A few years back, when I first wrote Shine on the Inside, it was in response to schools wanting a way to deliver our popular community-based programs. We couldn’t get in to every school, especially interstate, so I worked with some educators to create something that could be delivered by the people already in the schools – chappies, SSOs, educators, counsellors. 

The result was a comprehensive 10-lesson, evidence-based, wellbeing curriculum for female-identifying students in years 5 – 10. Mindfulness. Self-esteem. Friendships. Body image. Brain science. Nutrition. Menstrual wellness. Goal setting. The stuff that matters when you’re trying to figure out who you are.

Since then, it’s found its way into more than 100 schools. Not just here in Australia, but in the US, in Dubai, in Bali. Run by school counsellors, wellbeing coordinators, chaplains and teachers who care deeply and just needed something done-for-you to put in their hands so they could make it their own and personalise it to their own students’ experiences.

But the world these young people are growing up in does not sit still and neither does your world as an educator. So, neither can the curriculum.

Which is why I’ve just finished the biggest update Shine on the Inside has ever had.

What’s actually changed

This isn’t a tidy-up. It’s almost double the size of what schools have been using until now.

It now includes primary-level supplements for every single lesson. Schools running the program for Years 5 and 6 have been asking for this for a while, and I wanted to make sure younger students get content that’s pitched right for them, not just a watered-down version of what we give the older kids.

There’s a brand new, fully built-out Digital Wellbeing lesson. With Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age legislation now in effect, schools are having real conversations about how to help kids navigate their digital lives, and I didn’t want Shine on the Inside to be the program that still talked about social media the way we did in 2018 or even 2025. So we rebuilt it. How algorithms actually work (and why they tend to show us the content that makes us feel worst). AI generated deep fakes, and how conversations with AI are geared towards keeping us talking. Digital footprints. The difference between scrolling mindlessly and using your phone with intention. It’s the lesson I’m most proud of in this whole update. And it’s practical and fun too!

Every single lesson has had a full research review and been updated accordingly. Self-compassion sits alongside self-esteem now, drawing on Kristin Neff’s work. The goal setting lesson uses Gabriele Oettingen’s WOOP model, which has more evidence behind it than almost any other goal setting framework out there. The learning styles quiz has been updated to be more inclusive and aligned with the most recent data. The brain science lesson reflects what we now understand about adolescent neuroscience. None of this was wrong before. It just needed to catch up to where the research is now.

And it’s fully aligned with ACARA Version 9. Every lesson, mapped. Content descriptors, focus areas, Personal and Social Capability sub-elements, all done. If you’re a curriculum coordinator who needs that documentation sitting in a folder somewhere, it’s ready and waiting.

Why this matters more than ever

I don’t love leaning on statistics. I find that numbers can flatten what’s actually a deeply human story. But sometimes they help explain why I do this work, so I’ll share a couple.

• Headspace surveyed more than 3,000 young Australians in 2025 and found that 49% were experiencing high or very high levels of psychological distress. Among 12 to 14 year olds, that figure was 31%.
• The Resilient Youth Australia Resilience Survey, which draws on responses from around 140,000 students nationally, found that 35.9% of secondary students report high levels of anxiety, depression, or both.

It’s numbers like these that make me believe so strongly in prevention. Not waiting until something goes wrong, but giving young people the language and the tools and the safe, circle-shaped space to talk about what’s going on for them before things get hard. Having access to this right where they are, with the teachers and staff they already know and trust, is icing on the cake!

What schools are telling me

The best part of doing this update has been hearing from the people actually running the program week to week.

David Nicotra, Head Teacher Wellbeing at Ingleburn High School, told me the program was a “resounding success” with his Year 7 and 8 students last term. He said the sessions were engaging and interactive, and that students kept applying what they’d learned both at school and at home. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? Not just a nice hour in a classroom, but something that follows them out the door.

Brittany Ketauwo, who facilitates the program at Dakabin State High School, told me she’s genuinely enjoyed running it herself. I love that. This was never meant to feel like a chore for the adult holding the space either.

If you’ve been sitting on this

If you downloaded a preview a while back and it’s been sitting in a folder somewhere, I’d love for you to take another look. This isn’t the same program you saw then. It’s bigger, it’s more current, and it’s been built to meet exactly what schools are dealing with right now.

You can find all the details, and the new preview to download, here.

And if you’ve got questions, just reach out to schools@shinefromwithin.com.au. 

Keep shining,

Amanda