Welcome to the Student Agency & Wellbeing Leadership program
This program is designed to empower student leaders to make a lasting impact within their school communities while developing their confidence, leadership capacity, communication, and facilitation skills through repeated exposure to leading play-based student workshops.
Students begin by participating in a half or full-day leadership training workshop facilitated by The School of Play team, before gaining access to our Student Agency and Wellbeing Leadership platform, which includes 20 weeks of ready-to-use lessons and activities.
Throughout the year, student leaders plan, implement, and reflect on the workshops they facilitate, working across a variety of year levels and classes to strengthen connection, engagement, wellbeing, and school culture. Through consistent hands-on leadership opportunities, students develop authentic leadership skills while creating meaningful and positive experiences for others within their school community.
Standards, VOICE, AITSL, Vic Curriculum
Student Agency & Wellbeing maps to a unique set of standards because of its dual nature (student program + leadership pathway):
- Victorian Curriculum, Personal & Social Capability (Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Collaboration), Critical & Creative Thinking, Civics & Citizenship.
- VOICE framework, Voice, Ownership, Influence, Choice, Empowerment, all five strands run through the program explicitly.
- AITSL Standards 1.1, 3.5, 4.1, student-led delivery is a documented PD opportunity for any teacher mentoring the cohort.
- CASEL 5, Leadership cohort develops all five competencies at a meta level (Self-Awareness as a peer model, etc.).
How to select the cohort
Most schools run Student Agency with 12–25 students aged 10–14. The strongest cohorts are deliberately mixed, not just the loud kids, not just the captains. Look for: one or two "loud and brave" students, one or two "quiet and observant" students, and a fair representation of your community’s diversity. The program creates leaders out of all five archetypes, but only if all five are in the room.
A weekly delivery model that works
Most schools run the program in a single 45–60 minute block per week, plus a short prep block once a fortnight. The cohort then runs a 15-minute lesson with a buddy class once a week. The delivery model:
- Monday (60 min), Overview + Play game with the cohort. Watch the video together, run the game, discuss what worked.
- Mid-week (15 min), cohort delivers the Play game to their buddy class.
- Friday (30 min), cohort runs the Written + Gratitude lessons together, plus a quick reflection on the buddy delivery.
- Once a fortnight, a 30-minute leadership debrief with you as mentor.
The graduation arc
The program ends with each leader graduating with a portfolio: lessons delivered, classes mentored, reflections written, plus a Certified Play Leader credential issued by The School of Play. Many schools time this with end-of-year leadership presentations.
When the cohort wobbles
Two patterns to watch for and how to handle each:
- The "I don't want to be a leader" wobble, usually emerges around week 8 when the buddy classes get harder. Use the "co-lead" model: pair the wobbler with a steady peer.
- The "I want to do more" wobble, emerges later in the year. Give them the next-level role: training new leaders, designing a school-wide event.
Questions about the curriculum
Email support@theschoolofplay.co or open the chat. Our team runs student-leadership intensives twice a year, ask about the next cohort.
