MindMatters/KidsMatter Leadership Breakfast Reports

Brisbane 4 March 2011

More than thirty five registrations were received for the first of the combined MindMatters/KidsMatter Leadership Breakfast meetings for 2011 with educators from government, independent and Catholic sectors attending, as well as participants from Departmental offices, Queensland Health and universities.

This presentation, co-facilitated by Michael Hardie (KidsMatter Primary Queensland Coordinator) and Jane Taylor (MindMatters Queensland State Project Officer) gave an overview of an exciting new era in KidsMatter Primary and MindMatters for 2011 and beyond. They discussed ideas on how school communities can become part of these whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing.

Jane Taylor shared the latest information on MindMatters, and participants received copies of the draft Whole School Matters, Communities Matter, MindMatters Toolkit, and MindMatters Implementation Model wheel, as well as a poster. Participants were invited to take part in the trial of the MindMatters online surveys/audits.

As a result of the Australian Government funding announcement for KidsMatter, primary schools will have more options to implement this program in their schools. KidsMatter has an opportunity to support significantly more schools in working towards improving the mental health and wellbeing outcomes of their primary aged students. Michael Hardie provided information on how Queensland schools can become involved in the KidsMatter Primary initiative.