Overview

Alignment with Be You Domains

Mentally Healthy Communities
Family Partnerships
Learning Resilience
Early Support

Alignment with Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)

Children have a strong sense of identity
Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

Alignment with Australian Curriculum

English
Health and PE
Humanities and Social Sciences
Languages
Mathematics
Science
Technologies
The Arts

Target audience

Early learning
Primary school
Secondary school

Target groups

Individual
Small group
Whole class
Whole school

Aims

Friendly Schools is a strengths-based social and emotional wellbeing and bullying prevention initiative for schools. The initiative aims to provide schools, teachers and families with evidence of the most effective ways to promote social and emotional wellbeing, and prevent, manage and respond to bullying behaviours. Friendly Schools also builds school leadership capacity to implement the initiative process. Toolkits are available to help inform school decision-making and to ensure strategies are relevant. Friendly Schools targets the whole school community, and helps schools to build their own capacity for change.

Program theory

The Friendly Schools program uses the social ecological theory and family systems theories. Social ecological theory acknowledges that health risks are not direct outcomes of individual behaviours but emerge from complex interactions between young people and the contexts in which they live. The Friendly Schools intervention targets risk and protective factors at the individual, family, peer, classroom, school, online and community levels. Family systems theories emphasise the impact of functional and behavioural family patterns on the behaviour of individuals, and school-based efforts to address bullying and cyberbullying are therefore more successful when they engage with parents and families.

Topics

The main topics covered in Friendly Schools include bullying, cyberbullying and social and emotional wellbeing. The initiative addresses the three dimensions of social and emotional wellbeing (emotional wellbeing, psychological wellbeing and social wellbeing) through five focus areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and social decision-making.

Cost

Printed resource packs (all prices include GST):
Complete Pack: $475
Primary Years Complete Pack: $350
Secondary Years Complete Pack: $200
Early Years Book Pack: $110
Primary Years 3 to 6 Book Pack: $110
Secondary Years Classroom Book Pack: $85
Evidence for Practice: $65
Individual year level books: $29.95 each

Online platform:
Map the Gap, a one-off whole-school baseline assessment: $20 per school
Whole program subscription: $3,000 per year for a small school, $5,000 for a medium school, $7,000 for a large school

Program structure

The Friendly Schools initiative is designed as a staged process, where each stage builds upon the others. Friendly Schools builds the capacity of the whole-school community to address social and emotional wellbeing and bullying, works with families to improve understanding and self-efficacy to discuss bullying with their children, and provides learning resources and teaching support for students and their teachers. The Friendly Schools Implementation Road Map guides schools through their implementation journey, from getting ready to reviewing and sustaining outcomes. The Evidence for Practice is a guide to the implementation process, and provides information, strategies and resources from Australian schools.

Instructor

Not provided

Instructor training

Three-day training for accredited external trainers; one-day training for school coordinating teams.

Supporting resources or materials available with program

Manual
Online webinars
Workbook

Other materials

Electronic files

Ongoing support

Annual booster training sessions are available for instructors.

Parent involvement

Attend information sessions
Attend program sessions with child
Follow-up information provided after program
Written information provided to parents

Origin of program

Australia

iyarn Pty Ltd, under licence from The Kids Research Institute Australia

Program authors

Telethon Kids Institute, Curtin University and Edith Cowan University

: Level 29, Chifley Tower, 2 Chifley Square, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

: +610401740804

: hello@friendlyschools.com.au

: Visit website

Ratings

4/4 Evidence

4/4 Implementation

Summary of evidence factors

This is a summary of the evaluation or research study characteristics that contribute to the program’s evidence rating.

Positive impact on at least one outcome for children and/or young people?	Yes
Link between program description and theory of change	Comprehensive
Study design	Randomised control trial
Independence	Semi

Summary of implementation factors

This is a summary of the program’s characteristics that contribute to its implementation rating.

Feedback sought from participants	Yes
Feedback sought from instructors	Yes
Groups program is not suitable for	Not assessed
Training provided during study	Face to face, all instructors, in person
Ongoing instructor support provided during study	Yes

Context

This is a summary of the context in which the evidence for the program was established.

Study Participants	Primary school Secondary school
Country of Study/s	Australia
Location of Study/s in Australia	WA
Evaluation of program in culturally and linguistically diverse populations	No
Evaluation of program in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people	No
Evaluation of program in low socioeconomic groups	Yes
Developmental based adaptations to program design and delivery	No
Evaluation of program in children and young people with disability and/or learning difference	Yes

Last updated: 7 August 2026