Most schools have spent years working on staff wellbeing. They’ve written policies and frameworks, funded programs, and scheduled wellbeing days. And yet the workers' compensation data reports that education now sits among the worst-performing sectors in the country for psychological injury claims, alongside healthcare and first responders.

In this episode, I sit down with Jason van Schie, organisational psychologist and founder of FlourishDx, to unpack why. Jason has worked in psychosocial risk management since 2007, in his words “before it became cool,” and he is one of the clearest voices in the country on what it takes to create work that is genuinely good for people - for staff’s wellbeing and efficacy, and the greater good of the school community.

Together, we name the shift schools are being asked to make from an ad-hoc wellbeing model (yoga, free coffee, the occasional wellbeing day) to a systems lens that looks at the design and conditions of the work itself. We dig into why prevention has to come before the wellbeing layer, why broad consultation and leader commitment are the heartbeat of the process, and why you cannot manage psychosocial risk without measuring it.

If you have ever run a staff survey and watched nothing change, or rolled out a wellbeing program that landed flat, this conversation explains what was missing and what to do instead.

Guest Resources

• Flourish DX Academy ISO 45003 Foundations Course: https://www.45003.org/enroll/1423388
• Psych Health and Safety Podcast: https://www.psychhealthandsafety.com/
• PHSCON — Psych Health and Safety Conference: 8-9 September 2026, Hyatt Regency Sydney https://psychhealthandsafetyconference.com/

Connect with Jason van Schie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonvanschie/

Website: https://flourishdx.com

Connect with me via:

Website: https://adriennehornby.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrienne-hornby-a4126a205/

School Partnerships: https://adriennehornby.com.au/school-partnerships/

Most school leaders understand that psychosocial safety is a legal obligation. Very few have figured out how to make it feel like anything more than a compliance activity.

In this solo episode, I unpack the gap between obligation and opportunity, and what it actually takes to move psychosocial safety from a four-step process on a page to something genuinely woven into how a school leads, communicates and operates.

Drawing on data from almost 80 schools and thousands of staff, I walk through common psychosocial hazards in Australian schools, why they are connected rather than isolated, and why the four-step risk management process, while important, is actually the easiest part of the whole process.

The real work is not in the paperwork. It’s the leadership commitment and authentic ongoing consultation that determine whether any of it sticks.

What I cover in this episode:

• What is missing from the four-step risk assessment process in many schools
• The national data: the most common psychosocial hazards in Australian schools and why they compound each other
• Why good communication underpins the entire process, and how to ensure your messaging lands
• How to embed wellbeing into your school’s way of doing and not let it be an initiative layered on top of others
• Leadership commitment as the foundation: why it falters, what it actually requires, and the personal and professional skills that make it land
• Why the hardest feedback can be the most important data you will ever receive
• What the Safe Work Australia Code of Practice actually requires of school leaders, and why most schools are not quite there yet

Resources and links mentioned:

• Article: The Wellbeing Weave: The Three Phases of Addressing Staff Wellbeing in Well-Led Schools adriennehornby.com.au/the-wellbeing-weave-the-three-phases-of-addressing-staff-wellbeing-in-well-led-schools/
• Article: Embedding a Sustainable Wellbeing Ecosystem: The Key to Psychosocial Safety and Staff Wellbeing
• adriennehornby.com.au/designing-a-sustainable-wellbeing-ecosystem-the-key-to-psychosocial-safety/
• Podcast: Creating a School Culture Where Staff Feel Seen, Heard and Valued with Daniela Falecki https://adriennehornby.com.au/creating-a-school-culture-where-staff-feel-seen-heard-and-valued-with-daniela-falecki-season-3-episode-10/
• Waverley Christian School Case Study: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adrienne-hornby-a4126a205_most-school-wellbeing-initiatives-fail-or-ugcPost-7465421290833805312-QVL9/?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=member_desktop_web&rcm=ACoAADQvl1EBSRJtRkz0cewFH4TjXfHExS9B0F4

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What if the one thing that would make the biggest difference to your wellbeing, strategic clarity and positive school culture as a school leader isn’t another strategy or initiative, it’s simply more time to think?

In this episode of Well-Led Schools, I’m joined for the third time by Aimee Presnall - leadership coach, TEDx speaker and founder of Wellnest. After more than 16 years in education, Aimee built her career around one observation that kept repeating itself: brilliant school leaders burning out while the systems around them kept asking for more.

Aimee’s recent TEDx talk landed on something leaders feel in their bones but rarely hear said out loud: that we’re treating the shadow, not the source; that when leaders don’t have time to think, everything downstream suffers, their clarity, their team’s culture, and ultimately their students.

We go deep on what actually changes when leaders are given space to develop the human skills needed to lead people well, why one-off PD rarely shifts anything, and what it takes for schools to build a genuine coaching culture rather than a tick-box one.

In this episode:

• Why leaders don’t need more things to do, but rather need more time to think
• Clarity vs certainty: what staff want vs what leaders can actually give
• Why giving yourself dedicated time to think feels so difficult
• How recognising your default, high-pressure habits creates the fastest leadership shift
• What one-off PD misses in comparison to navigating the “messy middle” of long-term coaching
• The three pathways into middle leadership (aspiring, accidental, anointed), and how they shape your mindset

LINKS AND RESOURCES

Connect with Aimee Presnall via:

Wellnest: www.well-nest.com.au

TED Talk: youtu.be/qjGM4esebQU?si=5eyFpR_-0KbUngty

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aimee-parkinson/

Connect with me via:

Website: adriennehornby.com.au

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/adrienne-hornby-a4126a205/

Email: hello@adriennehornby.com.au

School Partnerships: adriennehornby.com.au/school-partnerships/