Student wellbeing check-ins: a practical school guide
Published 6 min read
Design short wellbeing check-ins students will use, agree response rules for flags and 'wants to talk', and record every follow-up.
- Wellbeing Coordinators
- School Counsellors
- Pastoral Care
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Summary
Regular wellbeing check-ins give students an easy way to say how they are going, and give staff an early signal when something changes. Keep them short, tell students who reads them and when, decide in advance which answers need a response, and make sure every flagged check-in is followed up and the follow-up recorded. In Descant, students check in by a secure link, simple rules flag low mood, low safety or a request to talk, and a check-in queue shows the flags and the students who want to talk.
What a wellbeing check-in is for
A check-in is a short, regular question: how are you going? It is not a screening tool or an assessment. It gives students a low-pressure way to tell an adult something has changed, and it lets the support team notice a pattern, such as a student whose mood has been low three weeks running, before it becomes a crisis.
Check-ins work best for students already connected to support, such as a student with a wellbeing plan, a student returning after time away, or a student the team is keeping an eye on. Some schools also use them more widely, for a year level or a pastoral group.
Designing a check-in students will use
Keep it short
Three or four questions is enough. A student should be able to finish in under a minute on a phone. Common questions:
- How is your mood today? (a 1–5 scale)
- How is your energy?
- How safe do you feel?
- Which words describe how you feel? (happy, calm, worried, sad, angry, tired, overwhelmed)
- Anything else you want to tell us?
- Would you like to talk to someone?
The last question matters most. Many students will tick a box when they would not knock on a door.
Tell students what happens next
Before a student starts, explain who reads their check-ins, how soon, and what happens if they ask to talk or say they feel unsafe. Be honest about timing. If check-ins are read during school hours, say so, and tell students who to contact if they need help outside those times, such as Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or emergency services on 000.
Decide your response rules in advance
Agree, before you start, which answers need a response and how fast. For example:
- Wants to talk: a staff member makes contact, ideally the same school day
- Low safety rating: follow your school's student safety procedures without delay
- Low mood: a check-in conversation within a few days
- Several low moods in a row: consider a referral or a review of the student's support
Write these down and share them with the team. The wellbeing screening protocols guide covers related procedures.
Record every follow-up
Every flag should end in a recorded decision: the conversation that happened, the referral made, or the reason no action was needed. That is good practice, and it is what you will need if anyone asks later what the school did with what the student said.
What to document after a flagged check-in:
- Who followed up, and when
- What the student said, in brief
- What was decided: no further action, a plan update, a referral or an escalation
- Any contact with family, with the date
- When the student will next be checked in with
The student check-in template gives a structure for the follow-up conversation.
Privacy and consent
Check-in answers are personal information about a student, and often sensitive. Collect only what you will use, store answers with the student's support record rather than in a general survey tool, and limit who can see them to staff who support the student. Follow your school's consent practices for students and families. The privacy compliance pages summarise the frameworks by state and sector.
How Descant runs student check-ins
A secure link for each student
From a student's record, staff create a check-in link and set a short verification code that they give the student. The student opens the link on any device and enters the code. Creating a new link cancels the old one. A link lasts up to 180 days, so a student can use the same link for regular check-ins across a term or a semester.
What the student sees
The student is asked how they are going, by name. They rate their mood from 1 to 5, and can rate their energy and how safe they feel, choose words for how they feel, add a comment, and tick I would like to talk to someone.
Simple, visible flag rules
Descant flags a check-in when the student asks to talk, rates their safety at 2 or below, or rates their mood at 2 or below. When staff record check-ins for a student without open support, three low-mood check-ins in a row prompt them to consider a referral. The rules are fixed and easy to explain. They do not score or predict anything.
The check-in queue
The check-ins page shows Flags needing action, with filters for open flags and for students who want to talk. A separate list shows everyone who asked to talk in the past seven days. Every flag needs a recorded response: speak with the student, escalate to a referral, or record why no action is needed.
Check-ins also feed the student action list on the reports page, and a summary of a student's last 30 check-ins appears in their handover PDF.
Not a crisis service
Check-ins are read by school staff when they review the queue. They are not monitored around the clock. Make sure students know who to contact in an emergency.
Common questions
Do students need an account? No. They need the link and the code a staff member gives them.
Can a student check in more than once? Yes. The same link works for repeat check-ins until it expires or staff replace it.
Who sees the answers? Staff with access to check-ins at your school. Answers sit with the student's support record.
See how Descant works from first concern to evidence, or start a demo to see the check-in queue on a made-up school. (Check-in links cannot be sent from a demo school.)