We were drawn to work in education because it was an opportunity to have a positive impact on the future. But in our classrooms and lecture halls, in exam rooms and ovals, it became apparent that there was a gap in the knowledge we were passing on to our young people. While the education system was well equipped to deliver the curriculum and provide the academic credentials needed to pursue career goals, the learning students needed to engage with their own psychology, their environment and each other, was largely implicit. The subtlety was being lost. We were watching the most educated generation in history suffer from the highest instances of social isolation, bullying, anxiety, depression and negative body image ever seen. There had to be a better way. 

​

This is how Invictus was born. We started to ask questions: What if we explicitly taught students about wellbeing; about how to recognise their own emotions and how to cope with them, how to find purpose, how to find and maintain resilient relationships? What if we could teach them that they are strong and curious and compassionate and powerful?

 

The Invictus Program has slowly grown and evolved, but always with the same central goal in mind: that students can graduate from school, not just with adequate literacy and numeracy, but with an empowered sense of purpose and kindness in the way they interact with themselves, their world and others. A better world is possible and we see our job as giving students the skills to usher it in.