Helping New Zealand schools and health services work together so all students can learn and be well.
Tūturu helps NZ schools to implement school-wide changes that improve the wellbeing of their students and develops their critical thinking.
The first focus area of Tūturu is reducing alcohol and other drug-related harm in ways that promote student engagement and wellbeing.
This is how we will prepare students to live healthy and successful lives in a world where alcohol and other drugs exist.
What you can access here
The resources on this site can help you give the best
opportunities to your students. You can:
Download teaching and assessment resources
Download teaching and assessment resources for English, Mathematics, Geography, and Health classes
Step-by-step approach
Find out how to take a step-by-step approach to implement Tuturu in your school
Online modules
Complete our online training for school Board of Trustees or for health services wanting to support school students
Did You Know
Want to know more about how to talk to young people about alcohol and other drugs? Check out the Did You Know series
Tūturu is grounded in evidence
Ultimately, we want all students to have the health knowledge, values, and competencies (such as critical thinking) that they need to live in a modern world. This means that our learning contexts need to reflect what students experience - to help them make sense of what they see and hear in the world around them.
It takes time for students to connect what they learn with their lives. It is also more challenging for them to do that when other parts of the school or their out-of-school lives don't reflect what they are learning.
There are things schools and health services can do together to help students learn and be well, and that is what the Tūturu approach is about.
Click on the image below to zoom in, and identify where your school is at.
Tūturu began its development in 2016, and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research completed an evaluation in 2020 - highlighting that Tūturu "changed the focus from punitive to pastoral."
The Tūturu approach and all its resources were developed, trialed, and refined by New Zealand schools and health services. This thorough process helped us to understand what helps to keep students learning and healthy.
This image shows who was involved in developing Tūturu.
Tūturu is a whole-school approach
By ensuring that the interventions we use match the needs of the people we are targeting, we can help all students learn the skills they need to live healthy and successful lives, and provide extra support for the students who need them.
People learn through progressive exposure to new skills and ideas, and this works best when we align:
- What students experience in the school environment that helps them to develop.
- What they learn.
- How they are supported at school when issues arise.
- How professional services provide additional support.
- How the wider community of school, whānau, and services help them to lead healthy successful lives.
You can take a step-by-step approach
Change takes time and schools are busy places. These steps, and the Tūturu resources, help to make the process more manageable. These will help you to build two pathways:
A progressive learning pathway - which provides opportunities for students to develop critical thinking skills, using learning contexts that reflect real life.
A progressive support pathway - which identifies students whose attendance or achievement is slipping, and offers proactive support.
Assemble your team
Understand your starting place.
Using the Tūturu reflection and planning resources
Foster collaboration between teaching and pastoral care staff
Bring all staff with you
Once the foundational steps are completed, you can now choose where to focus. The Tūturu approach weaves and strengthens these areas:
- Engaging students
- Engaging whānau
- Strengthening health education and building integrated learning opportunities
- Strengthening support pathways
- Adjusting school procedures
- Building out-of-class opportunities