This is an individual written task with three parts. (word count included in each section – note that word count does not pertain to Part B).

Part A: Written Report/Essay (1500 words)

Present your understandings, using relevant research, about student wellbeing, resilience and safety as they relate to middle years students and to the educational context in which you learn and teach.

Focus particularly on:

• defining and describing the importance of wellbeing, resilience and safety for young people

• describing the current Australian Educational Context in which wellbeing promotion is positioned

• identifying and discussing characteristics, environments and backgrounds of young people that make them vulnerable to wellbeing impacts and potentially being students ‘At Risk’.

Part B: Resource Package

Construct a resource package that shows your understanding of the range of contemporary issues that are potential sources of risk for middle school students. This will be a valuable resource for yourself and people supporting students in the Middle School Years. Your package must include:

• One page “At A Glance” representation of the broad range of potential sources of risk for middle school students (you may like to use a concept map to present your understanding)

• Resource Bank of external community resources, that would be suitable for supporting middle school students wellbeing and safety, for 4 of the potential sources of risk (e.g. domestic violence, cyber bullying, drug use etc) that you have identified. Including active hyperlinks to exact pages that relate to the source of risk, where possible, is necessary as well as a brief annotation describing how this may be used to support, promote or maintain middle years students wellbeing and safety.

• Education curriculum, policies and relevant legislation links (e.g. ACARA, QCAA, Education Department Frameworks, Codes of Conduct & Ethics, Child Protection etc) that demonstrate how schools support and maintain students wellbeing and safety within curriculum and legislative requirements that are relevant to your chosen sources of risk.

Part C: Alignment of External Resource to Resiliency Wheel & Written Evaluation (800 words)

• Choose one of particular key resource/support material from the Resource Scan (Part B) and align this to the six resiliency builders presented in the Resiliency Wheel (Henderson, 2007), identifying how the resource provides both opportunities to mitigate risk factors and build resilience for the aligned risk. You can present this through a visual representation or table format.

• Include an 800 word evaluation of the effectiveness of this resource in relation to the Resiliency Builders and how this resource could be used to mitigate the identified risk factor and promote resilience for Middle School students by teachers.

Note: Further templates and support documents will be embedded within the weekly unit materials in Moodle and discussed during tutorials.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence agents (Gen AI)

Within this assessment, the use of Microsoft Copilot, Chat GPT or other Gen AI agents is as follows:

• No Gen AI use at any point during this assessment.

Please note: The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion (unless specifically stated in the Task Description). It excludes the cover page, abstract, contents page, reference page and appendices. It includes in-text references and direct quotations.

1. Research informed examination that demonstrates understandings about the vulnerability of middle years students and the factors (characteristics and diverse backgrounds) that could impact their well-being, resilience and safety within school and community systems. (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 1.1, 1.3 & 4.4)
2. Demonstration of a broad range of potential sources of risk for middle years students and explicit identification and description of both external resources (professionals, community representatives and organisations) and school based resources (curriculum, legislative and personnel) that could be used to maintain and support students wellbeing and safety. (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 4.4 & 7.4)
3. Evaluation of a key resource for one source of contemporary risk (identified in Part B) using the Resiliency Wheel to identify how the resource provides both opportunities to mitigate risk factors and build resilience for middle years students. (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 4.4)
4. Personal written competencies that communicate the ‘student well-being’ context, using knowledge of academic practices and conventions

This is an individual written task & there are two parts (word count included in each section – note that word count does not pertain to the Wellbeing Framework).

Part A: Journal Entries – Personal meets Professional: Wellbeing & Resilience Reflection (1000 words)

Being a Teacher in the 21st Century brings many challenges both personally and professionally. Critically reflecting on your own wellbeing, resilience, support networks and self-care strategies that you use personally, will help you to identify how these link to your future work as a teacher and developing teacher resilience.

• You will write three to four journal entries (approximately 250-300 words each), critically reflecting on your personal wellbeing, resilience and self-care strategies and consider how these contribute to your preparedness as a future classroom teacher.

• You may draw upon the use of the Resilient Teacher Model to identify dimensions that your personal strategies are aligned with, to identify the types of strategies you may find helpful as a future teacher.

• Journal entries are to be written in first person and does not require academic referencing.

Part B: Wellbeing Framework and Justification - (1000 Word Justification – no word count for Wellbeing Framework)

Wellbeing committees are evident in schools and part of their role is to promote a range of whole school and classroom strategies to support the whole school community. For this part of the assessment task you will need to create a Whole School Wellbeing Framework. Your framework must include specific strategies/activities for both whole school and classroom initiatives and to engage the wider school community (teachers, students and parents/carers). To guide the development of your framework you may like to consider existing Wellbeing Frameworks (e.g. Circle of Courage, Resiliency Wheel, PERMA etc) shared within this Unit and use these as your base OR you may wish to create your own Wellbeing Framework. You are then to write a justification that draws upon current research/literature and explains:

• the need for the framework, including how and why you have chosen/created this framework;

• the ways in which the frame can be used to support the work of teachers by discussing Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (especially Standard 4);

• how the model promotes student wellbeing and safe, supportive learning environments;

• how this framework could be communicated and shared with parents and caregivers, building productive partnerships.

Part B must include:

• One-page Wellbeing Model that could be displayed throughout the school to communicate this effectively to all stakeholders

• A framework that includes specific strategies for both whole school and classroom environments

• Embedded strategies within the framework need to consider: a) learning environments; b) curriculum and pedagogy; c) relationship building; and d) policies and procedures for each environment

• Written justification

Note: Further support documents will be embedded within the weekly unit materials in Moodle and discussed during tutorials.

Please note: The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion (unless specifically stated in the Task Description). It excludes the cover page, abstract, contents page, reference page and appendices. It includes in-text references and direct quotations.

1. Critical reflection and self-study about the shaping of personal resilience to identify and discuss potential professional resilience, self-care strategies and professional learning needs as a future teacher. (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 6.1)
2. Presentation of a whole school wellbeing framework that identifies strategies that support students wellbeing and safety within both the whole school and classroom environments and considers the learning environment, curriculum and pedagogy, relationship building and relative policies and procedures (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 4.4)
3. Justification of the created whole school framework, using contemporary research and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, to communicate the choice of framework, embedded whole school and classroom strategies and the commitment to the promotion of student wellbeing and safety through productive partnerships with students, parents/carers and community. (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Standard 4)
4. Personal written competencies that demonstrate knowledge of academic practices and conventions