Schools in Australia are embracing pioneering research on pupil wellbeing. Janet Williamson reports on her trip to witness their approaches first-hand

International influences like the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are having an impact on the testing of pupils, ranking of schools, educational policy and practice.

On the plus side, PISA and the like have helped expose quite significant areas of inequality in terms of pupils’ outcomes.
I identified best practice in Victoria State, Australia, and was funded by a Winston Churchill Trust Fellowship Award, in partnership with the Mercers’ Company, to “identify and evaluate measures of pupils’ attainment and progress in post-primary schools”.

Best practice has often demonstrated schools that extend beyond traditional external examination attainment to focus on pupils’ progress and wellbeing as well and there is international research evidence of transference between improved wellbeing and improved academic attainment.

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