Cire Community School set out to strengthen family connection through one of humanity’s oldest practices: sharing a meal.
While our trauma-informed approach creates a safe educational environment where students can explore themselves and develop essential skills, we recognise that family plays a vital role in student learning and wellbeing. Sharing a meal has been a point of connection for humans for thousands of years. It nourishes both body and soul – yet for many families, this simple practice has become a source of strain and stress.
A Desire For Connection
Seven families agreed to participate in Table Talk: a 10-week program designed to strengthen family connection through shared meals and meaningful conversation, delivered in partnership with The Table Talk Project.
The magic began before the program even started. When it comes to mealtimes, every household is different. Some families eat together every night around the TV or with takeaway. Some have work commitments that make shared meals impossible. For some families, it’s all they can do to ensure there’s food available, let alone eating together.
For the families who wanted to try, this was an opportunity to do so with structure and support, and an opportunity to open a door to their struggling young person.
By signing up, families were saying: “I love you, I want to connect. I know things aren’t going well, and I want to listen.”
Setting The Table
Like our cohort overall, our seven participating families were incredibly diverse. There were carers, guardians, single parents, both parents, grandparents, and neurodivergent family members. Some had never shared a meal at the table at home before; work schedules, social difficulties, and long-established habits made this a brand-new experience.
The program included three meals held at Cire Community School Lilydale, at the start, middle, and end of the 10 weeks. Our Personal Development Skills students served these dinners professionally, dressed in black, setting up an experience that was both special and welcoming. For the remaining weeks, students collected recipes and ingredients from school to take home and prepare. Who cooked varied by family. Sometimes it was a shared activity, sometimes the student, sometimes parents. There were no rules.
During meals, families used Table Talk’s ‘Back at the Table’ app, which provided a structured conversation guide: an entrée (the meal itself), a main course (conversation starters), and a dessert (reflection and check-in). We wanted to make it as easy as possible for families to focus on the actual exercise: connecting over the dinner table. Because we know that when families are united in supporting their young person, it creates the foundation for learning to happen.
The Learning Challenges
Not all families could commit to weekly meals; it’s a huge challenge for those new to the practice. Conflict would occur when expectations didn’t align. Students who were used to eating meals in their rooms were hesitant to spend time at the dining table, while some neurodivergent family members needed different approaches to conversation. One family with four children on the spectrum worked out that 15 minutes at the table, with people moving in and out, was what they could manage.
This is where Cire’s Soft Hearts | Hard Feet philosophy guided the program. Soft Hearts speaks to empathy, compassion, and the unwavering belief in the potential of every young person and caregiver – accepting families exactly where they were, whether that was 10 minutes or a full hour at the table. Hard Feet reflects the consistency and structure of the program itself: showing up, providing the framework, modelling what connection could look like, and following up when communication drops.
After each meal, families reported on progress. Did the student feel welcome and heard at the table? Sometimes the willingness to make the effort meant more than the effort itself. And over those 10 weeks, the effort paid off.
What Changed
An overwhelming 92.9% of families reported improvements in how they communicate, especially during dinner. Families moved from distracted or silent meals to intentional, shared conversations using humour, reflection, and respectful turn-taking. Teachers listened eagerly to reports about more peaceful homes, about family members being less reactive and more connected.
71% of participants – both parents and students – felt more listened to and understood.
And in just 10 short weeks, 50% of families reported feeling closer as a result of their participation. Many have embedded these tools into weekly routines and now use them even outside of dinner time.
The experience was “challenging in a good way”, leading to students spending more time at school and with family. One student who previously wouldn’t engage unless it was about a topic they wanted to discuss, is now having more varied conversations, engaging with suggestions, and asking questions instead of shutting down or leaving the space.
The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) highlighted in their 2024 Spotlight that school attendance, classroom behaviour, and learning outcomes can all be positively impacted by a unified school and family community. By participating in school activities, families send the message that they value and support their young person’s education and wellbeing.
At Cire Community School, we meet students where they are. Our Table Talk project brought families into that approach, supporting the family unit, which in turn supports the student and their learning. We know most young people at Cire face socioemotional challenges. We help them develop strategies, understand their strengths and needs, and navigate their way forward – in community, employment, and family.
In terms of learning outcomes, the program was too short to measure academic progress. But when students know that their key support, their family, is willing to listen, they become ready to open their minds to accepting support and suggestions. Something as small as asking a question instead of having a meltdown is, to us, not small at all.
Watch a video on Lilydale’s Table Talk Project here.
Learn more about Cire Community School’s wellbeing support to improve learning outcomes.
