🌅 Karakia, Mauri Check & Safety Reset (8 minutes)
"Kia tau te mauri, kia mārama te whakaaro" – Let the life force settle and the thinking become clear.
- Karakia and grounding: Open with a brief karakia, then a steady exhale or koru breath to settle the room.
- Private mauri check: Ākonga show a low-key colour card, hand signal, or silent note rather than public sharing.
- Safety brief: State clearly that this lesson is about noticing patterns and using support pathways, not diagnosing classmates or carrying heavy concerns alone.
🎯 Learning Intentions & Success Criteria
By the end of this lesson, ākonga will be able to:
- Recognise concern signs and protective factors across Te Whare Tapa Whā.
- Explain the difference between everyday ups and downs and patterns that need adult support.
- Map trusted people, places, and next steps for help-seeking.
- Rehearse mana-enhancing language for asking for help or supporting a friend into adult support.
Success Criteria – Ākonga will demonstrate:
- ✓ Identification of concern signs across more than one pou
- ✓ Completion of a help-seeking or support-pathway plan
- ✓ Use of clear support language in paired or written rehearsal
- ✓ Recognition that repeated or urgent concerns belong with trusted adults
Kupu / Vocabulary: pouri, taumaha, tautoko, protective factors, help-seeking, trusted adult, taha hinengaro, Te Whare Tapa Whā.
Content Note for Kaiako
This lesson covers: heavy low mood, withdrawal, persistent concern signs, protective factors, and support pathways. It should help students notice patterns and ask for help earlier, not diagnose themselves or others.
Safer participation: Use fictional or composite scenarios first. Offer written completion, quiet spaces, or a pass option for any task that feels too close to home.
Pastoral readiness: Named support adults, spaces, and escalation steps should be visible before the lesson begins.
Resources Needed
- Scenario cards or slides
- Sticky notes or index cards
- Whiteboard for myth / grounded-response sorting
- Visible school support pathway poster
- Pastoral team contact slide or wellbeing room map
- School-specific wellbeing pathway graphic
- Anonymous digital exit form if preferred
Activity 1: Notice the Signs Across the Whare (12 minutes)
Composite Scenario Sort
Small-group analysis + class kōreroGive groups a fictional tauira profile, for example: “A student who has stopped replying to friends, is exhausted in class, has lost interest in kapa haka, and keeps saying nothing matters.”
- Use the Concern Signs and Protective Factors Checklist to sort what is showing up in tinana, hinengaro, whānau, and wairua.
- Circle any protective factors already present: a caring cousin, a favourite space, a routine, or a trusted kaiako.
- Identify what you still do not know so students learn not to jump to labels.
Debrief: noticing patterns is an act of manaaki. It should lead toward support, not gossip or guesswork.
Activity 2: Patterns That Matter (15 minutes)
Heavy Day, Ongoing Pattern, or Urgent Concern?
Whole-class myth / grounded-response sortSort sample statements under three headings: common ups and downs, patterns that deserve adult support, and urgent safety concerns.
- “Feeling sad after an argument” can be a hard day.
- “Low mood, withdrawal, and hopeless talk that keep returning” belong in the adult-support lane.
- “Talk of disappearing, self-harm, or immediate danger” moves straight into the school's urgent pathway.
Key teaching point: this lesson is not asking ākonga to diagnose depression. It is teaching them to notice when concern signs keep building and should no longer stay private.
Activity 3: Tautoko Pathways Studio (18 minutes)
Map the Next Step
Individual planning with kaiako check-ins- Use the Tautoko Support Pathways Map to name school adults, whānau or home supports, safe spaces, and other community supports.
- Transfer the most realistic supports into the Tautoko Help-Seeking Action Plan.
- Record the exact first step your school wants students to take when concern signs persist or intensify.
Kaiako circulate to make sure students are naming reachable supports rather than writing ideal answers they would never use.
Activity 4: Conversation Rehearsal (12 minutes)
Ask for Help or Walk Beside a Friend
Pair rehearsal + optional written alternative- Use the Whānau and Trusted Adult Conversation Card in pairs.
- One partner practises asking for help; the other practises being a caring peer who moves the concern toward adult support.
- Swap roles or complete the rehearsal in writing if speaking aloud feels too personal.
Sentence starters can stay simple: “Can I talk with you privately?” “I’m worried and I need tautoko.” “Can we go together to an adult?”
Whakamutunga – Reflection & Follow-Through (7 minutes)
Exit reflection (3 minutes)
Prompt: “The first person or place I would use if a concern kept growing is…”
Protective factor anchor (2 minutes)
Prompt: “One thing that helps keep my whare stronger is…”
Closing reminder (2 minutes)
Re-name the trusted adults, support spaces, and urgent pathway. End by reminding ākonga that asking for help is a sign of wisdom, not weakness.
📊 Assessment Opportunities
Formative evidence
- Identification of concern signs and protective factors across the four pou
- Completion quality of the support-pathway and help-seeking plan
- Use of safe, mana-enhancing support language in role-play or written rehearsal
- Exit reflection showing knowledge of first-step supports
Portfolio evidence
- Completed concern-signs checklist for a scenario or supported personal reflection
- Help-seeking plan with named adults, places, and next steps
- Conversation rehearsal script or reflection paragraph
🎨 Differentiation Strategies
- Safer access: Use fictional or composite scenarios first, then offer optional personal planning later.
- Literacy support: Pre-highlight key signs, sentence starters, and support categories on the handouts.
- ESOL / bilingual support: Invite students to write support phrases in English, te reo Māori, or a home language.
- High-support learners: Reduce the number of required supports to one named adult, one safe space, and one clear next step.
- Extension: Ask older or more confident students to compare how support pathways differ for self, friend, and urgent safety concerns.
🏠 Homework / Extension
Required: Finish the support plan
Complete or refine the Tautoko Help-Seeking Action Plan using a fictional tauira or your own support pathway, depending on what feels safe and appropriate.
Optional: Trusted adult follow-up
Ask a trusted adult how they would like a young person to begin a support kōrero. Add that advice to your plan.
🧰 Teacher Preparation & Notes
- Pastoral coordination: Let counsellors, deans, or key support adults know this lesson is running and agree the escalation process beforehand.
- Resources: Print the four linked handouts and make sure the school's actual support pathway is visible.
- Teaching stance: Use language like “noticing patterns” and “moving toward support” rather than clinical diagnosis language.
- Participation: Never require public disclosure. Written, fictional, and paired alternatives should remain valid all lesson.
- Urgent situations: If a student appears unsafe or discloses immediate risk, leave the lesson flow and follow the school's urgent wellbeing or emergency process straight away.
- External supports: If you choose to display helplines or outside organisations, verify those details before class rather than relying on old printouts.
📋 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.
Curriculum alignment
- Health & Physical Education: Understand that wellbeing is a dynamic state determined by physical, social, mental/emotional, and spiritual dimensions of health.
- Social Sciences: Understand how people participate individually and collectively to support community wellbeing.