Using visual art to support wellbeing in the primary classroom - a full-day professional learning workshop for WA primary teachers.

Making art does something for children that little else does: it lets them notice and express feelings, take creative risks in a safe space, persist through frustration, and connect with others. This practical, evidence-based day helps you harness that on purpose - turning the natural wellbeing of the art room into deliberate, curriculum-aligned practice.

It's built for both generalist classroom teachers and art specialists, and you don't need to see yourself as an artist to get real value from it. You'll leave with usable ideas, a simple way to plan for wellbeing, and a clear, confident sense of where a teacher's role begins and ends.

What we'll explore

• The neuroscience of art-making, in plain language - why creative expression supports emotional health (neuroplasticity, emotional processing, sensory regulation and connection)

• Wellbeing as a planning spine - designing art lessons that deliberately build positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment, not just artworks

• Teaching the five social and emotional skills through making - from self-portraiture to collaborative pieces

• Interoception and self-regulation - matching materials and mark-making to how children feel

• Process over product - easing perfectionism and supporting the upper-primary "crisis point" in children's drawing

• Therapeutic art-making versus art therapy - what classroom teachers can confidently and ethically do, where the line sits, and how to refer when a child needs more

• Setting up a calm, psychologically safe art space with simple, low-prep materials

• Embedding it all in the WA Curriculum and national wellbeing frameworks

What you'll take away

• Ready-to-use art experiences you can try on Monday

• A simple planning framework for wellbeing-rich art lessons

• The confidence to teach art without being an artist

• Curriculum-aligned resources and art-based ideas

• A clear understanding of the professional boundary, so you can support children safely

Who it's for

Primary teachers across Western Australia - generalists and art specialists alike. No art experience needed. The day is pitched on two levels: an accessible entry point for teachers who don't feel like artists, and a deeper layer for specialists who want richer pedagogy and to lead this across a school.

A note on the approach

This is professional learning for educators, grounded in established Australian frameworks and current thinking on art and wellbeing. It equips you to use art for wellbeing at the whole-class level - it is not art therapy training, and it's clear about that distinction throughout. That clarity is exactly what keeps you confident and safe in your role.

Thursday 10 September 2026, 8:30am - 3:00pm, at Midland Junction Art Centre. $550 per participant (incl. GST), including lunch and morning tea. Places are limited.