Friendship & Belonging | Hawthorne Secondary College

The specialists for this edition

Previous Pause Next

Denise Quinlan

Denise is the Director of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience and has lectured on strengths and positive psychology around the world. She has researched and worked extensively in wellbeing development in state and private education over the past decade not only in New Zealand but also Australia and the UK.

Susan McLean

Susan is Australia's foremost expert in cyber safety and was a member of Victoria Police for 27 years. Known as the 'cyber cop', Susan was the first Victoria Police Officer appointed to a position involving cyber safety and young people.

Georgina Manning

Director of 'Wellbeing for Kids', Georgina has many years experience working in schools supporting children and parents, to reach effective social and emotional outcomes. A national speaker for wellbeing, Georgina regularly presents seminars for parents and school staff.

Karen Young

Karen is the founder of the popular website, Hey Sigmund, which attracts millions of readers worldwide. She has extensive experience in the facilitation of personal growth groups and is a regular contributor to Parenting Magazine, New Zealand.

Paul Tupou-Vea

Paul has developed youth development programmes and led wellbeing education. He now assists schools on their wellbeing journeys as Director of Clifftop Wellbeing by delivering wellbeing and engagement programmes.

Sharon Witt

Sharon is a media commentator on issues impacting young people, parenting and educational topics. She has been immersed in the teen world for over two decades in her role as a Secondary teacher and has authored many books to help teenagers.

Interviews with the leading specialists

Topic Categories

Friendship & Belonging

Video Background Image

Is Final Version

Introduction

It is not always easy for children and teenagers to always know how to manage friendships. Learning how to make new friends and keep them involves a number of skills every young person needs to understand and develop. For some these skills will come very naturally, allowing them to easily move between different friendship groups, sharing their experiences and opening up to new people. For others, this can be much harder to navigate. Belonging to a group that is like-minded with similar interests is highly beneficial to a child’s wellbeing. Friendships are full of ups and downs and it is better for kids to learn how to manage and build their own friendships, even though as an adult carer you may be tempted to interfere.

Email to Group

SchoolTV newsletter

Email Link Text

Please click here to view

Teaser Image

Friendship & Belonging

Archive

Contact Us

“The ability to obtain, maintain and retain friendships is, according to all the childhood psychologists in the whole wide world, the greatest predictor of wellbeing. Having a rich repertoire of friends is a true indicator of whether your child is travelling ok.”

Overview of this edition

Helen McFarlane

Jenny Bloggs

Rob Leishman

James Wilson

Jennelle Young

The specialists for this edition

Interviews with the leading specialists

Additional Assets

Articles

Is Your Child Inviting Rejection?

Helping Kids Cope With Cliques

Does Your Child Have Enough Friends?

Fact Sheets

Being A Good Friend

If Your Friend Is Not OK

Building Friendships

Additional Assets

Archive

Contact Us