Exploring Staff Experiences of a Wellbeing Responsive Educational Community

Introducing the Research

From Model to Mindset: Exploring Staff Experiences of a Wellbeing Responsive Community

Michael Young, Central Queensland University

Dr Tessa Benveniste, Central Queensland University

Dr Lauren Miller-Lewis, Central Queensland University

This project was a collaboration between Central Queensland University, Compass Catholic Community, and LBI Foundation. It was conducted as part of an Honours thesis and led by student-researcher, Michael Young, with academic supervision by Dr Tessa Benveniste and Dr Lauren Miller-Lewis.

The research aimed to explore the perspectives of Compass Catholic Community staff relating to building of a wellbeing-responsive educational community (as operationalised through the IMPACT Program). This study was a teacher-facing project that dovetailed into the student facing research conducted in 2024. For a longitudinal summary of the partnership between LBI and Compass: click here.

A qualitative design was used and drew on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 16 staff members, purposively sampled to represent diverse perspectives across leadership, teaching, and support roles.

The study identified three inter-connected themes each reflecting how Compass staff experienced the wellbeing-responsive community (WRC) framework in their roles, relationships, and school culture. These included:

1. EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY WITHIN CONTEXTUAL REALITIES: Staff interpreted the WRC as more than a framework – they described it as a values-based philosophy that reframed the purpose and delivery of education. This philosophy emerged through day-to-day work, guided by shared values, and shaped by CCC’s unique context.
2. PRACTICE TRANSFORMATION: FROM REACTIVE TO RESPONSIVE APPROACHES: Staff described a shift in their professional stance and practice as they moved from reactive habits to more regulated, responsive, and intentional ways of working.
3. NAVIGATING IMPLEMENTATION COMPLEXITIES THROUGH ADAPTIVE LANGUAGE AND SYSTEMS: The enactment of the WRC was facilitated by adaptive tools and consistent systems that helped embed shared practice across the educational setting.

For a copy of the research summary, please click here.

Key Messages

Significance of the Research

The study supports and cross-validates the student facing research conducted in 2024 by Gemma Elms and the CQU supervisory team.
Collectively, the 2024 and 2025 research indicates that when the IMPACT Program is intentionally and systematically delivered across an educational community then it can deliver outcomes mapped to the outcome matrix of wellbeing-responsive community.
The findings affirm the relevance of the wellbeing-responsive community approach across complex educational environments.
The research highlights the importance of ongoing attention being paid to staff wellbeing and resilience within existing training, coaching, and support processes connected to the model.
The study offers a detailed example of how wellbeing can become a guiding philosophy rather than a siloed initiative. It reinforces that effective implementation is not about rigid fidelity to a model, but about building a shared way of thinking to deliver meaningful outcomes through context-sensitive design.