The Listening Table in Schools

The Listening Table

30 minutes to see how it actually works

A free online session for northern Tasmanian schools.

A Listening Table is a group of students sitting at a table around the Blue Listening Mat, working through prompt cards, guided by trained senior student co-hosts. Eight guidelines printed on the mat hold the space. The supervising teacher is in the room but not at the table. It runs inside a home group, so it fits the time you already have.

It is peer-led, ongoing, and built on building social cohesion inside the school rather than bringing in an outside expert for a day.

It is built to last. Not a term, not a year. A Listening Table is designed to keep running year after year, with each year of senior students training the next group of co-hosts. The adult model it comes from, The Men's Table, has groups that have been meeting for over a decade. Set it up once and it becomes part of how your school works, not another thing to relaunch every February.

In 30 minutes we will walk you through:

• What happens at a Listening Table, start to finish

• The eight guidelines, and how the cards keep sharing prompt-based

• How senior students are trained as co-hosts, and what the supervising teacher does and does not do

• How it fits a 25 minute home group

• How it hands over year to year so it keeps running without you rebuilding it

• What gets measured, and what you get back

• What a free 2027 pilot actually asks of your school

Who it is for: anyone in a school. Wellbeing leads, home group teachers, year coordinators, student services, school psychologists, principals.

Presented by Ben Hughes, founder of The Listening Projects. Ben founded The Men's Table in 2011, now 310 plus peer listening groups nationally. The Listening Table brings that model to young people.

Two sessions. Same content. Pick one.

Friday 30 October, 11.00am
Monday 2 November, 3.30pm

30 minutes | Online |

We are opening a small number of free pilot places for northern Tasmanian schools in 2027. Come along, ask your questions, then register your interest.

You can watch a short presentation HERE if you want the overview before you commit 30 minutes.

Can't make either? Register anyway and we will send the recording.

The Listening Projects builds micro-communities in schools through structured, peer-led listening programs. By deepening social cohesion and creating genuine connection, we give every student a place where they are heard, understood, and belong, ending loneliness and social isolation in young people. Belonging is a foundation for learning, wellbeing, and life. Be Heard. Be Understood. Belong.