The Rhythm of a School Year

A school year follows a cycle.

Term 1 is about new beginnings and new opportunities. There is an optimism that comes with a fresh year; new teachers, new subjects, new friendships and the chance to begin again. Young people are empowered to set goals, act on feedback and take courageous steps into the unknown.

By Term 2, students have found the rhythm of the year. It is a natural time to focus on academic growth; to monitor progress, evaluate choices and consider whether learning feels appropriately challenging and enjoyable. Students begin to see whether the habits and techniques they chose at the beginning of the year are actually working.

Then comes Term 3.

Term 3 always seems to drum to a slightly different beat. The mornings are darker, the months are colder, and the end of the year is not yet close enough to provide its own momentum. The novelty has worn off. Doubt can creep in, confidence can take a hit, and with that our self-awareness gets impacted too.

Perhaps this is exactly why Term 3 should be the term in which we think most deliberately about personal growth.

Knowing how you feel is a skill

It is one thing for schools to recognise the cycle of a year. It is another to prepare young people for it; to lay foundations before things become difficult and give students the skills to understand what is happening when they do. One way to do this is through emotional literacy.

We often ask young people, "How are you?" and the most common responses we get are 'I'm fine', 'All good', 'Tired' or 'Not enough time to even consider how I am'. But there is a skill in being able to distinguish between knowing how you feel, being able to articulate it, and understanding why.

A young person who can identify what they are experiencing has a much better starting point for deciding what they might do about it. Emotional literacy therefore isn't simply about encouraging young people to talk about their feelings. It is about giving them a richer vocabulary with which to understand themselves and, ultimately, greater agency over how they respond.

Being attuned to the patterns

This year, our Junior School began working with Komodo Wellbeing, a tool that allows students to regularly reflect on different dimensions of their wellbeing, which in turn allows schools to look at individual and cohort trends over time.

Schools collect an enormous amount of data, but the challenge is in what we do with it. Using proactive personal growth data allows us to see if the information we collect reveals something that directs us to do something differently.

Across our Years 3–6 students, the overall wellbeing score was 81%; interestingly, this remained consistent from Term 2 into Term 3, which was different from what we expected. Social wellbeing was the highest-scoring area for every year level, ranging from 89% to 91%. At a time when social connections are paramount and self-image is derived so heavily from others, our students clearly articulated that this is a strength and a protective factor in their own lives.

We also noticed patterns that changed across the year depending on 'big events'. As a camp, a musical, a test or a sporting event approached, we could see a notable difference in the overall wellbeing score. The impact of uncertainty, trepidation and stepping outside that comfort zone left its statistical mark. We know that exposure to these events builds resilience, courage and a sense of self-satisfaction. The data, however, reminds us that we need to adjust our support to help that happen.

Data allows us to look at the bigger picture

One of the strengths of using the Komodo tool is that the broader dataset provides an interesting lens through which to view our own data. Komodo's 2025–26 Annual Trends Report draws on more than 100,000 students across 160+ schools in more than 30 countries. So how does wellbeing in young people look different around the world?

Globally, the wellbeing journey tends to travel downwards as students get older, with particularly noticeable drops around the transition into Year 6 and again into Year 8. This figure is not surprising; we know that transition can set a student back academically and personally by up to six months when they experience major change. It is the recovery from change or setbacks that we need to continue tracking too.

But averages can disguise something more important: Komodo's data reveals that children's experience of school is significantly shaped by culture and context.

In the South-East Asian schools represented in the Komodo dataset, wellbeing is very high in the primary years but drops sharply in Year 6 and continues to decline through secondary school. Australia and New Zealand tell a strikingly different story. The ANZ data starts much lower in Year 3, then rises to peak at Year 6. A rollercoaster pattern then emerges, with a dip in Junior Secondary followed by a recovery in the later years of Secondary School.

Although the dataset is small on a global scale, the differing strengths of school systems and their impact on student wellbeing remain an important trend to follow.

Where do we start?

Komodo's global data identifies digital wellbeing and sleep as its two lowest-scoring areas, despite both improving over the past year. Digital wellbeing recorded the largest improvement of any domain globally, rising 8.9 points, but remains the lowest-scoring theme overall. This was consistent with our own school data: for our Year 4 and Year 5 students, sleep was the lowest-scoring element, at 73% and 67% respectively. For Years 3 and 6, it was digital wellbeing, at 71% and 70%.

There is something useful in that finding for both schools and families.

We can sometimes treat sleep, devices, friendships, learning and emotional health as separate conversations. For a child, of course, none of it is separate at all. A late night affects mood and concentration. A social error affects a friendship. Friendship affects belonging. Belonging affects confidence. Confidence affects the willingness to put your hand up, make a mistake and try again.

My advice is always to start with sleep.

That brings us to Term 4.

Now, the end is visible. There are performances, celebrations, final assessments and milestones. But thriving shouldn't simply mean arriving happily at the finish line. Thriving is what happens when all of the pieces begin to work together.

A young person who has been empowered to make choices needs opportunities to discover whether those choices worked out. Academic Growth gives students evidence of progress and teaches them how to respond when it doesn't. Personal Growth develops the self-knowledge, relationships and emotional skills required to navigate the inevitable challenges that arise.

The rhythm of a school year gives us four terms. Perhaps it also gives us four different opportunities to help young people become increasingly capable and confident in navigating the changing landscape before them.

Visit our Junior School and Senior School pages to learn more about how we are supporting our students to thrive.