Featuring Eagles star Jake Waterman, the Rise Above program provides students with a meaningful look into Jake’s personal journey, whilst considering links between the pillars of resilience and their own life experiences.

From themes of positive relationships and support networks to mindfulness and self-care, the program takes students through the fundamentals of what makes a person resilient and practical ways they can implement strategies in-and-out of the classroom.

The upper-primary school program is targeted for young students as they prepare to make the important and at times daunting transition to high school.

Having gone through his own personal challenges with injury, physical illness and mental health struggles, Waterman shares his story of resilience and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

“I’ve been through a pretty tough period in my life where I had to use a fair bit of resilience to come out the other side, so to speak from my own experience to the students I’m hopefully able to teach them some tips and strategies for their own lives,” he said.

“When you need to show resilience it’s during adversity and hardship, so I think the goal of the program is just to provide these kids with some tools to navigate their way through these upcoming hardships they’re about to have as they enter that high school age.”

Having officially launched only two months ago, the program has already visited over 1000 students in schools across Perth, Kalgoorlie, Newman, Denmark, Albany and the South West.

Primary Schools Manager Mel Toia highlights the program’s demand within schools to assist in fostering resilient youth across the state.

“At the end of 2024 we surveyed schools in Perth and regional WA, asking teachers what topic they think needs addressing with their Year 5 and 6 students. Overwhelmingly the response was that resilience was a challenge for students from all demographics across Western Australia,” she said.

“Rise Above has received lots of positive feedback in the first few weeks. Teachers have observed students being fully engaged in our sessions and sharing insightful reflections as part of whole class discussions and personal journaling opportunities.”

“The program is targeted at Year 5 and 6 students and explains the Five Pillars of Resilience. Jake Waterman shares insights into his personal and professional resilience journey and students are given the opportunity to reflect on their own experience with the Five Pillars and respond to Jakes prompts,” Toia said.

“Using examples from Jake Watermans life enables students to see that everyone has their resilience challenged across various aspects of life, even their sporting heroes.”

To find out more about the Rise Above program visit our education hub here or contact Mel Toia – melaniet@wce.com.au.