Best for
Emotional literacy lessons, support-pathway teaching, mentor time, transition plans, or any class where students need concrete help-seeking language and next steps.
Health / Hauora • Years 7-10 • Help-seeking and support mapping
Tautoko Support Pathways Map
Use this page to help ākonga identify who, what, and where supports them when taha hinengaro feels heavy. It makes help-seeking explicit and practical instead of leaving students with “reach out if you need to” and no real pathway.
Free support map, premium value when localisation matters
This page is ready to use tomorrow, but it becomes much more powerful when adapted to your actual school structures. The premium workflow is useful for inserting your pastoral team, local iwi or community providers, and the exact support steps your school expects students to follow.
- Add your kura-specific adults, spaces, and contact process.
- Create junior, senior, or scenario-only versions for safer participation.
- Save a localised help-seeking version to My Kete for ongoing use.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 20-35 minutes for teaching and mapping, or shorter as a tutor check-in tool.
- Grouping: Whole-class explanation first, then individual or paired completion.
- Prep: Add your actual school wellbeing team, spaces, and support process before printing if you can.
- Teaching move: Present help-seeking as normal, skilful, and mana-enhancing rather than as a last resort.
Resources already provided
- Early-warning-sign prompt
- Four-layer support map
- Help-seeking sentence starters
- Urgent-support action prompts
- Manaakitanga reflection
- Curriculum companion for planning and reporting
The public version intentionally leaves room for kaiako to add school and local community detail instead of pretending a one-size-fits-all helpline list is enough.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to identify early signs that support is needed.
- We are learning to map support across self, whānau, school, and community layers.
- We are learning to use clear help-seeking language and next steps.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can identify at least one early sign that tells me or the scenario that support is needed.
- I can name trusted people, places, or systems across more than one support layer.
- I can explain what I might say or do to ask for help.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The curriculum companion makes the help-seeking, relational wellbeing, and healthy-community links explicit so this page supports health planning and classroom reporting, not just pastoral good intentions.
“Reach out” only works when students know what that actually means
Many young people are told to ask for help without being taught who to go to, what to say, or how a support pathway works. This handout makes those moves visible and practiseable.
For best use, add your own kura's support adults, spaces, and community providers before printing.
1. What are the early signs?
Body cues
Thought or feeling cues
Behaviour or relationship cues
Signs this is moving beyond a simple reset
2. Map the layers of tautoko
Self-support I can try first
Whānau, friends, or trusted people
School or kura adults and spaces
Community or professional support
3. What could I say when I need help?
Simple check-in
“Can I talk with you for a minute? I need a bit of tautoko.”
Stronger help request
“I am not coping well right now and I need an adult to stay with me.”
Helping a friend connect
“Can we go together and talk to someone? I don't think you should carry this alone.”
Write your own words here:
4. If support is urgent
-
1
Tell a trusted adult straight away Use the adults or spaces your school has already named for urgent wellbeing support.
-
2
Stay with people Do not leave someone isolated when stronger support is needed.
-
3
Follow the school support pathway Record that pathway here:
5. Manaakitanga commitment
Complete one or both statements
- When I need tautoko, the first person or place I will use is:
- If I notice a friend is struggling, the mana-enhancing thing I can do is:
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions
- Identify key school and community support resources available to them
- Understand when and how to access different types of support
- Practise language for initiating a support conversation
- Recognise that seeking support is a skill that can be practised and built
Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria
- I can name at least three school support pathways and explain what each one offers
- I know how to access at least one after-hours support option
- I have a plan for who I would contact first if I needed help
- I can explain what makes a support conversation work — what helps and what gets in the way
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Curriculum alignment for this handout has not yet been verified against the live curriculum statements. A generated placeholder that stood here was removed on 2026-08-29 because it matched no real statement.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
In kaupapa Māori health, support does not begin with a referral — it begins with relationship. Knowing who to go to, feeling safe enough to go, and believing that your experience will be received with manaakitanga are all preconditions for help-seeking that Western support systems sometimes overlook. This pathways map asks students to name the people and places where those conditions are met. It also opens space for students to identify gaps — where they would go if they needed support but don't currently feel they can — so that kaiako can work to fill those gaps before they become crises.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
- Unit 8 Support Circle (unit-8-support-circle.html) — personal support alongside school pathways
- Unit 8 Help-Seeking Plan (unit-8-help-seeking-plan.html) — plan to use the pathways identified here
- Unit 8 Concern Checklist (unit-8-concern-checklist.html) — identify when to use a support pathway
- Unit 8 Whānau Conversation Card (unit-8-whanau-conversation-card.html) — connect pathways to whānau kōrero
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Which of the school support pathways did you not know about before? How might you use it?