From Reactive Siloed Practices to Whole School Early Intervention: Guildford West Public School’s Nine-Year Journey
Guildford West Public School has worked with Life Skills GO for nine years, including as one of eight original schools that helped co-design the platform in 2018. Today, Life Skills GO is embedded across every role, classroom and layer of school practice, capturing student voice, belonging, wellbeing and readiness to learn in real time so staff can better understand what sits beneath changes in attendance, behaviour, engagement and learning.
By automatically surfacing patterns, trends and emerging concerns to the right people at the right time, Life Skills GO enables the school to act before concerns escalate while reducing the administrative burden of reactive work. It makes belonging visible and measurable, gives every staff member the evidence needed to take informed action, and creates an automated continuous improvement cycle that helps the school identify needs, respond early, measure impact and refine support over time.
The Story in 60 Seconds
A short summary for anyone short on time. Everything below goes deeper.
The Challenge
Wellbeing was measured through observation and reports that only showed what had already happened, so staff could not see why a student was struggling.
What They Did
Leaders explained the why, started with a single daily check-in and let teachers set their own pace.
What Changed
Staff now review check-in data each morning, and the school reports an 80% drop in suspensions since embedding Life Skills GO.
Try This First
Explain the why, then begin with one daily check-in and protect the habit.
Who Is Guildford West Public School?
A government primary school in Southwest Sydney, serving around 370 students from Kindergarten to Year 6, in a richly multicultural community where roughly 80 per cent of students come from a language background other than English.
Read more about the school
Guildford West runs four multi-categorical support classes alongside its mainstream classrooms, so its students span the full range of needs, from Kindergarten through to Year 6. Its teaching staff range from beginning teachers in their first years through to highly experienced educators.
Wellbeing is not an add-on at Guildford West. It is the foundation the school builds everything else on. A play-based learning model runs across the Kindergarten to Year 2 classes, and the leadership team treats a child’s readiness to learn as the starting point for every lesson, not an afterthought.
An original co-design partner
In late 2018, Life Skills GO chose eight schools to build the product hand in hand with. Guildford West was one of them. Stephanie Giles, now Deputy Principal, was part of that work from the beginning, co-teaching and testing ideas as the platform took shape.
Nine years on, the relationship has not just continued, it has deepened. Life Skills GO is embedded in every area of the school, from the youngest support-class students to the Year 5 and 6 children who started their very first check-ins in Kindergarten. This is a story about what long-term commitment to wellbeing makes possible.
Stephanie GilesDeputy Principal“When a young person feels seen, valued and responded to, they are more likely to feel safe, build trust and be ready to learn. We believe wellbeing underpins everything we do. It is not separate from learning; it is the foundation that makes learning possible.”
Before Life Skills GO: Wellbeing Measured by Reports Like Attendance and Behaviour That Only Showed What Had Already Happened
Before 2018, the school cared deeply about wellbeing, but the way it was measured depended almost entirely on what an individual teacher could see, remember and interpret. For a leader with a special education background, the gaps were clear.
Nothing Concrete to Hold On To
Stephanie and her team relied on professional observation, lagging indicators, staff and parent feedback, anecdotal information, and incidents recorded in the school’s behaviour platform. While this work was skilled and considered, the information was fragmented and largely showed what had already happened. It did not reveal the factors contributing to a student’s behaviour or disengagement, and it rarely answered the critical question: why?
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Today, with the press of a button, clear insights are brought together in one accessible report, providing a more complete view of each student, class, stage and the whole school. Educators can identify patterns, see emerging trends in real time, better understand what may be driving disengagement or behaviour, and provide timely, targeted support before concerns escalate.
Observation Is Subjective
Teacher observation matters, but it can only capture what shows up on the surface. A child’s behaviour in class does not always match what they are actually experiencing. Without student voice in the picture, the quiet and the masking children were the easiest to miss.
No Way to See a Trend
Wellbeing does not move in a straight line the way literacy or numeracy might. It rises and falls. Relying on an annual survey or a moment of observation left a large gap: no way to see how a child was tracking over a week, a term or a year, and no way to tell an ordinary off day from a genuine change.
Andrew RobinsonTeacher“I was teaching at Guildford West Public School before Life Skills GO was introduced, so I have seen the change firsthand. Before Life Skills GO, many students could not articulate or share their problems with teachers or friends. Emotions remained hidden, frustration often appeared as challenging behaviour, and students did not know how to regulate themselves. Since introducing Life Skills GO, the change in student behaviour, emotional awareness and the way students interact with one another and their teachers has been incredible.”
Building Buy-In: Support Students, Reduce Teachers’ Workload
The most common question other schools ask Guildford West is how it got such deep staff buy-in without disrupting an already busy day. The answer began with how the change was framed: this was never about gathering more data. It was about understanding and supporting students better.
Read the full buy-in story
Stephanie is clear that the framing did the heavy lifting. Staff understood the change from a student perspective, not a data one. The goal was stronger relationships, academic improvement and fewer behavioural incidents. When the reason was put like that, teachers understood the need for it.
That is not to say it was effortless. There were teething issues in the early days, and staff have changed over nine years. But Stephanie credits the school’s teachers, who are genuine advocates for their students and wanted a better way to support them. The purpose came first, and the tool followed.
Leadership also modelled what the data made possible. Teachers watched Stephanie use check-in data during difficult parent conversations, and saw how it could take the pressure off a hard discussion by grounding it in what the child themselves had said. Parents, above all, want to know their child is heard, supported and thriving, and this gave staff a new way to show it.
Lead with the why
Frame it as supporting students more effectively, never as collecting more data.
Connect it to what teachers care about
Stronger relationships, academic improvement, fewer behavioural incidents.
Start small, yet be consistent and deliberate
Start small, yet be consistent and deliberate. Do not expect the world overnight; give teachers time to experiment, build confidence and see the impact for themselves.
Show Value: Make Automated Reports a Standing Agenda Item
Include the relevant automated reports as a standing item in every meeting agenda. This builds a consistent habit of reviewing evidence, identifying change early and agreeing on what action may be needed next.
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The reports are designed to strengthen existing school processes and support professional decision-making. Consistent baselines and automated insights help teams measure what matters, understand emerging needs and move from reactive responses to timely, evidence-informed intervention.
Schools remain in control of how the information is used. The reports are interactive, allowing teams to filter and explore all available data in one place when they need to answer a specific question.
Model it from the front
Show staff how the data supports real parent conversations and takes pressure off hard discussions.
Let teachers set their own pace and method of how they use Life Skills GO
We set an executive expectation of a minimum of one check-in a day. Some went straight to three.
Stephanie GilesDeputy Principal“The biggest thing was having the staff understand the reason why we were making the change. It wasn’t that we wanted to take more data, it’s that we wanted to support our students more effectively, to lead to stronger relationships, to lead to academic improvement, to lead to less behavioural incidents. When we framed it like that, they understood the need for it.”
Embedding It: Start Small, Stay Consistent
Nine years of embeddedness did not come from a big launch. It came from starting with the smallest sustainable habit and protecting it through every year, every new teacher and every busy term.
We Started With the Lessons
We started with the PDHPE/SEL lessons and a single check-in a day. Then a second check-in was added. Today some teachers check in with their class three times a day, and more when a particular child needs it.
Building Trust in the Data
When Guildford West Public School began using Life Skills GO, the first priority was building trust in the data. A minimum of three check-ins each week created a reliable baseline, but the school quickly saw the greater value of a daily morning check-in. It tells every student they are known, valued and cared for, while giving teachers an immediate view of readiness to learn so they can adjust support before disengagement or behaviour escalates.
Daily use has also created a consistent whole-school language for emotional literacy and self-regulation, supported by age-appropriate, curriculum-aligned and trauma-informed resources that reduce teacher workload. The morning check-in establishes the baseline, while any additional check-ins are tied to a clear hypothesis, such as understanding increased lunchtime incidents or reduced engagement after recess. Every additional data point must answer a question, test an assumption and guide action.
Make It Part of the Routine
The Life Skills GO check-in is embedded within Sentral, the system the school already uses to mark the roll. As Stephanie explains, “Students complete their check-in at the start of the day, and this marks the roll at the same time.”
This gives teachers one familiar system, with no additional administration or loss of learning time, while providing immediate, real-time insight into how their students are arriving and their readiness to learn.
The Platform Onboards Every New Teacher
Every new teacher is supported through a structured, automated onboarding process within Life Skills GO, accessed directly through Sentral. At the beginning of each year, new staff are also invited to professional learning that explains why the platform is used, how it supports their role, how to use it confidently in daily practice and any new features or updates relevant to their work.
The in-platform onboarding is tailored to each role across the school, ensuring every staff member understands their responsibilities, can access the information and insights relevant to them, and feels informed, prepared and confident from the outset.
Protect the Consistency
A team of regular casuals is connected to every class so the children never miss a chance to check-in.
Dina El HafezAssistant Principal“I see it as the biggest investment in my day, because it’s like you’re putting money in the bank. You’re getting everyone ready to be ready, and you are literally getting time back every day that used to be spent on managing disruption and behaviour.”
Every Student Known: Nine Years of Change
The shift at Guildford West is best seen over time. What began as observation and anecdote before 2018 has become a daily, whole-school practice where student voice sits alongside attendance, behaviour and academic data.
Before · 2018
- Wellbeing was measured through professional observation, anecdotal information, reports showing what had already happened, and one-off surveys.
- We had no way to see how a student was arriving at school, whether they were ready to learn, or what they might have been experiencing.
- Attendance data did not reveal early signs of disengagement, and patterns or trends were difficult to identify.
- We responded to behaviour while knowing there was often more beneath it, but we did not have the evidence needed to understand the full picture.
- There was no consistent scaffold, baseline or shared language for identifying, communicating and managing emotions.
- Quiet students and those who masked their needs were easily missed.
- Difficult conversations with families often relied on teacher observation alone.
- We could not reliably measure whether an intervention or program was working.
- We could not use real-time information to determine what an individual student, class, cohort, stage or the whole school needed.
- We had limited capacity to act preventatively, allocate resources early or respond to emerging needs at the beginning of each day.
The Shift · A Daily Habit
- A brief daily check-in completed through Sentral during roll call
- Emotion options tailored to each class, from a small set of visual choices to the full emotions palette
- Students’ readiness to learn visible to teachers before lessons begin
- Real-time data reviewed by Stephanie at 9:30 am each day to identify which students may need support, where additional resources may be required and which teachers may benefit from assistance
- Insights used in stage meetings, planning days, Learning and Support Team meetings, parent meetings and executive planning
- Students told openly that their check-ins are seen, valued and acted upon
After · Nine Years On
- Wellbeing is now embedded across every area of the school, from Kindergarten to Year 6 and support classes.
- Staff can see how students are arriving at school, their readiness to learn and what they may be experiencing.
- Real-time check-ins surface early signs of disengagement, patterns and emerging trends.
- Behaviour is surfaced to ensure that all data points are visualised and understood within a broader context, helping staff identify what may be driving it.
- Students and staff now share a consistent whole-school language that children use without prompting.
- Quiet and masking students can now be identified.
- Conversations with families are grounded in student voice alongside other information.
- The school can measure whether interventions and programs are having an impact.
- Leaders can access automated, real-time reports that clearly identify emerging needs, support earlier intervention, guide targeted action and measure whether those actions are improving student outcomes.
- Staff can act earlier, allocate resources more effectively and respond to emerging needs at the beginning of the day.
- Suspensions have reduced by 80%, with significantly fewer behavioural incidents than before 2018.
Suspensions have reduced by 80%, with significantly fewer behavioural incidents than before 2018.
Stephanie GilesDeputy Principal“I can honestly say I could not do my job today without Life Skills GO. If we didn’t have Life Skills GO embedded in every area of the school today, the behaviour would be unmanageable, which would impact my role and our teachers’ wellbeing and ability to teach.”
What They Can See Now That They Couldn’t Before
The change shows up at every level of the school: in how a child is supported, how a teacher runs a room, how a Learning and Support Team conversation begins, and how leadership plans. Here is what Life Skills GO made visible.
Now:
- Each child’s emotional baseline, so a sudden change stands out against their normal pattern
- The masking students, spotted when a single check-in breaks a long run of positive ones
- A safe channel for children who would never raise their hand
- Students who know, and are told openly, that how they feel is seen and cared about
“It was the first time in two terms that they had checked in as nervous, and every other day was happy or calm. It was one coloured tile among all the green. I later found out a significant incident had happened in the home.”
“Maybe he wouldn’t have been noticed had we not checked in, had we not known he was sad, had we not as a class felt like we need to support him.”
Dina El Hafez, Assistant PrincipalNow:
- A clear read on readiness to learn before the lesson starts
- Permission to pause: if a large share of the class is not ready, stop and do something different first
- Quick, responsive tools, like a mindful video matched to how the class is feeling
- Confidence to notice patterns without having to hold them all in their head
“As a teacher, Life Skills GO helps me understand how students are feeling without waiting for them to approach me or find the words themselves. I can identify when something has changed, follow up after a conflict and recognise when a concern may require further support. It gives me practical information I can use during the school day to respond earlier and with greater understanding.”
Andrew Robinson, TeacherNow:
- Check-in reports used weekly in learning support team meetings
- Reports shared, where relevant, with school counsellors, speech pathologists and occupational therapists
- Student voice sitting alongside academic results and attendance in the whole picture
- Patterns that prompt a quiet word or a closer eye, not always a formal question
“This child had not checked in with any positive or ready-to-learn across a period of the term. The parent asked to take that report to their GP and follow up. They felt really informed, and grateful that we could share it.”
“Without Life Skills GO, there is no way I would have been able to understand how groups of our students were feeling, what was happening for them, why they were arriving distressed on certain days, or identify the patterns occurring across the school.”
Dina El Hafez, Assistant PrincipalNow:
- Parent-teacher meetings that make room for wellbeing, engagement and belonging, not just academic results
- Students attending their own meetings and speaking to their check-in data
- Goals set with families around things like sleep, readiness to learn and responsibility
- A daily leadership routine: roll marked by 9:20, data reviewed from 9:30, patterns surfaced for the relevant staff and flagged students followed up
“As a stage leader, I can identify patterns across different days and times, use the data to strengthen support, and work with families to understand what may be happening behind the scenes.”
Dina El Hafez, Assistant PrincipalGiving Every Student a Voice
Guildford West runs four multi-categorical support classes alongside its mainstream classrooms. The platform flexes to meet every child where they are, and over nine years it has built a depth of emotional literacy that visitors to the school now notice straight away.
Accessible for Every Level of Need
In the support classes, the check-in is customised child by child. Some students see four or six visuals. Some use physical faces, others the emoji version, and some work with the full palette of emotions. As Stephanie puts it, “it’s very accessible for children with all levels of need.”
The Day a Child Chose “Calm”
One little boy in a support class used to check in with whichever picture he liked the look of. Then one day he genuinely picked “calm”. His teacher filmed it and sent it to his mother, because it was the first time she had seen him meaningfully think about, select and communicate how he was feeling through a visual system. It took a great deal of work, practice and repetition to get there.
A Common Language Across the School
A visiting professional recently watched a Year 5 and 6 lesson on emotional vocabulary and said they had not seen children communicate about their emotions like this anywhere else. Stephanie did the maths: those Year 5 and 6 students were the Kindergarten children who started with Life Skills GO in 2018.
Skills That Come Out Unprompted
Teaching a class on the fly, Stephanie asked what an emotion was. A young boy answered that it was “like when we check in on Life Skills GO”, and named frustrated, angry and content. These are children who can now describe not just the words, but how each feeling shows up in the body, without any prompting.
The Only Person Asking
For some children, the daily check-in is the only moment in their day when someone asks how they are. As Stephanie puts it, some students have said, in effect, “no one’s asked me how I am this week.” For those children, school is the one place that consistently asks the question, and the daily habit means the answer is never missed.
Maturity Beyond Their Years
Classroom teacher Andrew Robinson has watched the shift build over time: students who can now identify and communicate their emotions, regulate themselves, listen to others and respond with empathy. He describes it as bringing a great deal of maturity to the school’s younger students, changing the way they speak to their teachers, their friends and one another.
“The visiting professional said, I have been into lots of schools, I do not see children being able to communicate around their emotions like this. What are you doing? These are our Year 5 and 6s, the Kindergarten ones who started with Life Skills GO in 2018.”Stephanie Giles, Deputy Principal, Guildford West Public School
What We Learned: Key Takeaways
Nine years of embedding Life Skills GO, distilled into what Stephanie would tell any school starting out.
Explain the Why to Get the Buy-In
Frame the change as supporting students more effectively, never as collecting more data. When staff understand it will build stronger relationships and reduce behavioural incidents, resistance gives way to genuine advocacy.
Start With the Check-In
If a school has decided to go ahead, start with a single daily check-in. Think creatively about timing: mornings work, but so does after recess or two o’clock, when playground issues and worries from home tend to surface.
Consistency Is Everything
Reliable, trustworthy data only comes from a consistent habit. Connect casuals to every class, check in before splitting a class, and make the check-in part and parcel of marking the roll so it never gets lost in a busy day.
Let People Look at the Data, Not Just Collect It
A check-in is only powerful if someone acts on it. Stephanie coaches staff to watch how students check in, run reports, and use what they see, rather than treating the check-in as a box to tick while handing out worksheets.
Readiness to Learn Comes First
If a large share of a class is not ready to learn, pause and do something different first. It is not lost time. Children take in far more, far more efficiently, once they are regulated and ready.
It Is Not Just a Data Tool
The deeper value is teaching emotional literacy and self-regulation, so children can identify, communicate and manage their emotions and build positive relationships. The whole-school data is the byproduct of children who can thrive.
“Explain the why to get the buy-in. Persist and be insistent, and have high expectations for students and staff. And it really comes down to consistency. We’re just equipping them with the best skills we can for them to move through their life.”
“Life Skills GO has transformed the way we approach learning in our school and how we support our students.”
“I would hate to see Life Skills GO leave our school. The way it has changed how students speak to one another, identify their emotions, regulate themselves and engage with their teachers has been incredible. The whole school community benefits from the skills and more regulated behaviour our students have developed.”
Bring Student Voice, Wellbeing and School Data Together All in One Place
Book a personalised conversation with a Life Skills GO education specialist. We will guide you through a short, interactive demonstration and show how the platform supports early identification, student voice, engagement and belonging, partnerships with families and carers, proactive intervention, staff decision-making and continuous whole-school improvement.
More about the demo, and reports
You will also have the opportunity to ask questions, explore how Life Skills GO could support your school’s priorities and determine whether it is the right fit for your community.
Life Skills GO supports schools and systems of every size, sector and context, including metropolitan, regional and remote schools, government, Catholic, independent and specialist settings, and support classes.
Put the Reports Into the Meetings You Already Hold
At Guildford West, the value of Life Skills GO was never limited to the daily check-in. The real value came from what happened next. The reporting was designed to fit into the meetings and routines the school already had in place, rather than creating additional processes or workload.
Life Skills GO information is automatically surfaced within Sentral and used across daily leadership reviews, Learning and Support Team meetings, stage meetings, whole-school meetings and planning days. Attendance, behaviour, wellbeing and student voice are brought together and visualised in ways that match the needs of each role. As Dina explains, stage leaders can identify patterns across different days and times, strengthen support and have more informed conversations with families.
Staff do not need to build reports, analyse spreadsheets or learn a complex reporting system. The information is automatically organised around the questions leaders and teachers are already asking, giving each team clear, role-relevant insights they can use to make timely decisions and improve student outcomes.
Take These Ideas Further
Go deeper on the themes in Guildford West’s story, from webinar replays featuring Stephanie Giles, to free expert guides you can use with your team tomorrow.
Related Webinars
Stephanie Giles and Guildford West Public School feature in these National Check-in Week and Life Skills GO sessions on behaviour, wellbeing, and moving from reactive to proactive practice.
Webinar Replay: Beneath Behaviour: Dysregulation, Distress and Disconnection Are Really Telling Us
FeaturingNikki Bonus, Claudia Bou-melhem, Stephanie Giles, Andrew Pearn, Dr Rachel Baffsky, Sally Webster and Karen Robertson
Watch the ReplayReactive to Proactive: Enhancing Whole School and Student Wellbeing with Life Skills GO and Sentral Integration
FeaturingNikki Bonus (Life Skills GO), Stephanie Giles (Guildford West Public School) & Antony Mawer (Sentral)
Watch the ReplayFree Guides & Expert Insights
Practical downloads for educators, leaders and families, including neuroscience-backed insight on emotions, learning and wellbeing.
Neuroscience of Emotions and Learning
FeaturingDr Mark Williams (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience) with Nikki Bonus, on how emotions shape learning, grounded in brain research and Life Skills GO practice.
Get the Free ResourceWhy Students Disengage and What Helps Them Reconnect
FeaturingA practical guide from leading education, wellbeing and neuroscience experts, including Dr Mark Williams OAM, Professor Geoff Masters AO, Nikki Bonus and Karen Robertson.
Get the Free ResourceMore Guides & Resources
The full Life Skills GO resource library, including guides on whole-school wellbeing implementation, measurement and classroom practice.
Browse the Resource LibraryBook a personalised meeting with our education wellbeing specialist, to show you how Life Skills GO can help you achieve your school’s wellbeing goals. We will guide you through a short interactive demo and answer any questions to help you determine if Life Skills GO is right for your school.
Book a meeting with our education wellbeing specialist