From the Principal

Pastoral Care and Wellbeing: A Strong Foundation for Learning

At MLC School, we know that students learn best when they feel known, safe, connected, and supported. Our pastoral care programs are designed to help students build confidence, resilience, positive relationships and a strong sense of belonging, and the latest Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) Social-Emotional Wellbeing (SEW) Survey data provides encouraging evidence that this work is making a meaningful difference across both Junior School and Senior School.

The current Year 7 cohort has reported a notably positive start to Senior School, with strong results in happiness, safety, belonging, and peer relationships. Particularly pleasing is that these outcomes sit alongside strong student voice, engagement, persistence, and confidence. Academic motivation remains exceptionally high, while several negative indicators, including stress, disorganisation, and negative academic self-belief, are low. Together, these results point to a cohort that is not only connected to school, but also developing positive dispositions towards learning.

The growth shown by our Year 8 students is also very encouraging. Compared with when they were in Year 7, students reported the strongest improvement in feeling safe at school, rising from 87.8% to 93.2%. Peer relationships also strengthened, with 98.3% of students reporting that they get along with most classmates, and commitment to schoolwork remained exceptionally high at 98.3%. While school belonging remained stable, it continues to be an important focus for our pastoral care work, ensuring every student feels deeply connected to her year group, teachers, and the broader School community.

In Year 9, the standout improvement was a significant rise in school belonging, increasing from 85.6% in Year 8 to 94.0% in Year 9. Happiness also improved, and motivation to do well academically remained exceptionally high. These results are especially important in the middle years, when students are developing greater independence, navigating more complex friendships, and learning to understand themselves as learners and members of a community.

In the Junior School, the data also shows the value of intentional pastoral care in helping students develop self-awareness, emotional regulation, and positive habits. Year 3 students showed strong growth in organisation, temper management, reduced loneliness, trustworthiness, and persistence. Particularly encouraging was the decrease in students reporting that they felt lonely, from 11.6% to 4.1%, and the increase in students who felt they could be trusted, from 90.7% to 98%.

Year 4 students also recorded positive movement in important wellbeing areas, including feeling safe, calming down quickly, thinking before acting when angry, optimism about the future and happiness. At the same time, the data helpfully identifies areas for continued attention, particularly persistence with difficult work and students’ ability to describe their feelings. This is one of the real strengths of using wellbeing data: it allows us to celebrate progress while also listening carefully to what students are telling us about where they need further support.

Across the School, these results affirm the importance of the relationships, routines and programs that sit at the heart of our pastoral care approach. Through year-level programs, House connections, classroom practice, student voice opportunities, wellbeing conversations and the daily work of teachers and Luminaries, students are being supported to develop the confidence, resilience, and sense of connection they need to flourish.

We are grateful to our staff for the care, consistency, and expertise they bring to this work, and to our parents for the vital partnership they provide. Most importantly, we are encouraged by what our students are telling us: that they feel safe, connected, motivated, and supported. These are strong foundations for learning, and they remind us that pastoral care is not separate from academic success; it is central to it.

Parent Volunteer Thank You
Wednesday 18 November 2026

8pm–8.30pm
MLC School

As part of the Term 4 P&F General Meeting and AGM, all parent volunteers are warmly invited to join us for drinks and canapés. Please read full information and details, including RSVP by clicking here.

– Lisa Moloney
Principal