Best for
Role-play, restorative check-in practice, paired scenario work, or tutor time where students need words for support that are caring without being intrusive.
Health / Hauora • Years 7-10 • Mana-enhancing support kōrero
Whānau and Trusted Adult Conversation Card
Use this card to rehearse how a caring check-in can sound when someone seems weighed down. It centres aroha, clear next steps, and the important truth that a “whānau conversation” may mean whānau, a trusted adult, a mentor, or another safe person in a young person's circle.
Free conversation scaffold, premium value when school language matters
This card already gives a strong classroom scaffold. The premium workflow becomes useful when you want kura-specific language, a simplified junior version, or scripted role cards that reflect your pastoral and whānau-contact process.
- Generate role-play versions for different year levels or pastoral contexts.
- Localise it to your school's actual adults and referral process.
- Save a tutor or mentor version to My Kete for ongoing use.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 20-30 minutes as a role-play, tutor discussion, or paired rehearsal task.
- Grouping: Teacher model first, then pairs or triads using fictional scenarios.
- Prep: Clarify who counts as a safe adult in your context before students begin.
- Teaching move: Keep the emphasis on noticing, listening, and escorting someone toward help, not becoming their counsellor.
Resources already provided
- Conversation preparation prompts
- Opening and listening sentence starters
- Mana-enhancing response examples
- Next-step planning prompts
- Urgent escalation reminder
- Curriculum companion for planning and reporting
This is designed for support literacy, not disclosure harvesting. Students should never be pressured to reveal personal details in front of others.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to open a support kōrero with care and respect.
- We are learning to listen in ways that protect mana and privacy.
- We are learning to connect concern to trusted adult support.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can use a calm, non-judgmental opening line.
- I can listen without trying to solve everything immediately.
- I can identify when the next step is adult support rather than keeping the concern between peers.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The curriculum companion makes the communication, relating-to-others, and healthy-community links explicit so this card works as real health learning rather than a generic wellbeing poster.
“Whānau conversation” should always mean “safe conversation”
For some ākonga, the first safe support is at home. For others, it is at school, in sport, at a youth space, or with another trusted adult. The goal is not to force one pathway. The goal is to help students recognise safe support and use language that protects everyone's mana.
1. Before the kōrero
Pick the right moment
Choose privacy, calm, and enough time to stay with the person if the kōrero becomes more serious.
Check your own state
Slow your breathing, stay steady, and make sure you are ready to listen more than you speak.
Know the next support
Before you start, know which adult, room, or process your school wants students to use if concern grows.
2. Opening lines that keep mana intact
Noticing with care
“I have noticed you have seemed quieter / heavier lately. I just wanted to check in.”
Offering presence
“You do not have to explain everything, but I am here to listen if you want company.”
Inviting a next step
“If this feels bigger than a friend kōrero, we can go together to a trusted adult.”
My own opening line:
3. Listen and reflect
| Helpful move | What it can sound like | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Reflect back | “That sounds really exhausting.” | Jumping in with lectures or “just be positive”. |
| Ask a gentle question | “What feels hardest right now?” | Interrogating for lots of personal detail. |
| Normalise support | “It makes sense to get an adult with us if this feels heavy.” | Promising secrecy if safety is involved. |
4. Plan the next step together
| Trusted adult or safe person | How we will approach them | When the kōrero will happen | What follow-up looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
5. If the concern feels immediate
-
1
Do not keep it between peers Immediate safety concerns belong with a trusted adult straight away.
-
2
Stay with the person If appropriate and safe, do not leave them alone while adult support is being organised.
-
3
Use the school's urgent support pathway Record it here so the next step is clear:
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions
- Plan and initiate a hauora-focused conversation with a whānau member
- Use respectful, clear language to share feelings or concerns with someone trusted
- Listen actively and respond to what whānau share in return
- Understand kōrero as a form of whanaungatanga and taha whānau support
Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria
- I have planned what I want to say before the conversation
- I use clear language that explains how I feel without blaming or demanding
- I listen to the whānau member's response and acknowledge what they share
- After the conversation, I can reflect on what went well and what I might do differently
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Health and Physical Education — Hauora
Level 3–4: Identify and describe the relationship between feelings, thoughts, and actions; develop strategies to maintain and enhance hauora across the four pou of Te Whare Tapa Whā; recognise the impact of connections and relationships on wellbeing.
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Understand how cultural practices and values shape identity and wellbeing; recognise the role of community and whānau in supporting individuals; explore how Indigenous frameworks offer ways of understanding health that are distinct from Western biomedical models.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
Kōrero is central to Māori healing traditions. The idea that difficult things should be spoken — in the right time, in the right way, with the right people — runs through tikanga Māori from hui to whānau gatherings to therapeutic conversations in kaupapa Māori health settings. This card supports ākonga to initiate conversations with their whānau about hauora: to name what is happening, ask for what they need, and hear what their whānau holds in return. It treats whānau not as a background variable but as an active participant in wellness.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
- Unit 8 Hauora Action Plan (hauora-action-plan-template-unit8.html) — share the broader plan with whānau
- Unit 8 Support Circle (unit-8-support-circle.html) — identify whānau as part of the support network
- Unit 8 Hinengaro Journal (unit-8-hinengaro-journal.html) — prepare thoughts before the kōrero
- Unit 8 Mindfulness Journal (unit-8-mindfulness-journal.html) — reflect on how the conversation went
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Is there something you have been wanting to say to someone in your whānau but haven't found the words for yet?
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this hauora resource to build holistic wellbeing knowledge, connecting te ao Māori perspectives on hauora with personal, social, and environmental dimensions of health.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain key hauora concepts using their own words and personal examples.
- ✅ Students can connect te ao Māori frameworks (e.g. Te Whare Tapa Whā) to real wellbeing contexts.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide sentence starters, graphic organisers, and entry-level tasks to scaffold access. Offer extension challenges for capable learners to address a range of readiness levels.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach key vocabulary (hauora, wairua, tinana, hinengaro, whānau). Allow students to draw or respond in their home language as a first step.
Inclusion: Hauora topics can be sensitive — create a safe learning environment. Neurodiverse learners benefit from choice in how they demonstrate wellbeing understanding. Use accessible, non-threatening language.