Hackathon: High Impact Solutions to Common Challenges in Education

As part of PESA’s 2025 National Wellbeing Education Conference, the ‘hackathon’ was a fast-paced session where practitioners presented high-impact, easy-to-implement solutions to common challenges in education. Learn more about the six practical, ready-to-use wellbeing hacks covering classroom practice, behaviour management, movement, pastoral care and student voice.

Author/Source: Melissa Chamberlain, Nicola Unite, Ione Norris, Jessica Orr and Natalie Lander, Paige Zavaglia, Sarah Lang and Monique Eggs on behalf of Helen Worthington.

Last updated: 16/10/2025

The Hackathon was a fast-paced conference session where practitioners shared high-impact, easy-to-implement solutions to common challenges in schools and this collection brings together six of the best "hacks" for educators to take straight into their own settings.

Melissa Chamberlain's PERMAH Primer offers quick, research-backed classroom activities that embed wellbeing into everyday teaching without extra training or time. Nicola Unite's Peaceful Pause unites the whole school community in a shared daily moment of intentional breathing. Ione Norris's SHIFT model reframes behaviour management around empathy, self-awareness and restorative practice rather than correction alone, enhanced with AI-driven personalisation. Jessica Orr and Natalie Lander make the case for physically active learning, showing how purposeful movement breaks can lift engagement, wellbeing and academic outcomes together. Paige Zavaglia's hack shows how empowering homeroom teachers builds a stronger, shared culture of knowing and supporting students. And Sarah Lang and Monique Eggs (presenting on behalf of Helen Worthington) share Fiesta of Ideas, a short, high-energy program that hands students real ownership over shaping their school's wellbeing culture. Together, these hacks offer practical, low-barrier starting points for embedding wellbeing across teaching practice, behaviour management, movement, pastoral care and student voice.

Watch the presentations above or read more and download the presentation slides by selecting the + buttons below.

Hackathon Overviews and Slides

Prime the Day, the PERMAH Way

Presented by: Melissa Chamberlain

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The PERMAH Primer is an innovative, easy-to-use resource that acts as a strategic hack for schools seeking to embed wellbeing into everyday teaching. Available in digital or print format, it offers quick, research-backed activities aligned to the PERMAH framework—designed to help every teacher, regardless of subject or confidence level, bring Positive Education into their classroom.

By tackling common barriers like packed schedules, lack of confidence, fragmented delivery, and the theory-to-practice gap, the Primer provides a simple way for educators to make wellbeing a daily habit. Activities take just 2–10 minutes, require no special training, and flexibly fit into diverse teaching contexts. It turns wellbeing from a time-consuming “extra” into an embedded, empowering part of school culture.

The Peaceful Pause

Presented by: Nicola Unite

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The Peaceful Pause is a beautifully simple yet transformative wellbeing hack that invites the entire school community – students, teachers, support staff, and leadership – to unite in a shared moment of intentional breathing. At a designated time each day, a gentle sound is played across campus, signalling everyone to stop, take three deep breaths, and return to their tasks with renewed clarity and calm. By embedding regulated pauses into the rhythm of the day, the Peaceful Pause reframes wellbeing as accessible, proactive, and essential, making stillness a skill shared by all.

From Correction to Connection: Driving Positive Behaviour Management

Presented by: Ione Norris

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The SHIFT Hack offers a restorative, reflective approach to managing student behaviour by targeting root causes rather than surface symptoms. Grounded in the principles of empathy, accountability, and community collaboration, SHIFT empowers students to develop self-awareness, and take ownership, of their actions while building healing and growth.

Structured around five key components—Self-awareness, Holistic involvement, Individualised reflection, Follow-up strategies, and Transformation—the model supports students facing challenges such as defiance, conflict, disengagement, and emotional volatility. It integrates parent and teacher support, personalised tasks, and restorative conversations to rebuild trust and improve relationships.

Enhanced by AI-driven customisation, SHIFT adapts to each student’s unique needs – streamlining planning and boosting impact. This scalable, thoughtful hack creates a pathway for sustainable behaviour change, promoting inclusion and wellbeing in every classroom.

Going Beyond the Brain Break: Integrating Physically Active Learning for Improved Student Education, Wellbeing and Health Outcomes

Presented by: Jessica Orr and Natalie Lander

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There are significant wellbeing, health and academic challenges facing children and adolescents. Students are reporting lower levels of student engagement, declines in motivation and love of learning. Using physical activity as a tool for learning (integrated within the classroom) offers a cost effective, scalable and sustainable solution to improving student wellbeing outcomes (i.e., connection, feelings of happiness, lower levels of stress and emotional regulation), improving academic outcomes (i.e., increasing on-task behaviour, improving concentration, motivation and cognitive development) and health related outcomes (i.e., improved BMI and physiological outcomes). A component of the PERMA+ model, physical activity via the use of Active Breaks, can be meaningfully and purposefully integrated into the learning to improve student outcomes.

Leading Together: Harnessing the Power of Homeroom Teachers

Presented by: Paige Zavaglia

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This hack explores two practical strategies for empowering Homeroom Teachers to take greater ownership over the wellbeing and socio-emotional development of their students. Grounded in the belief that it takes a village (that is, that this important work cannot be achieved by Pastoral Middle Leaders alone), these strategies have succeeded in cultivating a culture in which Homeroom Teachers ‘know their students’ better and harness their expertise for impact.

Fiesta of Ideas: Elevating Student Voice to Shape Wellbeing

Presented by: Sarah Lang and Monique Eggs on behalf of Helen Worthington

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Fiesta of Ideas is a dynamic, short-term initiative that transforms student agency into tangible impact. Designed for Year 5 learners and adaptable across year levels, the program collapses the standard timetable to present a big, wellbeing-driven question, inviting students to collaboratively design and pitch solutions directly to school leadership.

This high-impact hack addresses the challenge of authentically involving students in shaping the wellbeing culture of their school. It shifts wellbeing from a top-down initiative to a co-created experience, amplifying student voice, fostering inclusion, and strengthening community connection. Through fast-paced teamwork and real-world problem-solving, students explore what wellbeing means within their context, identify gaps in inclusion, and feel deeply valued as contributors. The program nurtures ownership, belonging, and confidence among students while promoting a culture where leadership listens (and responds) to student-generated change.

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Please note that the presentations and materials shared during this conference contain the intellectual property of the respective authors and presenters. These works represent years of professional development, research, and expertise. Access to these resources is provided exclusively to PESA members for personal and professional learning. Members are welcome to reference or use the materials for educational purposes with proper attribution to the original presenter(s). However, these materials:

Must not be reproduced, distributed, or shared publicly (including on social media or external websites) without prior written consent from the presenter(s).
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By accessing these resources, you agree to respect the intellectual property rights of the presenters and uphold the ethical use of shared knowledge within our community. For permissions or questions regarding use, please contact us.

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