Hauora & Health ā€¢ Years 9-11 ā€¢ Ready to teach

Te Whare Tapa Whā Wellbeing Model

Introduce ākonga to Te Whare Tapa Whā as a practical model of hauora so they can reflect on wellbeing, identify support, and understand health as balance across the four walls.

Teaching use

Health, PE, pastoral care, mentoring, or hauora lessons where students need a culturally grounded framework for thinking about wellbeing and support.

Best for

Years 9-11 classes starting a hauora unit, resetting class culture, or preparing for self-management and wellbeing planning.

Prep level

Low. Print the Te Whare Tapa Whā model handout and wellbeing reflection sheet, and decide how private or shareable the student reflection task should be.

Next step

Use Te Wānanga to tailor the prompts for your age group, pastoral context, or school values, then save the adapted version to My Kete.

Use this as a genuine wellbeing lesson, not a poster activity

This page is free to teach as-is. The premium workflow becomes useful when you want to generate age-appropriate reflection prompts, class-specific follow-up tasks, or more structured wellbeing planning without losing the hauora lens.

  • Adjust the language for junior secondary, senior pastoral care, or mixed-ability classes.
  • Generate safer reflection prompts if your group needs lower-risk or more private discussion.
  • Save a school- or class-specific wellbeing version for repeat use in My Kete.
Adapt this in Te Wānanga Open My Kete Compare paid workflow options

Teacher planning snapshot

  • Duration: 1-2 lessons of 45-60 minutes.
  • Grouping: Whole-class introduction, paired or individual reflection, then optional small-group discussion.
  • Prep: Decide whether students will write privately, share selectively, or complete the check-in as a teacher-guided discussion only.
  • Pedagogy: Treat hauora as strengths-based and relational. This is not therapy; it is a framework for noticing balance, support, and practical action.
šŸ•’ 1-2 lesson sequence šŸ” Hauora and belonging

Resources provided here

  • Te Whare Tapa Whā model handout
  • Hauora and mental wellbeing reflection handout
  • Structured student check-in prompts
  • Teacher planning and follow-up suggestions
  • Curriculum companion page for planning and reporting

If students are asked to reflect on the four walls or set a small action for balance, the key printable scaffolds are linked below so the lesson can be used immediately.

Ngā Whāinga Ako / Learning Intentions

  • We are learning to describe Te Whare Tapa Whā as a model of wellbeing and balance.
  • We are learning to identify how taha tinana, hinengaro, wairua, and whānau show up in everyday life.
  • We are learning to notice one or two practical actions that can strengthen hauora.

Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria

  • I can name and explain the four walls of Te Whare Tapa Whā.
  • I can give examples of actions or supports that strengthen each wall.
  • I can reflect on one area of strength and one area I want to strengthen in my own hauora.
  • I can identify where support might come from if a wall feels out of balance.

Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment

Use the curriculum companion to make the health, hauora, key competency, and wellbeing-planning links explicit when planning a class sequence, reporting, or connecting the lesson to wider school wellbeing programmes.

šŸ’š Hauora / Health šŸ¤ Relationships and support šŸ  Te Whare Tapa Whā
Open curriculum companion Explore wider curriculum coverage

Context, care, and kaupapa

Te Whare Tapa Whā should be taught as a living framework for hauora, not as a decorative culture box. It helps students see that wellbeing is relational and that strength in one area can support another, but imbalance can also affect the whole whare.

Keep the lesson mana-enhancing. Students should be invited, not pressured, to share. Kaiako should always make space for private reflection and know what school support pathways exist if students signal they need more than classroom discussion.

Inclusion and adaptation guidance

Offer private, paired, and scenario-based pathways so students can participate without disclosing personal information. For ESOL, accessibility, neurodiverse, or ADHD learners, use visual icons for each wall, model one example together, provide a reduced prompt set, and allow drawing, kōrero, or teacher-conferenced responses instead of full written reflection.

Lesson sequence

1. Introduce the whare model

Explain the four walls with concrete examples from school, home, sport, culture, friendship, faith, and everyday routines. Emphasise that all four walls matter.

2. Use the model handout

Students complete the model handout in pairs or individually, filling in what each wall means and what can strengthen it.

3. Personal or fictional check-in

Students complete a check-in using themselves, a fictional student, or a class-created scenario. This keeps the task flexible and safe.

4. Plan one small action

Students identify one realistic action that supports balance and one person, place, or routine that could help them stay connected.

5. Reflect and close

Finish with a short class reflection on what helps a whare stay strong and what kaiako, peers, whānau, and school systems can do to support hauora.

Ready-to-use scaffolds

Te Whare Tapa Whā model handout

Simple classroom scaffold for understanding the four walls and what supports each one.

Hauora and mental wellbeing handout

Guided reflection on balance, support, and practical next steps for wellbeing.

Hauora action plan template

Follow-up scaffold for students to turn reflection into realistic goals, supports, and review points.

Relationship health checklist

Respect, boundary, communication, and safety prompts that extend hauora into relationship learning.

Print / share / open

Print the Te Whare Tapa Whā handout and wellbeing reflection sheet first, then decide whether you also want the action-plan or relationship scaffold available as the follow-through task.

Settle before lesson starts

Be clear about boundaries, privacy, and support. Students should know they can pass, keep reflections private, or ask for support if the topic feels personal.

What good progress looks like

By the end of lesson one, students should be able to explain the four walls, identify supports for each, and name one practical action or support that strengthens hauora.

Extension and adaptation ideas

  • Use Te Wānanga to generate age-specific reflection prompts or safer scenario-based tasks.
  • Extend into a class or whānau wellbeing plan.
  • Link to physical activity, sleep, digital wellbeing, or stress-management units.
  • Pair the lesson with student-led resource creation about what helps a class community stay strong.
šŸŒæ Mātauranga Māori Lens

Te ao Māori frameworks enrich this learning. Whakapapa (relationships and connections), manaakitanga (caring for learners), and tikanga (protocols for learning together) all have relevance to how we approach this content with our ākonga.

Curriculum alignment