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New first-year students are vulnerable to dropping out of university because the transition into higher education (HE) is difficult to navigate. Using thematic analysis, we analysed focus groups/interview, exit interviews and qualitative survey data with university students during their first year as criminology undergraduates to explore how they transitioned into HE. Findings show that the transition to a new identity of ‘university student’ was hampered by feelings of awkwardness, which prevented students from fully integrating into student life. However, the subject of criminology was a protective factor because interest in the topic and wanting a degree for betterment, including for future career plans, buffered students against dropping out. We argue that subject specific interventions may be better in supporting the retention of students and that addressing physical, social and academic awkwardness is key.

The awarding of grades or marks to student work is traditionally considered a fundamental feature of assessment. Traditional grades, the awarding of numeric values to student work, date back to the 1600s where Harvard used exit grades to measure and categorize students (Smallwood, 1935). Grades became more widely established in the education sector at the beginning of the twentieth century to deal with increased numbers of students and as a means of communication between educational institutions and third parties, a form of universal measurement. Although becoming ubiquitous across most educational spectrums in the second half of the twentieth century, there is mounting evidence to suggest that grades are not effective tools for measuring learning. A number of institutions and individual practitioners have moved away from grading in the hope of improving motivation, collaboration and lifelong learning for their students (Brilleslyper, et al., 2012) (White & Fantone, 2014) (Sackstein, 2015) (Beckie, 2019). With calls for a ‘Pedagogy of Care’ (Bali, 2020) and a decolonising of curriculum (Begum, & Saini, 2019) new approaches are being explored to replace traditional grading practices., One alternative approach is "ungrading,", in which no letter grades or marks are given to students, has gained momentum. Recent literature (Blum, 2017) (Gibbs, 2019) suggests that ungrading increases motivation reduces stress, enhances independence, helps form new learning habits, makes room for creative work, promotes better communication, and opens up new course design possibilities. Strategies to go gradeless include providing plentiful formative feedback, facilitating peer and self-assessment, teaching students metacognitive skills through reflection, and (if the academic institution requires a final grade) allowing students to grade themselves (Stommel, 2018) (Sackstein, 2015) (Stommel, 2017). The involvement of students as partners in assessment has been shown to enhance motivation, self-critical learning, and performance (Logan, 2009) (Ndoye, 2017) (Panadero & Al-Qassab, 2019). This paper presents three case studies(action research) based on the delivery of undergraduate modules in an Irish Higher education setting using an ‘Ungrading’ approach The 3 case studies describe activities that took place during the 2020-2021 academic year, in the midst of the global Covid pandemic. Two of the modules are from the Creative Digital Media BA Programme, (Multimedia Development 1 & Web Development 2) and a module in IT & Professional Development as part of a BSc in Horticulture. Each case study will detail the rationale for choosing ungrading, mechanics for delivery and reflection based on qualitative feedback from the three practitioners and student cohorts. The paper concludes by suggesting strategies for the effective implementation of ungrading in undergraduate classes to support diverse learner needs.

Educators in mainland China are increasingly concerned about promoting school students’ social and emotional wellbeing. However, there has been little exchange of research between China and western countries about this topic. For example, questionnaires developed in the west have not been generally available to mainland Chinese researchers. We translated three existing wellbeing questionnaires into simplified Chinese characters and administered the questionnaires to 2756 students aged 10 to 15 attending 16 schools in Beijing. Results showed that students generally reported positive wellbeing, with only small proportions of students indicating languishing mental health. Comparisons between Chinese and Australian students of similar ages indicated that the Chinese students reported slightly higher wellbeing scores. However, as students in both countries grew older, their wellbeing scores became significantly lower. This study provides foundational information to underpin future work in Beijing schools to promote students’ social and emotional wellbeing., peer-reviewed

Schools provide viable settings for mental health promotion initiatives, such as programs to develop students’ social and emotional capabilities (SEC). Complexity in the school environments into which initiatives are introduced, such as diverse student capabilities, school structures, and teachers’ knowledge and confidence, will play an integral role in the success of those initiatives. This paper investigates the environments of schools about to receive the KidsMatter mental heath promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative in Australia, using information sourced from questionnaires about 2598 students and their teachers in 50 Australian primary schools. The focus of the report is on the status of the schools’ work in one of the key focus areas for the intervention, namely students’ SEC. Analysis showed relatively high levels of students’ SEC across the whole sample, but with sub-group differences. Teachers’ attitudes towards SEC learning were highly positive. Teachers’ self-rated knowledge and approaches in dealing with SEC were moderate, and point to requirements for additional pre-service and professional development. The extent of regular and sustained delivery of SEC programs and mental health initiatives in general showed variability, suggesting the need to attend to school systems and structural supports. Implications of these areas of diversity in school environments on the selection and methods of delivery of mental health promotion programs in schools are discussed., peer-reviewed

When social-emotional wellbeing programs are well-implemented, positive changes in students' mental health and self-regulatory social-emotional capabilities can eventuate. However, a problematic area of program implementation is sustainability once the supports and resources of the 'start-up' phases of new initiatives fade away. It is increasingly recognised that quality assurance procedures are necessary during the delivery of new programs. However, it appears that procedures for quality assurance of the sustainability components of programs have been relatively neglected. In this paper we investigate whether and why the KidsMatter Primary Mental Health Promotion initiative in Australia was sustained in schools one year after completion of the pilot phase. Thematic analysis indicated a range of facilitators and barriers to sustainability, and that many, but not all, schools continued to identify themselves as 'KidsMatter' schools. We propose a framework to guide a continuous cycle of quality assurance processes, with a specific focus on assuring program sustainability. We argue that more practical and conceptual work needs to be undertaken to develop tools and processes for explicit quality assurance of the sustainability components of mental health promotion and social-emotional wellbeing initiatives in educational settings.

This paper reports an investigation into Australian primary school teachers’ knowledge and confidence for mental health promotion. Questionnaires were delivered to 1397 teachers. In-depth interviews were held with 37 teachers. Quantitative results showed that half to two thirds of teachers felt efficacious and knowledgeable about selected components of mental health promotion. Independent judgments by staff about students’ mental health status concurred with students’ scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in about 75% of cases, indicating a good level of staff awareness about students’ mental health status. Exposure to the KidsMatter Primary mental health promotion initiative was associated with improvements in teachers’ efficacy, knowledge and pedagogy, with small to medium effect sizes. Qualitative analysis indicated that teachers’ subject-matter and pedagogical knowledge were heavily reliant on curriculum resources. Implications of the findings for the implementation of school-based mental health promotion initiatives are discussed.

The role of school teachers in promoting students’ mental health is receiving increasing international attention. However, before venturing into schools with new initiatives such as mental health promotion, it is essential to take into account local contextual affordances and constraints. One issue is whether teachers and other school community stakeholders believe that activities related to mental health promotion are within teachers’ realms of responsibility and capabilities. This paper reports findings from two questionnaire-based studies in Malta. The first questionnaire, about teachers’ responsibilities in areas related to developing students’ positive mental health, was delivered to community stakeholders attending three public lectures. The second questionnaire asked teaching staff in seven schools about their knowledge and capabilities for teaching to promote positive mental health. Results from the two studies indicate a foundation of support for whole school approaches to mental health promotion. Teachers’ responses from the second study indicate that many teachers do not feel strongly efficacious and knowledgeable about their roles in mental health promotion. Implications for teacher professional learning are discussed., The studies reported in this paper were supported by grants from the European Union FP7 Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme, the Australian Academy of Science, the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law at Flinders University and the European Centre for Educational Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health at the University of Malta.

KidsMatter Early Childhood is the Australian national early childhood mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative specifically developed for early childhood services. It was trialled in 111 long day care services and preschools during 2010 and 2011. KMEC involves the people who have a significant influence on young children’s lives – parents, carers, families and early childhood educators, along with a range of community and health professionals – in making a positive difference to young children’s mental health and wellbeing during this important developmental period. The KMEC initiative provides a framework to enable services to plan and implement evidencebased mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention strategies. These strategies aim to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children from birth to school age, reduce mental health difficulties among children, and achieve greater support for children experiencing mental health difficulties and their families., KidsMatter Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative was developed through collaboration between beyondblue, the Australian Psychological Society and Early Childhood Australia, and with funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and beyondblue.

Mental health promotion is a very new area of learning for many school staff. Using data from questionnaires, written reports and focussed interviews, this paper reports school leaders' and teachers' perspectives about the professional development program that accompanied the KidsMatter Primary Mental Health Promotion (KidsMatter) pilot initiative in 100 Australian schools. Findings include that 50 to 60 per cent of staff strongly agreed that the professional development program had improved their knowledge and capabilities. Thematic analysis indicated that the professional development confirmed existing good practices, provided opportunities for raising staff awareness of mental health strengths and difficulties, reduced stigma, provided a common language, and provided a mechanism for including all staff in processes of school renewal. In particular, the enthusiasm and expertise of the KidsMatter Project Officers was highly valued by staff. The thematic analysis also indicated ways for continued improvements in school-based professional development, including assessing relevance to local contexts, sufficiency, timetabling, and accommodating staff turnover. Conceptualising professional development as professional learning for school renewal, managing the sequencing of learning activities to accommodate initial and sustained learning, drawing from the distributed expertise of inter-disciplinary teams, and exploiting on-line technologies are suggested as ways of sustaining professional learning for mental health promotion in schools.

KidsMatter is an approach to the promotion of good mental health, the prevention of mental illness, and early intervention where problems arise. It requires a whole-of-school approach and has four key components – a positive school community; social and emotional learning for students; parenting support and education and early intervention for students with mental health difficulties. Based on approaches already tested by the World Health Organization and the American Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, it has been adapted to suit Australian conditions., KidsMatter Primary and KidsMatter Early Childhood are being conducted in collaboration between beyondblue: the national depression initiative, which is contributing funding of $3.5 million, the Australian Psychological Society, Principals Australia and Early Childhood Australia.

Selenium (Se) stable isotopes are a new geochemical tool with great potential as a tracer of redox processes and chemical cycling of chalcophiles and volatile elements. However, Se isotope measurements in low-Se samples present a formidable analytical challenge. In this study, we report a new method to measure Se stable isotopes (δ82/78Se; per mil deviation relative to Se NIST SRM 3149) with extremely high precision. Selenium has six stable isotopes and therefore is a good candidate for isotope analysis using a double spike approach, which has the advantage that it can correct for any stable isotope fractionation that may occur during sample processing. We have calibrated a novel 76Se–78Se double spike and have developed a rapid and precise analytical protocol on a multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer using an ESI hydride generation introduction system. Sensitivity is over 1000 V per ppm for the total Se signal; a measurement typically requires 25 ng of natural Se. Argon dimer interferences on masses 76, 78 and 80 were corrected in situ by measuring mass 80. Germanium interferences on masses 74 and 76 were corrected by measuring mass 73 and mass 75 was monitored to correct for arsenic hydride on mass 76. Wash-out times were in the order of 180 s, greatly reduced compared to previous studies that rely on on peak zero argon dimer corrections (wash-out times of up to one hour). The 2 s.e. error for a single analysis typically ranges from 0.01 to 0.025‰ (n = 80) for δ82/78Se. Long-term reproducibility and accuracy were estimated by multiple analyses of the Se Merck standard over numerous different analytical sessions, resulting in a mean δ82/78Se value of −0.989 ± 0.034‰ (n = 93; 2 s.d.), which is in excellent agreement with previous studies.