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In recent years, we have become increasingly aware that learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It depends not only on what is taught in the classroom, but on how students feel. I have come to believe that the emotional climate of a school, specifically the wellbeing of its students and staff is not simply a nice-to-have, it is foundational.

There is often a tendency to talk about resilience as something that is innate, a quality people either have or don’t have. In schools, however, I see resilience as something that is developed. It is built when students feel known, when they feel safe to take risks in their learning and when they know that the adults around them are steady, attentive and genuinely care.

The same applies to teachers. A resilient student body can only flourish when the adults guiding them feel supported and valued. Too often, conversations about wellbeing are framed around individual coping strategies, breathing exercises, better sleep and mindfulness. While these things are important, they must be matched by cultures that are humane. In schools that means creating processed that allow time for connection, restoration and crucially shared joy.

This is not to ignore the challenges. The world young people are growing up in is complex, fast-moving and often uncertain. Educators too, are navigating ever increasing demands. But what gives me hope is this, in every school I have worked in, I have seen moments of great humanity, staff who notice the quiet child before they slip through the cracks, students who rally around a peer in difficulty and teams that quietly carry one another through demanding seasons.

If we want resilience to take root, it has to grow in communities where people are seen and supported. The best schools I know are not defined by prestige or pressure, but by warmth and by the quality of the relationships at their centre.

This is something the Lasallian tradition speaks powerfully to, faith, service and community as the bedrock of a quality education that forms not just minds, but hearts.

Wellbeing isn’t a distraction from academic achievement, it is the ground in which it grows. When young people feel safe, known and believed in, they thrive. When teachers feel trusted and empowered, they give their best.

So as we continue to talk about what matters in education, let’s remember that resilience is not the absence of difficulty, but the presence of care. And that care begins in the everyday, human moments we create together.

Peter Houlihan
By Principal
De La Salle College, Malvern VIC