PERTH, 24 FEBRUARY 2020

Baldivis Gardens Primary School is the latest school, joining dozens of others around Australia, to benefit from a mindfulness program that aims to improve the long-term mental health of students.

The school, based in Baldivis, Western Australia, has been selected by not-for-profit education and mindfulness organisation Smiling Mind as the latest beneficiary of an opportunity that offers the mindfulness program to Australian schools for free.

The offer has been made possible by a three-year charitable partnership between Smiling Mind and Frasers Property Australia. Now in its third and final year, the charitable partnership has so far reached more than 60 schools and is bringing the benefits of mindfulness to an extra 46,000 Australian children.

“In the past two years we have made real progress reaching school communities across Australia and introducing them to the benefits of mindfulness,” says Dr Addie Wootten, Chief Executive Officer at Smiling Mind.

“Our work is not done yet; we are still aiming to reach another 29 schools this year through this partnership alone.

“Working with students in particular is so important to build awareness and resilience around mental health. It doesn’t matter what age they start.

“With one in four secondary students and one in seven primary students suffering from a diagnosed mental illness it’s vital that we, as a community, do everything we can to take a proactive approach to preventing this health issue into the future.”

So far, the charitable partnership has allowed Smiling Mind to work with more than 2,300 teachers, who have participated in specific training workshops that will allow them to introduce mindfulness tools and techniques to more students throughout their career.

Dr Wootten says some of the benefits of introducing mindfulness into schools can include:

• Managing stress
• Developing emotional intelligence
• Enhancing creativity
• Enhancing decision making and problem-solving skills
• A sense of calm, clarity and contentment

Dr Wootten says that teachers, and parents, are positively impacted by students enrolling in the program.

“Teachers learn the skills they need to guide their students through the program and they can apply the techniques to manage their own stress. We also conduct a workshop for parents in each of the school communities we work in so that they can learn about mindfulness, support their children and also learn the techniques themselves,” says Dr Wootten.

Dr Wootten says the program, via the Smiling Mind app, is tailored to each year level and teachers receive support from the organisation over the whole school year to help introduce mindfulness into the classroom.

Principal Jayne Ebsworthy says the school is grateful to be offered access to the valuable program at no cost to the school.

“We know from other schools that have adopted the Smiling Mind program just how beneficial it is. It is so encouraging that we have been given the chance to offer this to our own school community. I really hope our school community can embrace the Smiling Minds program and learn these valuable techniques,” says Ms Ebsworthy.

All the 470 students will take part in the Smiling Mind program at the school.

Rod Fehring, Chief Executive Officer of Frasers Property Australia, says Frasers Property not only looks at the physical environment people want to live in but all the other factors such as lifestyle, physical and mental health that contribute to overall wellbeing.

Frasers Property’s donation of $700,000 over three years – provided via the Frasers Property Foundation – enables Smiling Mind to offer the Smiling Mind professional learning program to educators of up to 30 schools each year over the three-year partnership. In the past two years of the partnership Smiling Mind signed on 41 schools and another 20 are already lined up for the 2020 school year. Baldivis Gardens Primary School is one of 20 schools to benefit so far this year.

“Our charitable partnership with Smiling Mind is a great opportunity for Frasers Property to make a contribution to creating healthy communities in Australia and it supports our goal of creating communities where people feel truly connected. This is one way we can make a positive long-term impact on children,” says Mr Fehring.

To find out more about how to register your school, visit: https://www.frasersproperty.com.au/smilingmind.

For more information about Smiling Mind visit www.smilingmind.com.au. For more information about Frasers Property Australia’s developments nationally visit www.frasersproperty.com.au.