CEQL Hub

The Queensland Catholic Education Commission was proud to partner with Townsville Catholic Education to host the 2025 Student Wellbeing Forum on Friday 9 May, marking the first time the annual event had been delivered in a regional area since starting in 2020.


Pictured (left to right): Emeritus Professor Donna Cross; Hannah Orchard – QCEC Education Officer; Lisa Shield – Executive Director, Student Wellbeing, Department of Education; Sarah Coomb – Psychologist (Student Services), Independent Schools Queensland; Allan Blagaich, QCEC Executive Director; Jennifer Blackshaw – Director – Workforce, Safety & Wellbeing, Townsville Catholic Education; Natasha O’Keeffe – Senior Advisor Social Work, Department of Education.

QCEC Education Officer and Forum organiser, Hannah Orchard, said the event “was crafted based on feedback from the QCEC Student Wellbeing Network, and was designed to include a mixture of academic and practice-based sessions responding to topics that had arisen across the last year”.

Presentations included a keynote from Emeritus Professor Donna Cross, who travelled to Townsville to speak on the importance of school community wellbeing being “everyone’s business”.

Emeritus Professor Donna Cross from the University of Western Australia presenting her keynote on ‘School community wellbeing is everyone’s business’.

The day’s diverse program also included presentations from Associate Professor Gary Fry, Indigenous Engagement Division at Central Queensland University; Tony Flanders, Detective Acting Senior Sergeant at Townsville Criminal Investigation Branch; Glenn Dawes, Adjunct Associate Professor at James Cook University, joined by Christine Dawes; and Caitlin Humphrys, Consultant – Consent and Respectful Relationships in Education at QCEC.

Presenters covered a range of topics including centralising student voice and needs in a schooling environment often geared towards academic performance; communicating effectively and using practical strategies to de-escalate incidents; using cross-agency, community programs to build young people’s engagement in school and embedding trauma-informed practices into consent and respectful relationships education.

Caitlin Humphrys, Consultant – Consent and Respectful Relationships in Education at QCEC, presenting on the ‘Trauma informed Consent & Respectful Relationships Education’.

Hannah said feedback from the event had been “very positive”, with attendees sharing how they took away a “broad array of practical strategies and insights to not only aid them as they respond to emerging issues but also expand their thinking as they considered how else they could support student and staff wellbeing in their school environments”.

“The ability for staff all over Queensland to come together, share their experiences, gain advice, resources and encouragement and leave feeling part of the broader Catholic education community is invaluable,” Hannah said.

QCEC Education Officer and Student Wellbeing Forum organiser, Hannah Orchard, addressing attendees.

She said discussions are already underway to host the 2026 forum in another regional area, “ensuring that all Catholic School Authorities are represented in the decisions and advocacy we make”.

Please click here to view our 2025 Student Wellbeing Forum photo gallery.

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