Drought relief tools to support school communities

Published 25 January 20243 minute read

We’ve pulled together our best resources to support your students, parents and carers in a range of ways, from one-on-one support sessions to a free collateral pack for schools in drought-affected areas.

Four school students playing netball in school gym

Fun five-minute activities that boost mental fitness

Want to energise and refocus your students while giving them opportunities to develop wellbeing? Try some of our Wellbeing Fives activities. These short activities can be used at the start of a lesson, during roll call or any time you see fit. See the complete list at ReachOut Schools, where you can sign up to have new activities sent to you weekly.

Read more: Wellbeing Fives

Teaching resource: Building Resilience in Young People

If you want more tools and practical classroom activities for Years 7–10, check out our teaching resource, Building Resilience in Young People. Through this series of curriculum-aligned lesson outlines, your students will explore the seven essential skills of resilience: emotional awareness and self-regulation, impulse control, optimism, flexible and accurate thinking, empathy, self-efficacy, and connecting and reaching out.

Get the resource: Building resilience in young people resource

ReachOut Parents: Support information for your parents and carers community

Time spent consulting with parents and carers may leave you with barely enough time for marking as the year comes to a close, but you still want to help. ReachOut Parents offers heaps of ready-made information, advice, tips and even personal stories that you can share with your school community to help them deal with the stress of the drought. You can print out or link parents to ReachOut Parents articles about everything from stress and study to healthy eating and communication.

Check it out: ReachOut Parents

One-on-one support sessions for parents

Many parents and carers in your school community may benefit from our free one-on-one support sessions, where parents can explore any concerns they have about their teenager and create an action plan that will produce real results. This is a great resource for your school counsellor or psychologist to offer parents whose time is limited. It’s free, phone- and computer-based, and totally private.

Learn more: ReachOut Parents one-on-one support sessions

Free digital posters

Get a free downloadable pack of posters with support info that will help your community deal with the stress of the drought. You can display them in classrooms, hallways and the counsellor’s office, and even copy-paste them into parent newsletters, your intranet and emails to your community.

For students:

  • Coping with stress from the drought

  • What to do when you’re really worried about someone

  • How can you help people affected by the drought?

For parents:

  • Where can I go for support (other than a GP)?

Get the posters: Coping with the drought collateral

Free posters and postcards pack for drought-affected schools

Get a free pack of 100 postcards and 10 large (A2) posters for your school with the supportive, helpful messages from our ‘Coping with stress from the drought’ infographic. Just use the code DROUGHT in our online shop to claim your free pack.

One pack per customer. Limited quantity available. Customer pays shipping ($8).

Order posters and postcards: Drought collateral pack

This resource is part of the ReachOut Drought Relief School Action Pack. View and download the entire pack.