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A place to breathe: how a wellbeing room transformed learning at Palmerston Primary
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What began as a simple idea inspired by another principal has become a powerful tool for inclusion and regulation at Palmerston Primary. With their wellbeing room now open to all ākonga, tamariki are learning to name their emotions, ask for help and return to class ready to learn.
Open to all 103 ākonga of Palmerston Primary, whenever they need it, is the school’s wellbeing room.
“If you’re getting really angry and worked up, you can go to the wellbeing room. It’s really nice to hang out there,” says student Phoenix.
“You can do some drawing; read a mind book about emotions; there are fidgets to play with; and you can just talk to someone who will listen.”
Principal Kerry Forse says that before they opened their wellbeing room in term 1 last year, Phoenix often had disruptive behaviour or removed himself from class and struggled to engage in learning.
“I was always so angry and mad, and I always tried to hurt people. It was not very good,” says Phoenix. “But since the wellbeing room has come in, it’s really helped me. I’m so happy it’s here.”
Kerry will have been the principal at Palmerston Primary School for two years this August. She first learned about wellbeing rooms while researching PB4L practices, hearing the idea from Ngatea Primary School principal Neil Fraser.
“The idea stuck in my mind,” says Kerry, and adds that, “I turned up to Palmerston as the third principal within a few months and it was a complex school community with a lot of needs.”
Although the staff were a tight team, Kerry says they were exhausted, dealing with daily behaviour issues from multiple children several times a day.
“The teachers were in a space where they could only react to situations rather than be proactive.”
Fast-forward to 2025, and her rural school now has its own wellbeing room, which has changed the lives of the Palmerston Primary ākonga.
Team effort
Pitched to the school’s board, there was resistance to the wellbeing room initiative at the beginning, explains Kerry. But the evidence she and her staff presented swayed them, and the board decided to fund the project for term 1 of 2024.
“Very quickly, we started seeing impacts in the school around how the children used the space, how settled the classrooms were becoming,” says Kerry.
In term 2 of 2023, the school had 55 percent attendance in the regular attendance bracket. In term 2 of 2024, after just one term of running the wellbeing room, 74 percent of ākonga were in the regular bracket.
A year and a half later, the wellbeing room is shining. With soft, natural lighting, wooden toys and equipment, plants and minimal distractions, it welcomes students.
Junior school team leader and new entrant teacher Lisa Lyell says they have a couple of ‘star students’ who used to struggle with behaviour issues.
Although there are still flare-ups, they now go straight to the wellbeing room. “We ask them, what’s up? And their response, ‘Oh, I just need to regulate’.”
Student Marley describes that when you’re mad, you can use the ‘calm corner.’ It’s darker and has cosy cushions and a weighted blanket.
“If I’m really, really mad but don’t want to talk to anybody, I just walk in there.”
Before they had the wellbeing room, Marley says she would burst out in class and chase people. But now she’s a school leader working with other ākonga in the wellbeing room.
As the interview continues, a line of children gathers outside Kerry’s office. They all want to share what they love about the wellbeing room.
“It’s open for everyone. If you’re mad, you go there and calm down,” says Tori.
Ria adds that it makes people feel safe. “Instead of being mad in the classroom in front of everyone, if I need time out, I go in there and just find some time.”
A kaiako role
In the classroom space, the teacher has to balance the needs of all their ākonga. But in the wellbeing room, there is always someone who can give their full attention to the child.
“The person really helps a lot because they try and find out what’s gone wrong,” says Phoenix. “And if you don’t want to talk about it, they let you have some time first, and then when you’re ready, you can talk.”
Teacher aide Sarah Jane Kelly has been instrumental in the wellbeing room’s success. She welcomes the students, lets them sit and reflect, reads to them and provides them with strategies for how they can regulate their emotions.
But most importantly, she listens. Every child feels included in the school community as they know someone is always available to listen to them in the one-on-one environment they need.
At the beginning, ākonga will pretend to complete a puzzle or colour in, says Sarah Jane. “Then eventually, this little voice will pipe up, and they slowly unload what is on their mind.
“They just get into the mode of it, and then they let go and let it out. I think it’s because they feel safe here.”
Students are also learning to widen their emotional vocabulary, she explains. “At the start, it was just ‘I’m angry’ but now it’s ‘I’m overwhelmed or anxious.’ They’re acknowledging their emotions more.”
The teaching staff are beginning to share a rotating roster for duty in the wellbeing room, building the relationship with their ākonga outside of the classroom.
Back to learning
Both staff and students say the wellbeing room has changed the classroom environment.
“If someone is angry or sad, instead of interrupting the class, they can go to the room so we can keep learning while they’re in there,” says Tori.
“We also sold the message very quickly that it was a space you went to until you were ready for learning,” says Kerry.
Students stay for a short period and then head back to class. The room has sand timers of five and 10 minutes, giving the children their own agency.
“I used to just refuse to do my work and throw it. But now I go into the wellbeing room, and when I come out, I can do my work again.” adds Marley.
In this way, no child is excluded from learning; rather, they’re encouraged to take the time they need to regulate their emotions, and then the door is always open to include them in class. It was never shut.
