More Support To Keep Principals Happy And Healthy

Photo: ThoughtCo

The Labor Government’s new Principal Health and Wellbeing Strategy will support Victoria’s 3,000 government school principals and assistance principals to stay healthy and happy at work with a suite of new programs and resources.

It includes seven new pilot initiatives that will tackle head on the mental and physical challenges faced by principals across Victoria.

A new online School Policy Templates Portal will help reduce principal workload by streamlining the process of developing and implementing school-level policies on topics ranging from anaphylaxis to bullying and school uniforms.

Principals can also access additional Departmental support to help them respond to complex school matters including students with challenging behaviours, while another pilot is giving school leaders the chance to participate in wellbeing supervision sessions with an experienced psychologist.

Other new initiatives under the strategy include an early intervention program that allows principals to confidentially access health providers to positively manage their physical and mental health, and a new mentoring program that will pair principals with their more experienced peers for advice and support.

More than 180 principals have already accessed the strategy’s free and confidential health checks, which are being delivered by independent workplace medical firm InjuryNET and include a medical examination covering pathology, lifestyle and mental health.

Victorian principals have been extensively consulted as part of the Principal Health and Wellbeing Strategy’s development, with more than 3,000 principal class and regional staff participating in forums and providing feedback on a principal health and wellbeing discussion paper in 2017.

The full strategy is available at http://education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/safetyhw/Pages/PrincipalHWB.aspx.