Attention: Eastern Suburbs secondary schools · Friday 16 October 2026
Transforming self-defeating patterns through awareness and choice
Every student in your school is running a pattern they cannot see.
Putting the assignment off until it is a crisis. The phone at midnight. Going in circles at 2am about something that happened at lunch. On Friday 16 October, a group of your students will learn how that works and what to do about it — each one leaving with a plan in their own handwriting, and the name of a service they have actually met.
Almost half of Australian teenagers know they need help. Just over a quarter get it.
Scientific Reports, 2022
1 · What we’re asking
That’s the whole ask. We run the programme, the staffing, the catering, the paperwork and the follow-up.
Eight to ten students from Years 10 and 11, a mix of student leaders and those who would get the most out of the day. The content is relevant to everyone in the room.
WAYS supervises for the whole day, from sign-in at 9:20 to pick-up at 3:00. You are welcome to send a staff member, but you are not required to.
Programme, five services, catering, electronic forms, risk assessment, run sheet, and a report on your students’ feedback afterwards.
2 · See it
Luke Kennedy is the keynote. Here he talks about the self-defeating patterns young people fall into, and how to break the loop.
If you’d rather talk to a person, Brent and Rachida are on the phone all week.
Luke Kennedy, speaker showreel.
3 · The referral pathway
Not a table of brochures at lunch — a structured block in the programme where every student talks to every service, then writes down in their workbook the one they would actually contact.
The most common reason young people do not get help is not stigma and it is not cost. It is not knowing where to go.
The five services are deliberately different from one another: gambling, alcohol and other drugs, sexual health, physical health, mental health. Whatever a student is carrying, one of them is the right door, and they leave having met a person rather than collected a brochure.
If something needs more than a conversation, WAYS can pick it up. Counselling at the Wellness Centre in Bondi, or case management for a young person who needs someone alongside them for a while. No GP referral, no waiting list, no cost, so a student who decides something on Friday has somewhere to take it on Monday.
4 · What they come back with
Why we reach outside ourselves when stressed, bored or under pressure.
To relationships, health, identity and what comes next.
Trigger, thought, behaviour, consequence — in their own handwriting.
Written by them, in their words, so it survives the bus home.
And know what happens when they do.
5 · The day · Friday 16 October, 9:20am – 3:00pm
| 9:20 – 9:45 | Arrival, registration and group allocation |
| 9:45 – 10:00 | Acknowledgement to Country, welcome and introductions |
| 10:00 – 11:10 | Keynote — Luke Kennedy |
| 11:10 – 11:30 | Recess — provided |
| 11:30 – 1:00 | Workshop 1 — understanding and breaking the loop |
| 1:00 – 1:40 | Lunch — provided |
| 1:40 – 2:40 | Workshop 2 — support and bringing it all together, including the services expo |
| 2:40 – 3:00 | Feedback forms, close and departure |
6 · The keynote
“You are not broken, stuck, or powerless.”
He speaks in schools across NSW on how self-defeating patterns form, why they hold, and what it actually takes to interrupt one. He has been impacted by one himself — he left school early and took years to turn it around — and wrote up how in two books published through Simon & Schuster.
The talk is deliberately not a cautionary tale. It works through identity, ownership, emotional regulation, environment, and the small decisions that compound over time — and it’s what sets up the workshops, because the model he uses is the one students then work through themselves in the afternoon.
7 · Choosing who to send
This is a general wellbeing day designed to benefit every student who attends. Send the students you think will get the most out of it, or student leaders who can share what they learn with others.
Eight to ten students from Years 10 and 11 — those you think will get the most out of the day, or student leaders who can pass on what they learn. Groups on the day are mixed across the schools attending. Because the content applies to everybody, sending a student does not identify them as having a problem, and nobody at the forum is told anything about why any student is there.
Putting work off until it is a crisis · phone and screen time · sleep · overthinking at night · comparison on social media · training too hard or not at all · eating too much or too little · gaming · vaping · and the ones nobody says out loud.
Nobody at the forum, including our own facilitators, is told anything about why a student is there.
Because that is what it is.
Leaders alongside everyone else.
Written for them, not about them.
So families know exactly what the day is.
8 · What your school keeps
What they said in their own evaluations, alongside attendance and what they told us they took away from the day.
Referral into the WAYS Wellness Centre in Bondi. No GP referral, no waiting list, no cost.
WAYS runs wellbeing, youth and family services across the Eastern Suburbs. You get a named contact.
9 · Last time
The 2024 forum ran on 14 June on growth mindset and resilience. 59 of the 86 students returned an evaluation. These are their numbers and their words, not ours.
“I definitely think it’s a great opportunity to be shown different skills to learn and use in your day-to-day life.”
“It was super good and informative. My school would benefit from this forum a lot and gain lots of insight from it.”
“Interesting, lifelong lessons and a good chance to talk to new people.”
“Just a great time expressing different ideas and perspectives.”
Students, WAYS Youth Forum 2024 · verbatim from the returned evaluations
Held in partnership with the Mayors of Waverley and Randwick and the Deputy Mayor of Woollahra. These are satisfaction and intention measures from returned evaluations — honest, and not outcome data. 2024 ran two keynotes; the 97% is the one students rated highest.
10 · Straight answers
Nothing — not to the school, not to families, at any point.
As many as you can. We’d rather stretch the room than turn students away, and larger groups are much easier to plan for if you tell us early. If numbers get tight we’ll talk to you before anything is capped.
It is a wellbeing initiative, not a day out. Your students spend the day on the patterns behind the choices they are already making, and they come back able to explain it. They also meet five local services face to face, so they know where to go and who to point a friend to. Because you are sending representatives, none of that stays with the ten who attended. They can take it to their year group, your peer support programme or your wellbeing team.
Two WAYS case managers and a psychologist are on site all day. A disclosure is held by clinicians, not by your supervising teacher alone, and we contact your nominated school contact the same day under our normal safeguarding process.
It’s the risk we designed hardest against. Nobody at the forum is told why any student was nominated — not the other students, not the services, not our own facilitators. Students are mixed across schools for the workshops, and the parent permission form doesn’t state a reason for selection.
A confirmation form, then forwarding two links. Registration and parent permission are both electronic and sign on a phone. We supply the risk assessment and run sheet for your excursion approval.
Let us know and we will update our list. We lock the final headcount roughly a week out, and movement is fine.
We provide a plain-English parent letter that goes out with the permission form: what the day involves, what’s discussed and what isn’t, who’s supervising, and a contact number for the day.
No, and that distinction matters. It’s a day about self-regulation, self-defeating patterns and help-seeking. Substances are one of the patterns in scope, alongside gambling, screens, eating and exercise. We aren’t delivering a substance-use curriculum and we don’t claim to.
11 · Next step
Book a short call or Teams meeting and we’ll walk you through the day, what your students would come back with, and what it takes at your end. If it’s not right for your school this year, we’ll tell you.
Whichever fits where you are.
Fifteen minutes with Brent or Rachida. If it is not right for your school this year, we will tell you.
Book a 15-minute call →Confirm your place and your numbers. Takes a couple of minutes, and it holds your group.
Register my school →We’ll only use your details to talk to you about the forum. No newsletter, no list. WAYS Youth & Family privacy policy applies.
WAYS Youth Forum 2026 · Friday 16 OctoberFree for Eastern Suburbs schools · confirmations close 18 September
Book a callRegister my school →
