St Joseph’s College (QLD)
Making sure no student slips through
Built into ‘The Joey’s Way’
Wellbeing is already woven into St Joseph’s school culture. Through ‘The Joey’s Way’, the College teaches its values: Respect, Endeavour, Compassion and Dignity, during daily 30-minute pastoral sessions. My Mind Check fit naturally into this existing rhythm, with check-ins running alongside the College’s proactive wellbeing curriculum in groups of around 40 students.
Integrating check-ins into these existing sessions that combined wellbeing content meant that students encountered the platform as a continuation of conversations they were already used to having. “We didn’t want another program bolted onto the side of the school day. My Mind Check fits inside The Joey’s Way, in the same 30 minutes every morning where our students already talk about how they’re going.”
Starting where it matters most
The College chose to begin with its Year 7 cohort. The move into secondary school is often one of the more difficult transitions a young person makes, and staff wanted to understand this group more deeply and earlier. Consent rates for the check-ins were high, a reflection of the trust the College had built with families and the care taken in how My Mind Check was introduced.
At the start of each session, school counsellors explained what My Mind Check is to students and why the College was using it. Framing the check-ins as an opportunity for student voice, rather than a form to complete, helped set a positive tone. Year 7 check-ins ran in Term 2, Week 6, followed by Year 8 in Term 2, Week 8. The College made a deliberate choice to avoid assessment weeks, protecting both the quality of student responses and the students themselves from being asked to reflect on their wellbeing at the busiest, most pressured points of the term.
Counsellors at the centre
Supervision of the student check-ins and all follow-ups sat with the St Joseph’s school counselling team, keeping clinical judgement close to the data. For many students, the check-ins were able to confirm staff’s existing knowledge. The real value emerged at the margins. My Mind Check identified a small number of students who had not previously been on the school’s radar. The counselling team responded early and is now working in partnership with each of those students and their families. Caregivers have been notably grateful that they were able to identify challenges early and provide support before they grew.
Turning insight into student voice
Beyond individual follow-up, St Joseph’s shared de-identified trends from the check-ins with relevant staff across the College. This gave the broader team a genuine sense of student voice and a greater understanding of how broader cohorts were feeling. These data-informed trends have fed directly into ‘The Joey’s Way’ framework, strengthening the College’s Tier 1 support across a range of existing in-school programs. Rather than starting from the ground up, the College is using My Mind Check to sharpen their existing approach and ensure that no student slips through the cracks.
What comes next
For St Joseph’s, My Mind Check is an ongoing practice. In Term 3, the College plans to repeat check-ins with Years 7 and 8 and introduce Year 9 for the first time, building towards termly check-ins across its year groups. Repeating the check-ins allows the school to see movement over time and to notice not just where a student is, but which direction they are heading.
The College hopes to continue building student’s wellbeing literacy over the coming years, helping young people develop the language and self-understanding to recognise and articulate how they are doing. For a school where wellbeing is already at its core, My Mind Check has given the College a clearer window into student wellbeing and helping it live out its vision: “empowering minds, enriching hearts.”
Reach out to our School Support Team to discuss how My Mind Check can support your school’s unique wellbeing goals.
