Wellbeing for students and families
This page contains links to a range of mental health and wellbeing resources for students and families.
Last updated 23 September 2021.
Where to get urgent help
Find free and confidential services that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Helpful tips
Some helpful tips are available to support students and parents and carers prepare for their return to school. Refer to the following for view the resources:
- Helpful tips for primary students
- Helpful tips for secondary students
- Helpful tips for parents and carers
Wellbeing services
Find a list of organisations available to provide mental health support, as well as resources, information and a selection of wellbeing apps on via Wellbeing services. Resources include:
Mental health and wellbeing hub
Our Mental health and wellbeing hub provides links to mental health resources including a range of evidence-informed and reputable organisations, which provide support for young people managing stressful situations. This includes:
Support for children
Support for parents
Looking out for others
Where to go for help.
In addition, there is extensive advice, ideas, resources and information for parents and carers of children and young people from Kindergarten through to HSC students, on the Wellbeing hub for parents and carers. Highlights include Wellbeing and teenagers and advice about Cyberbullying and teenagers.
The hub allows you to sort the content by ages and categories including:
Bullying
Mental health
Behaviour
Health and safety
School events
Technology (including screen time and cyber-safety.
Care and connect during COVID-19
Tools to support parents and students, including how to have a conversation around mental health and managing anxiety.
Learning from home
Popular Learning from home resources include: Talking to children about COVID-19 (PDF), Learning environment checklist (PDF) and Remote learning guidelines (PDF).
Find additional Wellbeing and offline activities, including:
Parents and carers ‘essentials’ toolkit
15-minute GetActive@Home activities for kids from Kindergarten to Year 6.
Over 350 Arts Unit creative activities for students from Preschool to Year 12.
Digital lunch break activities and ideas.
Stay Healthy HSC
Stay healthy, stay active and keep connected during the HSC with resources from the department and our partner ReachOut. Stay Healthy HSC includes 24 items searchable by category including:
Study tips and tricks
Physical health & wellbeing
Exam time
Life after HSC.
Anti-bullying
Support for students and families who have seen or have been involved in bullying, and what to do if your child has been bullied:
Staying safe online (incorporating social media and gaming)
In-person help and advice
For support, students can also approach the following school staff for support:
Year Adviser
Wellbeing Nurse
Classroom teacher
Head Teacher, Wellbeing.
Voice-over
At every school there are people you can talk to should you ever have a problem. It doesn’t matter how big or small that problem might feel to you. They’re there to help.
How about we go meet some of them?
Your teacher is always willing to listen and help. If they feel they are not the best person to help, they will know someone who can.
Your year adviser can also support you. They can help if you are having problems with friends and managing your school work. They can also connect you with other people who can help.
If your school has a wellbeing head teacher, or a WHIN Coordinator, you can also speak with them. They will work with you to decide who you want to talk to about whatever is going on. They’re there to support you.
There may also be a student support officer in your school who runs wellbeing programs with groups of students to help everyone feel and stay connected. They’re there to listen to you and figure out the best way to help you. If you need specialist help, they can organise that for you, too.
Public school students right across New South Wales, from Kindergarten to Year 12, can speak to a school counsellor or school psychologist. These staff have qualifications in psychology and work specifically with young people to provide extra advice and support. You can talk to them about all sorts of problems, and they can help you to understand, and manage, your thoughts and feelings. Some students talk to them when they are feeling sad, or anxious, but others just want some good advice on learning how to cope with things.
So, as you can see, there are lots of different people at your school that you can talk to. Because when it comes to looking after your mental health and wellbeing, you don’t have to do it on your own.