Since 2024, Moruya High School has implemented a comprehensive wellbeing initiative titled Resilience In Our Teams (RIOT) - a whole-school, wraparound program designed to equip adolescents with the skills to manage anxiety and build lasting resilience.
RIOT was developed by renowned Australian psychologist Michael Hawton and is grounded in evidence-based best practice. It seeks to empower students with practical coping strategies, while also promoting an important distinction between everyday feelings of anxiousness and clinical anxiety. This distinction is particularly valuable within educational settings, where students are encouraged to lean into experiences that may feel uncomfortable, such as public speaking, in recognition of their long-term developmental benefits.
With staff fully trained, the RIOT program is currently delivered to students in Years 7–10 across six structured 50-minute lessons throughout the school year. These lessons address key topics, including:
- differentiating between anxiety disorders and normal, situational anxiety
- identifying family and teacher behaviours that may exacerbate anxiety
- understanding the varied treatment responses to different forms of anxiety
- recognising how adults in a teenager’s life can actively support the development of mental strength
- learning conversational strategies and formal techniques (e.g. arousal-reduction methods) that foster resilient thinking.