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

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

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/

Most schools have wellbeing programs or initiatives. Very few have wellbeing embedded into the way they function and flourish. That is the difference between bolting something on and creating real, lasting change.

In this episode, I am joined by Justin Robinson, co-founder of the Wellbeing Distillery and formerly the founding director of the Institute of Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School. Justin has worked with hundreds of schools across Australia and internationally, and his approach is built on the idea that wellbeing has to be embedded across the whole school community, not delivered as a series of disconnected initiatives.

We unpack what it actually takes to move from add-on programs to embedded practice, and why so many schools get stuck in the cycle of doing more without seeing more results.

In this episode:

• Why a collection of programs is not the same as embedded wellbeing
• The four partners every school needs to engage: leaders, staff, students and families
• The most common mistake schools make when rolling wellbeing out across the whole community
• How adopting the mindset that "wellbeing is a shared responsibility" changes the way you design your whole approach
• Practical starting points for schools that want to shift from doing wellbeing to being a wellbeing-led school

LINKS AND RESOURCES

• 7 Habits of Wellbeing-Wise Families: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18SmHYlVuY60XGq_g3b8bMYkUrmq5AdAE/view?usp=drive_link
• Wellbeing Compass Brochure: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L_GRARsSBWpkcTN3rrCaQJOS2qY-uZ8F/view?usp=drive_link

Connect with Justin:

• Website: thewellbeingdistillery.com
• Email: justin@thewellbeingdistillery.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jrobinson-wellbeing

Connect with Adrienne:

• Website: adriennehornby.com.au
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrienne-hornby-a4126a205
• Email: hello@adriennehornby.com.au
• Staff Wellbeing Survey: adriennehornby.com.au/staff-survey
• Well-Led Schools Partnership Program: adriennehornby.com.au/school-partnerships

It’s the start of a new term. Some of your staff may be walking back into school running on empty, not because they don’t care, but because they’ve lost sight of why it matters.

What educators actually need to feel purposeful again isn’t another wellbeing afternoon or a gratitude wall. According to this week’s guest, it’s a reconnection to vision, and that’s something a school can teach, build and sustain.

In this episode of Well-Led Schools, I'm joined by Glen Gerreyn, speaker, author, youth advocate and founder of The Hopeful Institute. His work, spanning two decades and hundreds of schools globally, is grounded in one powerful idea: hope is not a passive feeling. It's a skill. It's a strategy. And it can be taught.

In this episode:

• Glen's personal origin story: from elite athlete to disability pension to Young Australian of the Year
• The three components of Hope Theory: goals, pathways, and agency
• Why disengagement is often a vision crisis, not a behaviour problem
• The Hopeful Schools Framework and how it works in practice
• Why purpose and meaning matter as much as curriculum in education
• What leaders can do to build hope into school culture systemically

About Glen Gerreyn:

Glen Gerreyn is a speaker, author and youth advocate who has dedicated his career to building hope in young people and the educators who work with them. After overcoming a serious a chronic illness that ended his career as a state champion sprinter, heGlen rebuilt his life through purpose, resilience and connection to meaning, and was named Young Australian of the Year in 1998.

He is the founder of The Hopeful Institute and has worked with more than 300 schools across Australia and worldwide. His work draws on Charles Snyder's Hope Theory and translates it into practical frameworks that schools can embed into their culture. He is also the author of Men of Honor, a book on sexual ethics and character development for young men.

Links and Resources

• 50 Book Summaries for Educators
• 7 Infographics (burnout, procrastination and more)
• Well-Led Schools Partnership Program

If this episode resonated, leaving a review wherever you are listening means the world. Thank you for listening!

Connect with Glen via:

Website: www.thehopefullinstitute.com/

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

Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/glengerreyn/

Connect with me via:

My website: adriennehornby.com.au

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

Email: hello@adriennehornby.com.au

Teaching is regarded as one of the most stressful professions in Australia, and navigating the shifts brought on by the pandemic has only amplified these feelings for staff.

Chronic stress ultimately leads to teacher burnout and mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. A study based on Australian school teachers reported that teachers are more depressed and anxious than the average Australian. With more than half suffering from anxiety and nearly one-fifth feeling depressed.

Teacher burnout is a growing problem across schools worldwide as teachers struggle to manage their workload, and their classrooms and live up to growing expectations amongst staff shortages and the implications they’re still experiencing due to the pandemic.

With these statistics on the rise, it makes sense that our approach to managing staff mental health and wellbeing needs to change.

In episode 19, I discuss:

• How burnout and stress affect teachers and staff
• Why it’s essential to address staff mental health in schools
• Ways to create and promote a mentally healthy workplace

Links and Resources:

Join the May 11 live training - Develop Your Staff Wellbeing Action Plan To Inspire A Positive Change In Culture At Your School In 2023

Blog article: 7 Ways To Promote Staff Mental Health And Wellbeing To Create A Mentally Healthy Workplace

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honoured that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or on your preferred podcast app, that way we can inspire and educate even more people together.

Connect with me via:

My website

Linkedin

Instagram

Email

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode 18 of the Well-Led Schools podcast, I am joined by Violetta Znorkowsky, a leadership mentor, meditation/mindfulness teacher, holistic counsellor, experiential educator and the founder of Expand and Impact. In the episode, Violetta shares powerful insights into what it really takes to feel a sense of emotional wellbeing and the importance of developing skills like self-awareness, emotional intelligence and empathy in order to thrive in our emotional world.

When you’re emotionally well you’re more capable of processing your emotions using healthy coping strategies and mechanisms and you’re going to be more likely to see yourself in a positive light and be resilient in the face of stress.

About Violetta

Violetta Znorkowski is the Founder and Facilitator at Expand and Impact, an Experiential Education Company that works with Female Professionals and Entrepreneurs who want to challenge the status quo and create a new normal in how success and leadership looks and feels.

With over 10 years of experience and an international career working around the world with both youth and adults to develop leadership skills, raise emotional intelligence and build resilience, Violetta is passionate about guiding others to safely explore their connection to self, others and the world around them. Her work is informed through her training in Holistic Counseling Psychology, Leadership Coaching and Mindfulness and Meditation Training; blending Eastern and Western philosophies and techniques to consider the WHOLE person.

“Emotional wellbeing is an individual's capacity to move through the many different emotional states without getting stuck in one or the other” - Violetta Znorkowski

Tune into this episode to discover:

• What emotional wellbeing is
• Signs that you have a strong sense of emotional wellbeing
• How to know if your emotional wellbeing needs a boost
• What emotional intelligence is
• Strategies to cultivate greater emotional intelligence
• Ways of connecting to our physical selves to become more attuned to our emotional wellbeing

Links and Resources:

Join our online wellbeing course for educators today

Free boundaries visualisation resource

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honoured that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or on your preferred podcast app, that way we can inspire and educate even more people together.

Connect with Violetta:

On Linkedin

Through her Website ‘Expand and Impact’

Listen to Violetta’s podcast ‘Expand and Impact’

Connect with me via:

My website

Linkedin

Instagram

Email

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While you may think you know what challenges your staff are facing and what they need to thrive in the workplace - you won’t really know for sure unless you ask them.

And while you’ve probably made an honest effort to provide your teachers and staff with more support, you may be wondering why so many are still struggling with or on the brink of burnout.

Our national data collected from schools across Australia reveals that workload and administrative tasks are the leading causes of workplace stress for teachers and staff, and while in some cases it may seem near impossible to reduce workload, there are many creative strategies that can be employed to streamline it and reduce the burden staff are experiencing.

The point is, we have to get to the root of the problem in order to make lasting changes and improvements to staff’s wellbeing and school culture. Our Anonymous Staff Wellbeing can support you in doing just that!

In this episode, we cover:

• The importance of identifying staff stressors
• Organisational vs operational workplace stressors
• How our Anonymous Staff Wellbeing Survey can help you identify staff stressors and make better decisions about which initiatives to pursue
• The top reported stressors across Australian schools based on our survey findings
• The top rated strategies for supporting wellbeing across Australian schools according to our survey findings

Links and Resources:

Anonymous Staff Wellbeing Surveys

Blog article: How To Use a Staff Wellbeing Survey To Support a Whole-School Scan

Blog article: The Leading Causes of Workplace Stress for Teachers and School Staff Across Australia

Blog article: The Top Rated Initiatives to Improve Staff and Teacher Wellbeing and How to Address Them

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honoured that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or on your preferred podcast app, that way we can inspire and educate even more people together.

Connect with me via:

My website

Linkedin

Instagram

Email

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.