Voices from the Field

The Catholic Principals' Leadership Development | Ontario, Leadership en action and Principal Association Projects,  the service partners for Catholic Principals' Council of Ontario (CPCO), L'Association des directions et directions adjointes des écoles franco-ontariennes (ADFO) and Ontario Principals' Council, in partnership with School Mental Health Ontario (SMH-ON), are working collaboratively to support principal and vice-principals in leading mentally healthy schools. 

This series, Voices from the Field,  will feature practicing administrators from each association sharing their experiences using School Mental Health Ontario (SMH-ON) resources with their learning communities.

Testimonial # 1 - December 11, 2024 - Daniel Birkenbergs

In an interview with Daniel Birkenbergs, an elementary principal at Georges Vanier Catholic Elementary School in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, he shares his thoughts about using a School Mental Health Ontario (SMH-ON)* resource.

Which SMH-ON resource are you highlighting?

Wayfinder offers one possible path to support the weaving of mental health learning into every classroom. This grade-by-grade guide to support mental health with Ontario students, provides an easy way for educators to scaffold and sequence the learning in their classrooms throughout the year. It facilitates collaboration between grades and colleagues.

The Wayfinder is well laid out allowing educators to easily and quickly find topics appropriate for their grade. Teachers need the Wayfinder resource because it builds educator comfort and confidence when teaching about mental health which is essential to student learning.  

How did you use the resource with your school community?

Our school staff started using the resource in a couple of ways: 

1. First, I introduced the SMH-ON resources at staff meetings early in the school year using the WayFinder staff meeting slide deck and video** found on the SMH-ON webpage.  Time was provided for staff exploration of the resource. This was particularly helpful with the recent changes to the health curriculum and mandated mental health lessons for Grade 7 and Grade 8 that came out from the Ministry of Education.  
   • Wayfinder supports me, as a school administrator, to lead a mentally healthy school. I keep a regular agenda item for staff meetings to support staff to stay committed to using the Wayfinder in their planning throughout the year. In our staff meeting discussions, we have reflected upon questions like:
     • What are we doing to bring this directly to our students?
     • What are we doing in our classrooms to make sure that we have positive mental health supports for our students?
   • Doing this helps to ensure that all educators are involved.  Wayfinder is also a good resource to draw from when highlighting other mental health opportunities (i.e. Bell Let’s Talk Day) and supporting the work of the Healthy School team. 
2. Our school has grade seven and eight students trained as mental health leads. They work with our Healthy School team with a targeted focus on positive mental health and well-being and do a lot of the work with students across the school.
3. For our families, we have a mental health newsletter that comes out twice a year from our healthy schools team.  We also have biweekly updates focused on mental health, often using messaging directly from SMH-ON.

What was the impact on your school community?

Wayfinder has provided our school community a common language for staff and students to discuss positive mental health and well-being. I have noticed a positive shift in terms of student resiliency.

When I first started at this school, it was apparent this was an area of need for our students. Students would shut down and not be able to move past difficult situations. With a focus on resilience, students now have a wider range of strategies to work through challenging situations and find positive solutions. We have fewer incidences of students being unable to manage these circumstances, particularly our older students.

Students are using more positive language  when talking about mental health and are becoming more aware of what it means to be mentally healthy.

What would you like your Principal/Vice-Principal colleagues to know about this resource and how it can support their leadership of mentally healthy schools?

Reflecting on my experience starting in a new building there were some things that stood out that needed to be addressed, including resiliency. Wayfinder was an excellent navigational tool that helped me to find just-in-time mental health resources. Wayfinder was easy for staff to use and incorporate into their classroom environment.

As a new principal in this school community, it helped me to initiate positive change. I am able to explore the resources of SMH-ON through Wayfinder to support the needs of my school. It is certainly a valuable tool that can be utilized in a variety of ways to support leading a mentally healthy school.

To access the resource, visit:

School Mental Health Ontario Wayfinder

**On this webpage school leaders will find the referenced Wayfinder staff meeting slide deck and key messages to share with staff.

We want to hear from you!

LMHS Joint Association Feedback Form

*School Mental Health Ontario (SMH-ON) is the Ministry of Education’s implementation partner for student mental health.  SMH-ON does this through the development and implementation of made-in-Ontario, evidence-informed mental health promotion and prevention resources, programs, and professional learning for classroom educators, school administrators, and regulated school mental health professionals. (PPM 169)