School can feel pretty rough at times. Deadlines, tricky friendships, relationships with teachers and avoiding bullies…yeah, it can be pretty exhausting. But the good thing is that there’s a support network you can call on when you need; teachers, guidance officers, the list is massive.
But what about all the hard stuff in your life outside of school? When there’s issues at home or elsewhere, who are you supposed to turn to? Are you supposed to just go it alone?
Nope.
Guess what – the same support you can get at school can help you out with stuff outside of school as well.
Believe it or not, your teachers (and other adults in your school community) care about you, and want to make sure you’re okay.
They want to help you get the most out of your education, and they know that life and things like finance and transport access can play a big part in how well you’re connecting at school. It’s also their responsibility to make sure that they report and help with any issues that may be impacting your health and wellbeing at home or elsewhere.
In order for them to do that though, those problems need to be on their radar – in other words, you need to open up about what’s happening outside of school.
Your teachers will likely have picked up signs based on your attitude and your performance in class that something is affecting you outside of school. A teacher may have even asked you if you’re okay; but the power is in your hands to open up and let them know what’s up.
Some things in our lives feel super sensitive, awkward or even scary to talk about, and just the thought of talking about it to your teachers or another adult at your school may make your head spin.
That’s okay – it’s up to you to speak up, and there are other options outside of your school to help with hard stuff in life.
If you’re put off by the thought of talking to a teacher or another adult you see on the regular, you could try speaking to the guidance officer at your school. If you’d prefer to seek support outside of your school, a trained counsellor at Kids Helpline may be a good option for you. You can speak one-on-one to a Kids Helpline Counsellor via a phone call, email or online chat, the choice is yours.
If you’re still unsure, there’s a bunch of other organisations you can speak to as well, check out the ‘help for challenges outside of school’ tab on our get support page.
