Curriculum Council of Western Australia

Challenge

There is undoubtedly great concern about levels of underachievement within the school system, so enabling staff and students to reach their full potential is a key factor in educational improvement.The pressure to raise academic standards makes it vital that we also invest in developing emotional intelligence, implement values education and show young people how to cope with challenges and extend themselves towards excellence.

Our Approach

Our experienced project directors work with principals, teachers and students across government and private schools as well as with universities and technical colleges across Australia and the UK. The Pacific Institute’s proven methodology and framework is accredited by the Curriculum Council of Western Australia.We aim to equip young people with practical skills with which to enhance optimism, resilience and success in their lives at school and beyond. We show them how to set aspirational goals, increase self-awareness and self esteem.

Experience

Using our proven psychology-based methodology, we work to co-design a framework that suits the needs of individual educational institutions.

• We assist principals to help instill a desired workplace culture to maximize drive and creativity; research shows that culture affects performance.
• We work with educators to equip them with the skills and materials they need to help deliver real change in the classroom.
• We conduct workshops with student groups to introduce strategies to increase self-awareness, self-esteem and for more effective goal setting.
• Upon an institution’s request, we conduct forums to keep parents informed so they can provide a supportive home environment where the concepts learned through school are reinforced.

Outcome

Energising Educators - Observers at schools in the UK who have worked with The Pacific Institute have remarked on the positive atmosphere and vitality. Educators speak of being energised, of a change of atmosphere in the staff room and of having higher expectations of what their students could achieve. Working with The Pacific Institute provides institutions with effective in-house professional development.

Improving Student Outcomes - By assisting students to manage their own behaviors and adopt values that support good teaching, we can help improve learning attitudes and the working relationships between staff and students. We help the students expect more of themselves, and this focus on raising aspirations helps them stay on track towards tertiary education. For many young people, understanding the value of setting goals and an increased level of self-awareness has the potential to change their lives.

“There is clearly a gap between many current high school students and the need for Australia to have enough highly skilled people to be able to adapt to the uncertainties of a rapidly moving global economy. Our aim with The Pacific Institute is to teach students ‘learned optimism’, build their internal resilience and provide the right messages at the right time in their lives in order to positively influence their future behavior and performance. We know that we won’t see all of these students reach higher education, but we can see that the potential benefit for the students is nothing short of life-changing.”

Darren Munday, Director, Student Life and Learning, Murdoch University, WA