 4,000 students across 400,000 square km’s. Throughout her work over the past 12 years, she has seen the most difference when schools work with a trauma-informed lens, incorporating neuroscience with social emotional learning.
Toni Pearen
Actress, Singer, TV Presenter and Acting Coach
Toni Pearen is an accomplished actress, singer, TV presenter and acting coach. At the age of 17 she starred in Network 10’s series E-Street as Toni Windsor. She then started making music and her first 3 singles went Top 10 including her first single “In Your Room”. She was also the lead in the Aussie feature film “All Men Are Liars”, the host of “Australia’s Funniest Home Videos” and has performed in many stage shows all over Australia. Most recently, she entered the so-called jungle in “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here”.
Her passion for sharing knowledge and nurturing young creative minds led her to start her screen acting school, The Talent Co with fellow actress, Raelee Hill. Toni has 2 children, Lucky and Ever, ages 12 and 9, respectively and understands the need for children, teachers and carers to connect on an emotional level and find the language needed to help our children thrive and feel safe in all environments.
She is proud to be an ambassador for National Check-In Week and hopes it starts new conversations about our emotional well-being.
Michael Bani
Cast Member, ‘Harry Potter and The Cursed Child’ play, Melbourne
Former NRL Player
Through his life experiences, Mick has learnt a great deal of understanding cultural diversity, different communicative methods and other cultural backgrounds. He spent some time playing professionally in the NRL and is now currently a cast member of ‘Harry Potter and The Cursed Child’ play in Melbourne. Mick conducts himself well through cultural values such as humility, respect and integrity.
He identifies himself as Yabina Kaapu, an ancient adage that basically describes him as a ‘rock’ for his family and his people.
He believes that emotional literacy is vital for the growth and learning of our younger generations particularly in the classrooms. It allows children to connect with themselves and, in time, gives them the ability to trust and connect with others. Self regulation is also critical as this creates a much safer space and environment for our children to thrive and succeed in.
Catherine Cannuli
Head Coach, Western Sydney Wanderers
Technical Director, Women’s Football with Southern Districts Football Association
Catherine Cannuli was born on the third of March 1986, in a football fanatical family.
Whilst growing up she was fortunate to train with the under 10s Marconi boys team. This led to her being the first, and the only female footballer to play in the Marconi boys U/11s, then the Marconi boys U/12s. At the age of 13 she went on to play in her first women’s team, an all-age ladies team. This same year she was scouted whilst playing during the halftime break of her brother’s game into the NSWIS girls program. The following year, at the age of 14 she debuted at her first state league team, the NSW Sapphires, the equivalent of the current W League program. Shortly after she represented her country at the U/19s Youth World Cup in 2002 and then the Youth World Cup in 2004. Following this tournament, Catherine was diagnosed with Compartment Syndrome. The hard decision was made to have surgery on both her legs simultaneously resulting in a halt to her progressing career. Numerous obstacles followed until she made her return to the W League with Sydney FC in 2009 following 5 years out of the game.
Here her love for the game was reignited and this led to back-to-back seasons playing in the W League. After much dedication, Catherine was able to represent her country playing for the Matildas in 2011 earning her first cap. In 2012 Catherine played the inaugural first season with the Western Sydney Wanderers W League team, a team that represented everything she stood for. She remained there for three seasons until she finally decided to retire at the age of 28.
Not being able to let the passion subside she decided to give back to the game she loved so much to further pursue a professional coaching career. She is now Head Coach with the Western Sydney Wanderers as well as the Technical Director of Women’s Football with Southern Districts Football Association.
Catherine has been an Optus Sports Analyst for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, and also has experience with Fox Sports, ABC, SBS, Channel 10 and Paramount Plus covering the women’s games
Laci Christiaen
Director, Heart of Gold Consultancy
Laci Christiaen is a dedicated professional with extensive experience in the field of social work. Laci is a mental health social work practitioner at a private psychology clinic. With a Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) and degree of child, youth and family studies, Laci is passionate about holistic practice and has established herself as an accomplished expert in her field. As the Director of Heart of Gold Consultancy Laci is committed to providing top-quality services and takes a heart centred approach to support organisations, individuals, and communities to flourish. Prior to her current position, Laci served as a Youth Diversion Manager, where she worked tirelessly to empower and uplift young people through various programs and restorative justice initiatives. Her unwavering dedication and passion for social justice have earned her widespread recognition and respect in the industry.
Candice Taylor
Teacher Librarian, Wellbeing Coordinator and Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Instruction – Killarney Vale Public School.
Candice Taylor teaches at Killarney Vale Public School on the Central Coast. She wears many teaching hats; Teacher Librarian, Wellbeing Coordinator and Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Instruction. Candice holds both a Masters of Education and a Master of Education in Teacher Librarianship.
Candice Taylor has been a critical contributor to the success of her school’s blended approach to wellbeing, which incorporates elements of Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL), Zones of Regulation, and Life Skills GO. Within her District, Candice has led professional learning to the broader school community, speaking of Killarney Vale’s wellbeing programs, initiatives, and strategies, which have been recognised as “best practice”. Recently, Candice gave an informative and insightful presentation to her school’s Parent &Community (P&C) about KVPS’s implementation of Life Skills GO. This discussion gave the school’s P&C members a firsthand demonstration of the Life Skills GO platform and a greater understanding into the school’s proactive approach to supporting students’ wellbeing daily.
Candice has a profound commitment to wellbeing, whereby whole-school wellbeing decisions are underpinned by evidence-based research, explicit teachings, and data-driven practices. This ensures that every student’s social and emotional learning at KVPS is holistically supported so that students feel empowered to continuously move “Forward to a Better World”.
Stephanie Thom
Assistant Principal – St John the Apostle Catholic School, Narraweena.
As executive lead on her schools Wellbeing Team, Stefanie believes in the critical nature and importance of a collaborative approach with students, families and support organisations to ensure that all children are ready to learn and supported on their journey. Stefanie is currently a member of the NSW Education Minister’s Teacher Advisory Council. She has engaged in roles including classroom teacher, ICLT Coordinator, Mathematics Lead Teacher/Specialist and Religious Education Coordinator and is currently leading learning and wellbeing at her school as Assistant Principal.
Stefanie’s enthusiasm and focus is on the importance of creating a community of collaborative interactions and building relationships with all stakeholders that is driven by data, complimented by engaging learning experiences and guided by students and families as they grow connects her to each of her staff, students and parents, as well as all within the wider education field and broader community.
Her passion for leadership, building partnerships for learning, leading to unleash the potential of all and education is infectious.
Ilona Watkins
Principal – Noorat Primary School.
I am Ilona Watkins, the Principal of Noorat Primary School. We invested in Life Skills Go a couple of years ago when we discovered their incredible platform that would allow us to track student wellbeing and engagement data in an ongoing manner. Our whole school completes a check-in each morning prior to learning commences, which enables Staff to identify and follow up with any student – this can be the form of a quick chat, or the suggestion of utilising a strategy from their individual ‘ready to learn plan’ to help them regulate, focus and be more prepared to engage in learning. This data has proved highly valuable as we identify trends early and are able to be proactive in our approach to student wellbeing.
Marc Pedersen
Assistant Principal | Wollongong Public School
Marc is a K-12 qualified educator and has been teaching since 2008 within Primary education. He has been the assistant principal off-class head of Wellbeing at Blaxcell Street Public School since 2019, which involved leading professional learning and initiating wellbeing programs and strategies to support 930 students and a staff of 96. The relentless mindset and focus on safety Marc obtained as an engineer with Qantas he has brought to education, in the form of wellbeing. Marc instils a focus on wellbeing via peer reviewed evidenced-based research and through explicitly taught strategies to support the social and emotional learning of all students. He knows that wellbeing is what underpins the success of the whole child and he looks forward to continuing this mindset as he starts in his new role as an assistant principal at Wollongong Public School in 2022.
Tegan Bayliss
Head of Wellbeing | St Brigid’s Catholic College, Lake Munmorah
My name is Tegan Bayliss and I am a leader of Wellbeing in a Secondary School and have been in this profession for 16 years. Having recently studied a Masters Educational Leadership and Masters in Applied Positive Psychology I have learnt the important value of applying wellbeing science for Student, parent and staff wellbeing.
Our students and families can not flourish without wellbeing at the forefront of what our schools are about. National Check-in week is an amazing intuitive that I’m honoured to be part of. Engaging in conversations and checking-in with each other is the best way we can support our young people. It is time that the stigma of mental health be well and truly broken. Checking in through National Check-in week is one way we can begin the cycle that saves lives. This initiative is incredibly important to me as a partner, mother, daughter and teacher.
Jo-ann Osbourne
Assistant Principal | Arranounbai School
Jo-ann also teaches an Autism Intervention class for students K-2, coordinates the Wellbeing Team, the PBL (Positive Behaviour for Learning) Team and is an integral member of the Learning Support Team. Jo-Ann has been recognised with a Professional Service Award from Autism Spectrum Australia for her ‘work in the field of autism spectrum disorders in recognition of an exceptional contribution towards improving the quality of life of people with an autism spectrum disorder’. She has been working in special education for 17 years and is passionate about providing opportunities for students to access mainstream learning and gain a stronger understanding of their own wellbeing and strategies to promote character strengths.
Michelle Demirel
Deputy Principal-Instructional Leader/Years 3-6 | Leichhardt Public School
Accredited Lead Teacher
Michelle Demirel is a long-time and passionate classroom teacher and dedicated Deputy Principal/Instructional Leader at Leichhardt Public School. She is committed to supporting all her staff to reflect upon and improve their practice in order to improve student outcomes. As an accredited Lead Teacher, she supports and guides beginning teachers and aspiring HALTs. She is passionate about student and staff wellbeing and participates in as much professional learning as she can to support her understanding of current and best practices in social and emotional learning to implement and nurture initiatives across my school.
Troy Westcott
Assistant Principal | Gol Gol Public School
