Federal Education Minister Jason Clare and State Education Minister Grace Grace visit Kelvin Grove State College in Brisbane to announce funding for mental health and wellbeing projects.
SCHOOLS throughout the state will benefit from a $35.8 million Commonwealth Student Wellbeing Boost for mental health and wellbeing projects.
The Student Wellbeing Boost is a Commonwealth election commitment to provide one-off funding to schools.
The O’Brien Review into the next National School Reform Agreement emphasised that students with good social and emotional wellbeing are more engaged with learning and tend to have higher levels of academic achievement and attainment.
Queensland’s 1,797 individual schools will decide how best to use the Student Wellbeing Boost to support their students.
The State Government worked closely with the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and Independent Schools Queensland to develop the model for allocating Student Wellbeing Boost funding across all Queensland schools.
In addition to the Student Wellbeing Boost, all Education Ministers have agreed to support the Commonwealth’s five-year $307.18 million Federation Funding Agreement to deliver the National Student Wellbeing Program.
Queensland schools will receive $91.75 million under this program.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the boost to funding would produce major benefits.
“Good mental health and wellbeing have a significant impact on young people’s engagement with education and their learning outcomes,” he said.
“Because if you're feeling better, then you'll perform better at school.” Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace said the program complemented the State Government’s $106 million Student Wellbeing Package, which put GPs, psychologists, and other wellbeing professionals in schools across the state.
“School can be a wonderful time in the lives of our students, but it can have its challenges too – particularly when it comes to mental health,” she said.
