Wellbeing Resources
Mitey: The Sir John Kirwan Foundation. Designed for NZ children, Mitey supports schools to deliver an evidence based approach to mental health education for Years 1-8.
A unit of work celebrating connectiveness, friendship and community. Developed around the NZ book Tu Meke Tuatara.
Activities designed by an Australian deputy principal to assist families and classrooms to connect in meaningful ways, to protect their mental health from languishing and to grow stronger in resilience, health and happiness.
Sparklers is a NZ designed and research based tool, developed to support tamariki to feel good and function well. Choose from around 100 fun activities that best suit the needs of your tamariki and classroom focus, all of which are pumped with positive psychology, mindfulness, emotional and social literacy techniques and much more.
Small Steps are digital tools, developed by Te Hiringa Hauora in partnership with Clearhead. The Small Steps website is a place where people of Aotearoa (and further abroad!) can take small steps on their journey to improve wellbeing.
This website contains the latest research and news in psychology. It attempts to bring psychology into the mainstream, unfolding the brilliance that happens within the scientific realm. We will explain what it all means and why it matters.
AwesoME Inc® is a New Zealand company, founded in 2015 by friends Bex Lipp and Nicky Perry.
For over a decade, Bex had used gratitude as a tool for navigating her personal mental health challenges. She wanted to create a journal that would enable others to do the same, without the guilt of filling in a daily diary.
Inamojo™ is a new wellbeing program for children of primary-school age, weaving together stories, movement, art, meditation, and specially composed music.
Mana Ake provides support to children in Canterbury, in years 1-8 at school, promoting wellbeing and positive mental health.
We can support children at school and at home and provide advice, guidance and workshops for parents, whānau and teachers.
Providing engaging, evidence based, positive mental health strategies for children, schools and families.
Resource for teaching mental health, including lesson plans. Designed by the MOE for Year 7 students and above but some lessons can be tweaked for more junior classes.
An activity booklet developed by the Department of Education (Queensland Government) to provide families, students and school staff with activities that promote students' wellbeing.
Reach Out is an online mental health service from Australia. There are activities that cover bullying, mental health, friendships and resilience.
A teacherspaysteachers account that has a range of resources to buy (and some that are free) to use in classrooms or with students.
An in-depth look at how exercise changes the neurotransmitters in the brain, to improve emotional regulation, instructions for a fun workout for kids, and a free printable poster to use with your children.
Monthly calendars that are packed with actions you can take to help create a happier and kinder world.
"Our Bucket Fillosophy is to help all ages grow in kindness, self-control, resilience and forgiveness, all leading to a happier life."
The Five Ways to Wellbeing were created as a result of the New Economics Foundation's (NEF) Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing research report.
Kids Greening Taupō have created the Online Nature Classroom to connect tamariki to nature and help them to understand the importance of biodiversity. This online nature classroom is all about Hauora/Wellbeing. Connecting to nature is important for our mental and physical well-being. They also have lots of ways to connect to nature here.
All of the lessons here have been written by curriculum experts who understand the potential of the arts to draw students back to learning after crisis.
They have been written specifically to support children’s return to the classroom through the arts.
These colour-coded posters will take your students through a different set of tasks to help them move, recharge, and motivate their mood!
Teach and Practice Skills for Healthy Habits.
Teachers, we are here to make your busy lives easier. Our site is filled with hundreds of resources, created with educators, for whole-child wellness.
A two minute countdown timer that forces you to take a break. Don't move your computer mouse or the two minutes will start again.
Link to some resources (free and paid) from All Right?: a health-promoting social marketing campaign based in Ōtautahi, Christchurch. Since its launch in 2013, All Right? has become a powerful champion for wellbeing in Canterbury, helping normalise conversations around wellbeing and mental health.
The Daily Wellbeing page of the website also has some ideas to enhance our wellbeing and boost the way we feel.
Resources and tools to help you get through.
Life can be pretty stressful sometimes and our thoughts can bring us down.
Learning how to accept ourselves, build confidence and manage our emotions can help us get through.
Thanks to Monterey Bay Aquarium. A collection of videos of different types of animals to relaxing music.
This video series explores wellbeing and hauora from the perspectives of an early learning centre, a kura Māori, and an intermediate school, looking at different ways wellbeing is incorporated into teaching and learning programmes, especially as we cope with the disruption of Covid-19. It also looks at the importance of teachers prioritising their own wellbeing.
Mindfulness
Smiling Mind is a website with meditations for young people. Free to sign up.
Free meditations from the Mindfulness Education Group with videos.
Pause Breathe Smile aims to create a healthier New Zealand by teaching mind health skills to help Kiwi kids navigate life’s challenges.
Five lessons on Teaching Kids about Mindfulness
Staff Wellbeing
Article from AKO magazine. High workloads and insufficient resourcing in a rapidly changing society leads to staff burnout. But these education leaders have found authentic ways to support and value staff hauora.
From iris connect that looks at research around teacher wellbeing and gives suggestions on how to improve this.
From The Education Hub. Discussions about teacher wellbeing are often dominated by ideas related to negative mental health such as stress or burnout. This is also often the case with the academic research into teacher wellbeing, which tends to focus on the negatives such as stress, burnout, and attrition. However, it is important to think about and promote teacher wellbeing in a far more holistic way in order to achieve better outcomes for students and teachers.
A lot of our time is spent at work. So how can we look after ourselves and others while on the job, and why is workplace wellbeing such a worthy investment? Here we share info, tools and tips from leaders in the field, and local workplaces who are leading the way.