![\"Emily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2a2e979a2f77f9b2102161098f9799257ba9f8b7f0bf962b7800e1f7784af1b9.png\")
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April 19, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Michelle Neverson-Smith thought she was doing the right thing. If an assembly felt overwhelming, the principal let her students sit out. If school camp seemed daunting, they stayed home.<\/p>\n At Cudgegong Valley Public School in NSW\u2019s central west, as across the country, well-meaning adults had been removing obstacles in children\u2019s path.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were blissfully unaware of the negative impact that keeping them safe and removing barriers was having,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir ability to cope with failure \u2013 both in learning and socially \u2013 had really dropped off.\u201d<\/p>\n Australian school leaders are witnessing rising childhood anxiety.<\/a> The average age for first diagnosis has fallen to 11 years old,<\/a> according to the National Mental Health Commission, and a survey of 700 primary school principals found 81 per cent thought children\u2019s anxiety was a significant issue within their schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n But experts warn the instinct to shield children is inadvertently fuelling the problem. When adults \u201cjump in to fix it\u201d, says psychologist Michael Hawton, they rob kids of the opportunity to solve problems for themselves.<\/p>\n Hawton is founder of The Anxiety Project. Created alongside the NSW Primary Principals\u2019 Association, the program is currently used at 144 schools, reaching more than 50,000 students. It seeks to educate not only students but also their parents and teachers.<\/p>\n Unlike traditional support models, the program specifically challenges \u201cunhelpful accommodations\u201d: the practice of letting a child avoid the very things that make them nervous, such as public speaking or playground conflicts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to expose [children] to an acceptable level of risk,\u201d said leading psychiatrist and former Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry. \u201cThat will strengthen them.\u201d<\/p>\n At the heart of the program is teaching children the biology of their fear. Students from kindergarten to year 6 learn about the amygdala \u2013 their \u201clizard brain\u201d, responsible for the body\u2019s fight-or-flight response.<\/p>\n By identifying anxiety as a physical emotion rather than a permanent character flaw, students, teachers and parents learn to use Cognitive Behaviour Therapy techniques to manage it.<\/p>\n Eight-year-old Henry, a student at a participating school, said he now knows how to calm his amygdala using rhythmic belly breathing or simply taking a walk.<\/p>\n His mum, Kate Ephraums, said the program provided her family with a common language to navigate distressing feelings.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a Band-Aid,\u201d Ephraums said. \u201cThese are lifelong skills, and as parents we have to help them practise.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Australian Primary Principals\u2019 Association\u2019s student anxiety summit in February, educators and mental health experts gathered to discuss what Australia\u2019s schools can do to decrease the rate of child and teen anxiety disorders by 25 per cent by 2030.<\/p>\n Related Article Attendees issued a formal call to state education ministers for a standardised anxiety prevention program that involves the whole school community \u2013 including parents.<\/p>\n They argued the window between kindergarten and year 6 is the most critical \u2013 and cost-effective \u2013 time to intervene. Waiting until secondary school or adulthood to act was both \u201cclinically ineffective and economically irrational\u201d.<\/p>\n Experts warned that well-meaning \u201caccommodation\u201d strategies \u2013 where adults allow children to avoid stressful situations like assessments or public speaking \u2013 were entrenching the problem. This \u201ccycle of avoidance\u201d teaches the child\u2019s brain that running away is the only effective strategy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve failed to give these kids opportunities to fall over and hurt themselves because we\u2019ve cocooned them away,\u201d said the Australian Catholic University\u2019s Paul Kidson.<\/p>\n The summit\u2019s statement also called for child and adolescent anxiety management to be mandatory in all initial teacher education programs and teacher induction frameworks across NSW.<\/p>\n The push for a standardised approach across schools comes as mental health experts warn of the high stakes of inaction. The National Mental Health Commission believes 50 per cent of mental health issues emerge before age 14.<\/a><\/p>\n Left untreated, childhood anxiety acts as a gateway to more severe conditions, including depression, substance abuse and eating disorders.<\/p>\n A world-first Lancet Psychiatry commission on youth mental health, led by McGorry, found youth mental health had entered \u201ca dangerous phase\u201d and right now could be society\u2019s last chance to act. <\/a><\/p>\n Suicide is now the leading cause of death<\/a> for young people in several countries, including Australia.<\/p>\n Eighty-five per cent of depressed adolescents have a history of childhood anxiety, while the academic impact is immediate: highly anxious year 1 students are 10 times more likely to be in the bottom third of their class by year 5, according to an Australian study.<\/a><\/p>\n McGorry attributes the rise in anxiety to a more \u201cfragile and precarious\u201d world, citing the high cost of living and social inequality. However, he emphasises that anxiety can be \u201cunlearned\u201d if caught early.<\/p>\n \u201cThis trajectory, if unchanged, will define the wellbeing and productivity of a generation,\u201d McGorry said.<\/p>\n NSW Education Minister Prue Car said all public schools have access to high-quality, evidence-based wellbeing programs to support schools in delivering best-practice mental health support for students.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Primary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ee9ed2c9fc64697cf09c625a0b3e572272955e68f6c2644811ecde616cbf7083.jpeg\")
Primary school principals are concerned by an increase in childhood anxiety but say previous methods of management are ineffective. Monique Westermann<\/p>\n![\"Henry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e276cf89f00a32395fd93b53140d0846ad276852.jpeg\")
Henry Ephraums, 8, and his family know how to tackle anxiety thanks to the new program.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n![\"Hurstville](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3df7eea4424538dffa5aecdd040a21eb9e80ea51.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f340c8cbfbf01d10012c372ab883b7b4df3366ba.jpeg\")
Kate Ephraums, pictured with her son Henry, said she appreciated the skills taught in the program were not a \u2018Band-Aid\u2019. Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n![\"Emily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2a2e979a2f77f9b2102161098f9799257ba9f8b7f0bf962b7800e1f7784af1b9.png\")
Emily Kowal<\/a> is an education reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 19, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-615820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}