Students’ Pulse an Uneven Beat

There are strong indications, support is still needed to ensure young people can handle negative thoughts and circumstances as we continue to navigate COVID-19, as shown by new data gathered direct from students across the country over the past 18 months. The Educator Impact and ARACY analysis presents a picture of approximately 84,000 students across Australia, who checked in weekly over 1.6 million times over an 18-month period up to August 2022. A summary paper and technical report are available.

While 70% of the time, students reported feeling positive in any given week, around six percent of students reported feeling negative. In comparison to the previous report released in November 2021, these results show an increase in positive responses to the question of ‘how are you feeling today?’, of 5.5 percentage points.

“Listening to the voices of young people is incredibly important, especially in times of stress. This data shows young people wanted to be heard, and that things are not all okay,” said Penny Dakin, CEO of ARACY. “While we are seeing a general increase in positive feelings, individual students are on a rollercoaster of emotions with 40% in any given week choosing a different answer to the question ‘how are you feeling’ than their previous response,” Ms Dakin continued.

ei Pulse, a student wellbeing app, was used by schools to ask young people how they were feeling, every week. Dr Joe Thurbon, co-Founder and CTO at Educator Impact said, “At almost every school, during the first month of using ei Pulse, at least one student who is a ‘surprise’ to the school reaches out for assistance.”

“We don’t know how young people are feeling unless we ask them, and we won’t get an honest answer if we don’t give them the space and resources to know their answer is being heard,” Dr Thurbon continued.

Students have been using the app and are seeing the benefits, “Pulse is an easy and quick way to get the teacher's attention - if you need help or someone to talk to. It is also a good way to let others know that we are grateful for them,” shared T. Maugeri from Iona College Geelong.

However, in line with reports from earlier in the pandemic, two in five students are still worrying a lot about mistakes that they make, with a quarter of students reporting they often feel nervous or upset about things. While general positivity might be improving, the incidence of students who report being worried or nervous remains consistently high.

About ei Pulse
ei Pulse is a tool developed by Educator Impact (EI), to track and support student and staff wellbeing in real time, providing a weekly check-in and enabling students to ask for help when they need it. ei Pulse draws on ARACY’s Common Approach® - a method of speaking with children, young people and their families about wellbeing using the six domains of the Nest (Australia’s wellbeing framework for children and young people). ei Pulse was launched in March 2020 and since then the number of students using the tool has increased from approximately 500 to more than 84,000 in August 2022, when it was being used in approximately 120 schools in all Australian jurisdictions, except the Northern Territory.