From Recess and Lunchtime Blind Spots to a Whole-School Habit Every Child Relies On: Nailsworth Primary School’s First-Year Journey
Nailsworth Primary School is a category 7 government primary school close to the Adelaide CBD, serving more than 500 students across a multicultural, sport-loving community. Since joining Life Skills GO mid last year, the school has grown its use of the platform from a small champion team to several classes checking in daily, capturing student voice, belonging, wellbeing and readiness to learn so staff can better understand what sits beneath changes in behaviour, engagement and attendance at the times of day, like recess and lunch, that had previously been hardest to see.
By automatically surfacing patterns to the right people at the right time, Life Skills GO helps the school act earlier and reduces the administrative burden of piecing information together after the fact. It gives staff a daily, whole-school view of readiness to learn, lets student leaders help design the response to what the data shows, and creates a continuous improvement cycle the school can point to when it asks whether a new initiative is actually working.
The Story in 60 Seconds
A short summary for anyone short on time. Everything below goes deeper.
The Challenge
Staff cared deeply but had no purposeful way to hear from students, and recess and lunchtime incidents were often found only after the bell.
What They Did
A champion team of six or seven teachers started with Year 6, and students helped decide how the check-in worked.
What Changed
A cohort that showed signs of dysregulation after lunch has shown fewer of those signs in check-ins since new lunchtime clubs began.
Try This First
Model it yourself, then trial it with one class before asking the whole school.
Who Is Nailsworth Primary School?
A category 7 government primary school close to the Adelaide CBD, in a very affluent and multicultural suburb, currently enrolling 516 students and growing to around 540 with a new mid-year Reception intake.
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Nailsworth Primary School describes itself as a very sporty, very multicultural school where students and families are expected to feel that they belong. Recess and lunchtime programs are built around shared interests, so that like-minded students can find one another and build their own sense of self-efficacy. A parent community group, led by a group of active parents, is closely involved in school life.
Leadership at Nailsworth is visible and hands-on. Staff are on yard duty, in and out of classrooms and talking with families as a matter of course, not as an exception. Luke Rinaldi, Assistant Principal, leads learning, wellbeing and engagement across the school, as well as the Year 5 and 6 team.
A newer partner, moving quickly
Nailsworth Primary School joined Life Skills GO mid last year. Rather than a whole-school rollout on day one, Luke found a small champion team of six or seven teachers willing to trial it first, then grew from there. In under a year, several classes across the school are checking in daily, and the school has already used what the check-in data shows to redesign parts of its recess and lunchtime program.
This is a story about a school in its first year with Life Skills GO, and about what a school that assumed it already knew its community discovered it could not previously see.
Luke RinaldiAssistant Principal, Leading Learning, Wellbeing & EngagementNailsworth Primary School“I think not so much the voice from the students, but giving them an actual platform to share how they’re feeling. And it wasn’t just sporadic. We wanted something purposeful that we could track.
Being in an affluent area doesn’t mean everything’s perfect all of the time. There’s high stresses, with any student or any family or any school as well. So for us not to know what’s going on, I think, on a daily basis isn’t setting the kids up for success.”
Before Life Skills GO: Wellbeing Measured by What a Teacher Happened to See
Before joining Life Skills GO, Nailsworth Primary School cared deeply about its students, but had no purposeful, trackable way to hear from them directly. Recess and lunchtime, in particular, were times when a great deal happened that staff only found out about once it had already become a problem.
Sporadic, Not Purposeful
Before Life Skills GO, staff at Nailsworth had informal ways of checking on students, but nothing purposeful that could be tracked over time.
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As Luke Rinaldi put it, the school was not so much missing the voice of its students as missing an actual platform for them to share how they were feeling, in a way that was consistent rather than a one-off survey.
Today, a short daily check-in gives staff a purposeful, trackable record of how students are arriving and feeling, built up day by day rather than captured once a year.
Recess and Lunchtime Were a Blind Spot
Increasing incidents at recess and lunch, some minor and some more serious, were often not caught until the bell had already gone.
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As Luke described it, most of the time the students were right that the issue happened at the bell and staff simply did not get the chance to resolve it before class resumed.
Affluence Assumed Away the Need
There can be an assumption that a school in a more affluent suburb faces fewer underlying pressures. Nailsworth’s experience does not support that assumption.
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Life happens on its own terms regardless of postcode, and traditional methods of noticing attendance, behaviour, masking and anxiety often surfaced concerns too late.
Luke RinaldiAssistant Principal, Leading Learning, Wellbeing & EngagementNailsworth Primary School“We wanted something practical. We wanted something that we could share data with families, with their permission, obviously, because obviously we give privacy consent for our students. It was more about how can we let the students tell us, and not us tell them.”
Building Buy-In: Lead the Trial Yourself, Then Find Your Champions
The most common question other schools ask Luke is how he got staff on board without disrupting an already busy day. The answer began with his own leadership style: he would never ask a staff member to do something he had not tried himself first.
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Luke describes himself as proactive, and says he would never go away, look at something, and hand staff an email with steps one, two and three. Instead, he threw himself into a classroom with the teachers he was asking to trial the platform, so they could see his genuine excitement and figure it out alongside him rather than being handed a finished process.
That is not to say adoption was effortless. Nailsworth let staff settle into the start of the school year before pushing further, and only ran the platform with one or two classes at first. It has taken deliberate, incremental steps, from six or seven original teachers on the champion team to four or five classes checking in regularly, to grow into the whole-school habit the school is working towards.
Leadership also modelled what the platform made possible for students directly. Luke involved the school’s student leaders, Student Representative Council delegates and the Year 5 and 6 executive team, in reviewing anonymised check-in data and deciding what to do about it, rather than keeping the information to staff alone.
Model it yourself first
Throw yourself into the classroom alongside the teachers you are asking to trial it. Show them you are learning it too.
Find your champion team
Six or seven teachers volunteered to trial Life Skills GO in the first term, explicit examples in hand.
Involve support staff in every check-in opportunity
School Services Officers were brought in to create multiple opportunities for check-ins across the day.
Show Value: Put the Data In Front of the Students Too
Once a month, students receive a printed summary of their own check-in data, and staff sit with them to decode and read it together.
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Year 6 students, the first cohort to trial the platform, could talk about their own wellbeing literacy, and their own readiness to learn scale, as fluently as if it had been part of their lives all along.
Some of that information has since been shared in parent-teacher interviews, giving families a shared, student-authored starting point for the conversation rather than relying only on a teacher’s account.
Senior students have also gone into junior classes to show younger students how the platform works, a goal Luke hopes to build on further as the school works through the rest of the year.
Loop feedback back to your support team
Weekly catch-ups with the champion team, and direct feedback to Life Skills GO’s onboarding team, kept the rollout responsive rather than fixed in place.
Let the students set the pace of the check-in itself
Question counts moved from five, to ten, to fifteen for confident older classes, then back down to one or two for the youngest students, based directly on what the students themselves said was working.
Luke RinaldiAssistant Principal, Leading Learning, Wellbeing & EngagementNailsworth Primary School“This isn’t for us. We get amazing data from it, but it’s all led by the kids, which is the biggest selling point... it’s the actual kids’ feelings and emotions.”
Embedding It: Start With One Class, Then Let Students Shape It
Nailsworth’s first year with Life Skills GO did not come from a big launch. It came from starting with the year sixes, the school’s most mature and confident students, and letting the students themselves shape how the check-in should work from there.
We Started With the Year Sixes
The champion team began with Year 6, giving students a big introduction to the platform and QR codes to check in independently. Once they had checked in, students could spend time in the digital journal, watching self-regulation videos or working through gratitude responses, so those feeling low had somewhere practical to go straight away.
Building Confidence Before Building It Into the Board
A Year 5 class trialled a separate screen mode during a silent reading task, where students could check in privately while the teacher saw the results in real time. The Year 6 class started the same way, but built up enough confidence and self-esteem to move their check-in onto the shared class board, where friends could see how each other was feeling.
Luke and Nikki Bonus, Life Skills GO’s founder, both point to what happened next: students, including boys checking on girls, began asking one another directly if they were okay, rather than waiting until recess. Staff checked with students first each time, to make sure everyone was comfortable with that level of visibility.
Let the Students Set the Dosage
Once students had the hang of it, they started asking for more than five minutes and more questions. Question counts grew from five, to ten, to fifteen, until the school found the class was spending its whole first lesson on the check-in, and scaled it back. For its youngest students in Year 1 and 2, the school found the opposite problem, too many questions and options overwhelmed them, and went back to the students to settle on one or two questions instead.
The Check-In Sits Inside a System Staff Already Use
Some classes opted to complete their check-in as part of their existing morning sign-in and roll call, using the school’s student information system, referred to internally as Sentral, so there is no separate administrative step. Teachers and the leadership team can then see check-in results alongside the daily bulletin they already read each morning.
Protect the Consistency
One or two classes trialled Life Skills GO in Term 1 while staff settled into the new school year. By Term 2, four or five classes were back on deck, with a goal of extending it further by the end of Term 3.
Luke RinaldiAssistant Principal, Leading Learning, Wellbeing & EngagementNailsworth Primary School“Didn’t get a chance to speak to them, but I can see on the Life Skills Go dashboard that they’ve signed out feeling like this. If you can have a conversation, and I’ll chase it up in the morning.”
Every Student Known: A Year of Change
The shift at Nailsworth is best seen over the course of its first year. What began as sporadic observation before Life Skills GO has become a daily habit for several classes, where student voice now sits alongside attendance and behaviour data.
Before · Joining Life Skills GO
- Wellbeing was noticed mostly through what a teacher happened to see in the yard or the classroom.
- We had no purposeful way to track how a student was feeling over time, only sporadic conversations and one-off surveys.
- Recess and lunchtime incidents were often discovered too late, once the bell had already gone.
- We assumed an affluent, well-resourced community meant fewer underlying pressures on students.
- Quiet students who did not raise concerns themselves were easy to miss.
- We could not reliably tell whether a change in behaviour was a one-off day or part of a genuine pattern.
- Families mostly heard about a concern only after it had already become a problem.
- There was no shared, whole-school way for students to describe how they were feeling.
- Staff had no early signal of which students, classes or times of day needed the most support.
- We could not measure whether a new initiative, like a change to the recess or lunchtime program, was actually making a difference.
The Shift · A Daily Habit
- A short daily check-in, completed through Sentral, at a time each class chooses, morning sign-in, after recess or before home time.
- Teachers and leadership review check-in results alongside the daily bulletin they already read each morning.
- The number and type of check-in questions adjusted class by class, from one or two options for the youngest students to fifteen for confident older classes.
- When Sentral data pointed to a cohort feeling dysregulated after lunch, staff worked with student leaders to design a response.
- Once a month, students receive a printed summary of their own check-in data and talk it through with their teacher.
- Some of that information is shared with families at parent-teacher interviews, with student consent.
After · One Year On
- Wellbeing now sits alongside attendance and behaviour in Sentral, visible to staff every day, not just after an incident.
- Staff can see how a student is arriving at school and their readiness to learn before a lesson even starts.
- Recess and lunchtime patterns, once invisible until too late, can be identified and acted on earlier.
- Staff have direct evidence that affluence does not protect a student or family from stress.
- Quiet students, and students who could not previously say what they meant, have a channel to be heard.
- Staff can tell when a change in behaviour looks like a genuine pattern, rather than an ordinary off day.
- Families can be brought into a conversation earlier, grounded in what the student has actually said.
- Students across the school use a shared vocabulary, drawn from the Zones of Regulation, to describe how they feel.
- Staff can see which students, classes and times of day may need extra support, and act on it.
- The school can see whether a new initiative, like its student led lunchtime clubs, is making a difference.
A cohort that was showing signs of dysregulation after lunch has shown fewer of those signs in check-ins since the school introduced new lunchtime clubs informed by the data.
Luke RinaldiAssistant Principal, Leading Learning, Wellbeing & EngagementNailsworth Primary School“It’s very user-friendly. You get instant feedback, which we love. As teachers, no one wants to be sitting there marking everything, and this is something that comes straight from the student’s mouth and how they’re feeling.”
What Nailsworth Can See Now That It 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 the leadership team plans its day and how families are brought into the conversation. Here is what Life Skills GO has made visible in its first year at Nailsworth.
Now:
- A short daily moment where students choose how they are checking in, and are told openly that it is seen
- Older students who have built the confidence to check in openly, so friends can see how they are feeling
- Access to self-regulation videos and gratitude prompts straight after checking in
- A genuine say in how the check-in works, including how many questions there are and when it happens
Now:
- A daily view of readiness to learn, embedded within the system already used to mark the roll
- Sentral dashboard alerts for pinned students, visible alongside the daily bulletin
- A shared, whole-school language, drawn from the Zones of Regulation, for naming and responding to emotion
- Colleagues comparing notes on which check-in questions and timings are working best for their class
Now:
- A cohort’s check-in data anonymised and worked through with student leaders, rather than guessing at what recess and lunch felt like
- Evidence to test a hypothesis, such as whether incidents cluster after lunch, rather than relying on what is reported once the bell has gone
- A basis for new, student led initiatives, designed with Student Representative Council delegates and the Year 5 and 6 executive team
- A way to see whether that initiative is actually changing the pattern, rather than assuming it has worked
Now:
- Monthly printed summaries that students can read and explain to their own parents
- Wellbeing and readiness-to-learn data shared, with student consent, at parent-teacher interviews
- A different opening line to a hard conversation, grounded in what the student has said rather than a label
- Families who have told the school they have already talked about the check-in with their own children at home
Giving Every Student a Voice
Nailsworth’s approach flexes to meet students where they are, from the youngest reception children to a graduating Year 6 cohort. Even in its first year, the platform has begun to build a depth of emotional literacy staff are noticing across the school.
Accessible From Five Choices to Fifteen
The check-in is customised class by class. Junior primary students in Year 1 and 2 found too many questions and options overwhelming, and settled on one or two. Older, more confident classes asked for more, growing from five questions to ten, then fifteen, before the school scaled it back to keep the first lesson on track.
Boys Checking In On Girls
Once check-ins moved onto the shared class board, students who may not have felt as connected started noticing one another. Boys began going up to girls to ask if everything was all right after noticing what they had clicked, with staff checking each time that everyone was comfortable with that level of visibility.
The Pattern Nobody Could Have Held in Their Head
When Sentral data showed close to two thirds of one monitored cohort feeling dysregulated after lunch, staff anonymised the data and worked through it with the school’s Student Representative Council delegates and its Year 5 and 6 executive team. Together they built Pop-Up Play, a set of student led lunchtime clubs, from karaoke and gymnastics to table tennis, drawing and robotics.
A Shared Vocabulary for Saying Sorry
Staff have noticed students having restorative conversations after a conflict, using language like “I can understand you’re feeling like this” or “I apologise for doing this, but however, this is how I feel as well.” Students, staff and families are all noticing that students’ vocabulary for their own feelings is growing.
Fluent by the End of Year Six
At their monthly student conferences, Year 6 students, the first cohort to trial the platform, could talk about their own wellbeing literacy as if it had been part of their lives all along, pointing to their own readiness to learn scale and explaining, in their own words, why they had been off on a particular day.
Seniors Teaching the Juniors
Senior students have gone into junior classes to show younger students how effective the check-in can be, even though Nailsworth’s Year 6 classes are not formally attached to a buddy class. Luke sees it as a goal worth building on further through the rest of the year.
“I think when staff and parents, and of course students, realise that their vocab’s being extended because they can actually articulate what they’re feeling... that’s something that we’re really, really proud of.”Luke RinaldiAssistant Principal, Leading Learning, Wellbeing & EngagementNailsworth Primary School
What We Learned: Key Takeaways
A first year of embedding Life Skills GO, distilled into what Luke would tell any school starting out.
Model It Before You Ask Anyone Else To
Never ask a staff member to do something you have not done yourself. Go into the classroom with your champion team, rather than handing them a set of instructions and stepping back.
Find Your Champion, Then Lead With Them
Look for the staff member who shares your passion for it, not the whole staff at once. Trial it with one class or cohort you know will take it for everything that it is.
Be Available for the First Week of Check-Ins
Make yourself available for almost every check-in in the first week to see how it is going, without becoming overwhelming for the staff member trying it.
Let the Students Set the Dosage
Ask students what makes the check-in effective for them. That might mean fifteen questions for a confident senior class and one or two for the youngest students.
Go Slow, Be Deliberate, But Be Consistent
Make it achievable, in small bites, rather than expecting the whole school to be on board tomorrow. Consistency, not speed, is what makes the data trustworthy.
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. The whole-school data is the byproduct of children who can thrive, not the point of the exercise.
“I don’t want to say how easy it is, but just how tangible it can be. It’s not a standalone thing that you just put on for the kids to be quiet or anything like that... I think how receptive our community has been. So, we’ve been able to have conversations with parents to say, hey, look, we’ve noticed this, and the parents have gone, yeah. I can’t praise it enough.”Luke RinaldiAssistant Principal, Leading Learning, Wellbeing & EngagementNailsworth Primary School
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.
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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 Nailsworth, the value of Life Skills GO was never limited to the daily check-in itself. The real value came from what happened next, and the reporting was designed to fit into the routines the school already had, rather than create an additional process.
Life Skills GO information is automatically surfaced within the school’s existing student information system, alongside the daily bulletin leadership already reads each morning. Attendance, behaviour and student voice are brought together in a way that lets leadership identify which students, classes or times of day may need attention, rather than relying on memory or what has been reported after the fact.
Staff do not need to build reports, analyse spreadsheets or learn a separate system. The information is organised around the questions leaders and teachers are already asking, including questions raised in weekly Learning Support and leadership catch-ups, giving each team the insights it needs to make timely decisions and follow up with families.
Take These Ideas Further
Go deeper on the themes in Nailsworth’s story, from free expert guides on the neuroscience of emotion and learning, to the wider Life Skills GO resource library.
Free Guides & Expert Insights
Practical downloads for educators, leaders and families, including neuroscience-backed insight on emotions, learning and wellbeing.
Deep Dive Webinar: Nailsworth Primary School’s Journey with Life Skills GO
FeaturingLuke Rinaldi, Assistant Principal at Nailsworth Primary School, in conversation with Nikki Bonus, Founder of Life Skills GO.
Watch the ReplayNeuroscience 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 see how Life Skills GO could support your school’s priorities. 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