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25 years
In New Zealand schools
1K+
School staff trained
250+
Schools across Aotearoa
$3.30
Social return per $1 invested
there are students nobody knows are struggling
The ones who don't act out. The ones with steady grades. The ones who say they're fine. They're holding onto feelings: a recent loss, parents separating, anxiety they can't name, a friendship that's collapsed. Most schools won't find out for months.
The Travellers wellbeing survey gives you visibility on the entire Year 9 cohort within weeks. And the small-group programme gives you a structured, supported way to respond.
1/6 of every Year 9 cohort typically falls into high-support categories on the Travellers wellbeing survey. Most are not on a counsellor's radar yet.
according to Independent evaluations
Students experience
Increased confidence and self-belief
Improved ability to cope with stress and change
Greater emotional awareness and healthier expression
Increased willingness to seek help and talk about feelings
Stronger peer relationships and connectedness
according to Travellers Schools
Schools benefit from
Earlier identification of wellbeing needs
Stronger pastoral relationships across all of secondary
Improved engagement in learning and school life
More targeted support and fewer escalations to crisis
Internal capability that lasts year on year
Backed by evidence.
Trusted by schools.
Travellers has been delivered in Aotearoa schools since 2001 and has been independently evaluated five times.
$3.30
Returned for every $1 invested through improved mental health, increased academic achievement, and reduced risky behaviour.
Source: ImpactLab Social Value Assessment, 2024
In partnership with
Two parts that work together
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Part 1 · Wellbeing Survey
Visibility on every year 9 with a wellbeing survey
A short, confidential online questionnaire that screens for distress across multiple wellbeing indicators: emotions, belonging, sleep, life events, self-regulation.
You get a school-level dashboard plus low / medium / high support categorisation per student.
For most schools, this is the single biggest shift, moving from "who's on our radar?" to "who's actually struggling?"
PArt 2 · Group Programme
Ten weekly sessions Built around the metaphor 'life is a journey'
8–10 students are selected to participate based on the wellbeing survey.
Two trained school facilitators (usually counsellors) deliver the programme for ninety minutes a week, during school hours, for ten weeks.
Practical, interactive, intentionally non-clinical. Built on Te Whare Tapa Whā, ACT, CBT, and nervous-system informed.
Young people realise they're not alone. They get language for what they've been carrying. They learn skills that work backwards on what's already happened and forwards on what's coming.
This program helped me with dealing with certain situations that I'd often have a hard time dealing with. It taught me how to calm down when I was stressed/upset and how to react when certain situations arise. It made me feel safe to share any problems I had because everyone else was very comfortable with themselves, and that made my issues feel much more secure and valid when sharing them.
Taine
Student
Grounded in AOTEAROA
Travellers grew up here. It's run in Aotearoa schools for 25 years, and was recently redeveloped with Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. As part of that refresh, we worked with cultural advisors to deepen the cultural integrity, safety, and embodied practice in every session. Here's some of what that looks like.
1
GUIDED BY CULTURAL ADVISORS
Cultural advisors shaped the refresh from the ground up, making sure every practice is culturally safe, authentic, and woven in with intention
2
KARAKIA AS GROUNDING
Each session opens with a simple karakia for breath, grounding, and intention. They are embodied, so students feel it through movement, not just words.
3
A MAURI CHECK-IN
A short, private moment for students to notice how they're feeling before the mahi begins. Nobody has to share; it's simply a chance to arrive with awareness.
4
FOUR WALLS, ONE WHARE
Te Whare Tapa Whā runs as a thread through the whole programme, taha tinana, hinengaro, whānau, and wairua, woven into activities and reflection rather than taught as a one-off.
5
WORDS THAT ANCHOR LEARNING
Whakataukī chosen to match each theme appear throughout the sessions and materials, anchoring the learning in cultural meaning.
6
WELCOMING & CLOSING RITUALS
Schools can open with a mihi whakatau to acknowledge people, place, and purpose, and close with a spacious poroporoaki where students reflect, speak, share kai, and finish the journey together.
From your first email to your first group within one term
Here's what happens week by week, from first contact through to running your first group.
Wk 1
First contact
A 30-min conversation about your school's context.
We talk through your needs, who can facilitate, and what timing works. Find out whether it's a fit.
Wk 2
Confirm + book training
Sign the partnership agreement. Identify two facilitators.
Counsellors are ideal but school health nurses and youth workers also work well. Flexibility to adapt to your needs.
Wk 4
Two-day facilitator training
Your staff experience the programme as students first, then learn to deliver.
Highly experiential. By the end, your facilitators have tried every session, know the resources, and know how to handle disclosures. This is where confidence is built.
Wk 6
Run the wellbeing survey
Year 9 cohort completes the online survey. Takes about 15 minutes.
For many students, it's the first time anyone's actually asked them these questions. You'll be reading school-level data within 24 hours of the last submission.
Wk 8
Receive your dashboard
Log in to your dashboard. A full picture of your cohort.
Patterns across belonging, distress, sleep, life events. Plus low / medium / high support indicators per student. This is the data schools tell us they can't get anywhere else.
Wk 10
Run your first group
8–10 students. 90 minutes a week. 10 weeks. During school hours.
Two facilitators co-deliver each session. We provide every resource. Plan for around 2 hours of staff time per session including prep.
Young people tell us...
“I get on with teachers now. I didn’t get on with them before Travellers. I talk to my form teacher about stuff now. In Travellers, we try to open our hearts to each other and solve common problems together. I could share my feelings and it was kept personal. It’s great.”
Alexia
“It's helped me realise I'm not alone and that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover because loads of people go though horrible things and you wouldn't be able to tell from looking at them. Basically it's helped me be more open minded.”
Riley
"Travellers has helped me to realize that having emotions are good and how to deal with them in a healthy way. It also helped me with being a more positive person and reflecting that positivity on others by helping them"
Eraiah
Each session is a step on the journey
Built around a theme, a whakataukī, a key concept, and a slogan students take away. Click any session to see what underpins it.
Young people are welcomed into the group and begin getting to know each other through games, shared kai, and simple activities. Facilitators explain what Travellers is, why students have been invited, and what they can expect over the next ten weeks. The group co-creates expectations around respect and confidentiality.
Life is a journey
Students explore the idea that life includes ups and downs, changes, and challenges, and that no one travels alone. The group creates shared safety guidelines (kawa) and begins using personal travel diaries for reflection. A creative activity introduces the metaphor of life as a journey.
He waka eke noa - We are all in this together
Your story can change
Students create their own life maps: visual representations of important experiences, challenges, and milestones in their lives. Facilitators model safe sharing first, then students work creatively using drawing, collage, or symbols. The emphasis is on meaning-making and how they choose to understand their own story.
Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua - We look back and reflect so that we can move forward
Feelings are clues
This session builds emotional literacy. Students learn a wider vocabulary for feelings, explore where emotions show up in their bodies, and practise recognising different emotional states. They begin connecting feelings with underlying needs of safety, rest, connection, support.
Whāia te mātauranga hei oranga mō te katoa - Pursue learning for the sake of everyone's wellbeing
Express yourself
Students explore healthy ways to express emotions instead of bottling them up. They learn the difference between validating and invalidating responses, and practise what supportive listening sounds like. The group experiments with physical, creative, and calming ways of releasing strong feelings.
Hurihia tō aro ki te rā, tukuna tō ātārangi kia taka ki muri i a koe - Turn your face to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you
Thoughts can be challenged
This session introduces the idea that thoughts are not always facts. Students explore how thoughts, feelings, body sensations, and behaviours are connected. They learn a simple process (catch it, challenge it, change it) to build flexible, realistic thinking.
Ko au te waiora o aku whakaaro - I am the wellbeing of my thoughts
Be your own best friend
Young people explore what self-esteem is and where it comes from. Activities focus on identifying internal qualities like kindness, courage, persistence, rather than only external achievements. Students reflect on how social media, comparison, and self-talk shape how they feel about themselves.
He aroha whakatō, he aroha puta mai - If kindness is sown, then kindness you shall receive
Travel with care
Students learn about wellbeing as something they can actively look after. Using Te Whare Tapa Whā, they explore physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing. They identify personal strategies for sleep, movement, creative outlets, time with others and build small, achievable habits.
He oranga ngākau he pikinga waiora - Pleasant feelings in your heart will enhance your self-worth and overall wellbeing
Build your support team
This session focuses on connection and support. Students explore what healthy relationships look like, how to communicate needs, and who they can turn to for help. They map their own support networks and practise thinking about when and how to reach out.
Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi - With your offering and my offering the people will thrive
You've got this!
The final session looks back on the journey and celebrates progress. Students reflect on what they have learned, the skills they have developed, and changes they have noticed in themselves. The group acknowledges each other's efforts and ends with a shared celebration.
Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata, ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tīnā - Strive to overcome challenges and celebrate successes
Travellers works best for some schools, not all
We'd rather have a frank conversation up front than have you onboard a programme that doesn't suit your needs. Here's the honest read.
Travellers fits your school if you…
Want real, early visibility on your Year 9 cohort's wellbeing, beyond who's already on the radar
Have at least two staff (counsellors, year deans, school health nurses, youth workers) who could co-facilitate
Can carve out 90 minutes of class time, weekly for 10 weeks, for small groups
Want a structured early-intervention programme
Value a programme with a proven record of 25+ years and a recent refresh
Probably not the right fit if you…
Are looking for a one-off workshop
Don't have any internal staff capacity to follow up on what the survey reveals
Are looking for a clinical / therapeutic service. Travellers is preventative wellbeing, not therapy
Need delivery in junior year groups. The programme is designed for secondary and intermediate
Want a fully external delivery model. Travellers builds your school's internal capability
We have 500 students in our Year 9 intake. We get an enormous amount of valuable information, particularly on the high-risk group, within three weeks of starting school. They build a relationship with the facilitators, so they know where to come when something happens. They bring friends. They tell me about people in trouble. For me, the programme is an investment that pays a dividend for five years and sometimes longer.
Terry McCain
Guidance Counsellor
Everything you need for year-on-year delivery
A small one-off setup fee thanks to Health New Zealand funding. The programme builds your school's internal capability. Once your staff are trained, you can keep running Travellers indefinitely.
$500
One-off setup fee. Covers two-day training for two staff, your full Travellers kit, and access to the survey and reporting platform.
1
Two-day facilitator training
Highly experiential. Your facilitators experience the programme as participants first, then learn to deliver it themselves.
2
The complete Travellers kit
Two full facilitator manuals with session plans, student travel diaries, activity resources, tools, games, slogans, and creative materials. Restockable on request.
3
Digital wellbeing platform
Access to the Student Wellbeing Survey and the secure school-level reporting dashboard. National benchmarking included to help you contextualise your data.
4
Ongoing support
Six-month follow-up call. Survey interpretation guidance. Disclosure policy guidelines. Post-programme evaluations. Phone or email to the team, whenever you need.
Developed by Skylight Trust
Skylight Trust is a national not-for-profit that specialises in helping tamariki, rangatahi, and whānau navigate tough times.
We provide counselling (in person and online), group programmes, resources, and training for professionals. We believe no one should face grief, loss, or change alone.
24k+
Hours of therapy each year
400+
Families supported per month
130+
Schools running our programmes
Getting started with Travellers
Getting started with Travellers is simple and fully supported. Schools are guided step by step, from first enquiry through to delivery.
Register interest
Get in touch to talk through your school’s context, needs, and timing.
Book facilitator training
Identify at least two staff members to attend the two‑day Travellers facilitator training.
Run the Student Wellbeing Survey
Gain a clear picture of your Year 9 cohort’s wellbeing to inform group invitations and planning.
Deliver the programme
Run small‑group Travellers sessions during the school day with ongoing support.
Questions schools usually ask
Bring Travellers to your school
A 30-minute conversation about your school’s context. No pitch, just whether it’s a fit. We’ll talk through timing, staffing, and what implementation would look like for you.