When I was 15, I won an event called King of the Groms at Snapper Rocks. It qualified me for the world title in France later that year. Mum took me on the trip — all expenses paid, free trip to Europe. The surf comp didn't go great. But that wasn't the lesson.
We went to Versailles.
I was studying modern history at school at the time. The Treaty of Versailles — signed in 1919, ending World War I, 28 June, Hall of Mirrors. I knew the dates. I'd written them on flashcards. But standing in that room, looking at the actual table where it happened, I had a feeling I'd never had reading a textbook.
It hit me: no matter how much you read about something, nothing compares to being there in real life.
That's exactly what's wrong with how we teach mental health in Australian high schools.
Students are taught about mental health in the same way I'd been taught about Versailles before that trip — abstractly, from a textbook, in a single unit, presented as something that happened to someone else. They learn the vocabulary. They learn what depression and anxiety are. They learn the helpline numbers.
What they almost never get is the experience of practising mental health. Real exercises in real time. A live gratitude practice they can feel work. A breathwork drill they can use the next day before an exam. A values map they actually fill in.
That's the missing piece — and it's why the data on student wellbeing keeps getting worse despite every awareness campaign we run.
The 5 values I teach in every school workshop
- Responsibility — be the hero, not the victim of your story.
- Gratitude — appreciation, not expectation.
- Connection — listen, don't wait to talk.
- Mindfulness — what can I see, hear, feel?
- Kindness — to yourself, others, and the environment.
After workshops we run, average student wellbeing scores climb from a 6 out of 10 at the start, to a 9 out of 10 by the end of a single session. 97% of students would recommend the workshop to a friend. Those numbers don't come from being told to be aware of mental health. They come from practising it together, in a school hall, in real time.
We teach students how the Treaty of Versailles was signed. We don't teach them how to settle their nervous system before a maths exam. One of those will matter for the rest of their life. The other won't.
Schools that genuinely change student outcomes aren't running awareness weeks. They're building practical mental health skills into their year — properly, more than once, with tools students actually use.
Awareness ends in the assembly. Practice compounds for life.