Highlights
- Engagement remains steady after 3 years, with around 60% of students completing Mood Checks™️ each week, with participation varying by form teacher.
- Engagement is closer to 80% in focus weeks, with 99% of the Senior School engaging with Mood Checks™️ throughout the term.
"The real benefit of the tool comes from the conversations with students–individuals and cohorts–in recognition of their needs. Helping staff to meet students where they are at. It gives [teachers] something tangible to work with when they're talking to students, especially in assemblies or pastoral sessions"
Background
St Peter's Lutheran College is a leading co-educational independent school located in Brisbane, Queensland, with a long-standing reputation for academic excellence, pastoral care, and holistic education. The College caters for students from Prep to Year 12 across multiple campuses, with a strong focus on character development and wellbeing. Joel Butler, Deputy Head of Senior School, oversees behaviour and wellbeing and has played a pivotal role in integrating Orah over the past 3 years as part of the school's commitment to proactive student support and developing emotional literacy.
Turning passive Mood Checks™️ into meaningful student conversations
Like many schools, St. Peter's initially positioned Orah Mood Checks™️ simply as a wellbeing check-in tool. However, this created a problem: students associated it only with notifying staff when they were struggling.
"Initially the students thought of it as, 'Oh, if I'm not okay, I need to check in,' rather than a sort of general reflective tool," said Joel.
As a result, students who were "fine" didn’t see the value in participating, reducing engagement and limiting the richness of data available to staff. The team also faced the challenge of developing students' emotional literacy to help them accurately reflect on their experiences.
Integrating Orah into a "Mindful Minute" practice
The school shifted their approach, positioning their use of Orah Mood Checks™️ as a tool within a wider Visible Wellbeing initiative. Instead of just "checking in," students now take a "Mindful Minute" during form class to pause, reflect on their emotions, and engage intentionally with the Orah platform.
"So we do [Mood Checks] every day in form class. We have what's called mindful minute," Joel explained. "The focus was to really make it a habit and to get better data for us to actually see how students are travelling and to build that literacy around emotional wellbeing."
Form teachers and year-level coordinators actively incorporate Orah insights into weekly assemblies and student meetings, normalising the discussion of mood, stressors, and trends across the cohort.
Over the past 3 years, St. Peter's Lutheran College has:
- Introduced Mood Checks™️ to form time to improve wellbeing data quality.
"When we made it less optional, and just a part of form time, the quality of data and the number of students engaging went up."
- Used the Mood Checks™️ word cloud and influence trends to report back to students, showing how they were recognising what is being said and demonstrating how this in turn guides their pastoral care support offered.
- Involved counsellors directly in data-informed student interventions.
- Developed staff practices to emphasise that Orah Mood Checks™️ is a tool for both positive and negative emotions.
Creating a culture of emotional awareness and proactive support
The reframing of Orah as part of a life skills program has helped foster a culture where students proactively reflect on their wellbeing.
"We’ve linked it into our visible wellbeing program, so it’s not just a check-in, it’s actually a reflective practice."
Engagement remains steady after 3 years, with around 60% of students completing Mood Checks™️ each week, with participation varying by form teacher. More importantly, students now understand that "checking in" is not just for crises but a routine, valuable habit.
Orah has had a positive impact on staff too, who have gained:
- Improved early identification of at-risk students.
- More meaningful data to guide conversations, programming, and interventions.
- An opportunity to teach emotional literacy based on up-to-date, contextual wellbeing data.
- Better integration of wellbeing and behavioural data, empowering the counselling team.
Joel's advice to other schools
“It’s not just about the tool, it’s about what you do with the data. Make sure you focus on the conversations and skills that come from it. The power of Orah (Mood Checks™️) is when it’s part of a larger commitment to student wellbeing and resilience.” said Joel. "You’ve got to integrate it into your broader strategy. If it just sits there as a tech solution, it won’t be as powerful. It needs to be part of your wellbeing culture."
