Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

**Overview**:
**Work Type**:Ongoing - Part-time

**Salary**: Salary not specified

**Grade**:Classroom Teacher - Range 2

**Occupation**:Health and allied health

**Location**:Melbourne - Western suburbs

**Reference**:1491085

**Location Profile**:

- Footscray Primary School is located in Melbourne¿s inner west and has a current enrolment of 340 students. We have over 25 languages spoken in the homes of our school community, and we value and celebrate the many benefits of language learning. As a Designated Bilingual School, we teach and learn 50% of the Victorian Curriculum through Italian language. Our Italian bilingual approach commenced in 2021 and has expanded with each new Foundation cohort. In 2025, all students from Foundation to Year 5 will learn bilingually with 2026 being our first year of whole school bilingual education.

Footscray Primary School has a strong culture of professional learning with teaching teams collaborating to design rich, connected learning sequences. Teachers work in language pairs, sharing two classes that move between the Italian and English classrooms throughout the day. We strive to place learning in authentic contexts and support our young people to inquire, hypothesise, reflect, and take meaningful action.

Our community aims to ensure that every school experience is positive and respectful, and we are guided by Respectful Relationships and School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). We celebrate diversity and believe a sense of belonging and inclusion are fundamental to children¿s learning and ability to fully participate in life at school and beyond. We believe that all children have the right to learn and feel safe and we pride ourselves on our inclusive practices.

Our community values are showcased through initiatives such as the All Aboard project, which aims to ensure every student can attend excursions, participate in all school activities and wear appropriate uniform regardless of their financial background, and our strong focus on student wellbeing, which builds empathy and emotional intelligence. We value our parents as partners and come together as a community often through events organised by the FPS social club. We have an active public Facebook page where we showcase achievements and connect informally as a school community.

Footscray Primary School is a proud member of the Footscray Learning Precinct. The precinct is championing excellence in learning and teaching at all stages of education, building upon the richness and diversity of the community and provides opportunities for learning in new ways. We enjoy a strong collaborative partnership with Footscray High, Footscray City PS, and Victoria University to ensure we are continually working towards improved outcomes for our learners.

**Selection Criteria**:

- SC1 'Content of teaching and learning'. Demonstrated ability to inform and influence the work of others involved in the engagement, mental health, wellbeing or learning of children and young people.
- SC2 'Teaching practice'. Demonstrated ability to input into the development, implementation and evaluation of processes and strategies relating to mental health, wellbeing or learning.
- SC3 'Assessment and reporting of student learning'. Demonstrated ability to support a student's mental health, wellbeing or learning by developing and maintaining connection with external services.
- SC4 'Interaction with the school community'. Demonstrated high level interpersonal skills and communication skills. Demonstrated high level of capability to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with students, parents, other employees and the broader school community to focus on student learning, wellbeing and engagement.
- SC5 'Professional requirements'. Demonstrated ability to influence and negotiate by gaining buy-in and ownership for ideas, gaining agreement to proposals, or involving experts or other third parties to strengthen a case.

**Role**:

- The Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System highlighted that primary schools provide opportunities to identify children with mental health and wellbeing challenges, who can then be referred to treatment, care and support.
- The Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative is being expanded to every government and low-fee non-government primary school in Victoria. Scaling up across the state from 2023, by 2026 every primary school will be able to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader to implement a whole-school approach to wellbeing.
- The Department of Education has been piloting the Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative in Victorian schools since 2020 in partnership with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. Evaluation of this pilot initiative has shown that 95 per cent of Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders consider the Mental Health in Primary Schools model has improved their school's capacity to support st