Building capacity for system-level change in schools: Lessons from the gatehouse project

The Gatehouse Project is an innovative, comprehensive approach to mental he alth promotion in secondary schools. It sets out to promote student engagem ent and school connectedness as the way to improve emotional well-being and learning outcomes. The key elements of the whole-school intervention are t he establishment and support of a school-based adolescent health team; the identification of risk and protective factors in each school's social and l eaning environment from student surveys; and, through the use of these data , the identification and implementation of effective strategies to address these issues. The project evaluation used a cluster-randomized controlled t rial design involving 26 schools with initial results demonstrating conside rable success in reducing smoking rates among Year 8 children. This article describes and accounts for how system-level changes have been made in scho ols through a process of capacity building. This encourages teachers, paren ts, and students to view the core business of education differently.