Trinity Bay State High School started running its mindfulness sessions in the school library two years ago. The Tuesday lunchtime group, called ‘Headspace Cairns’, draws between 12 and 20 students each week. Teacher-librarian Megan Ross oversees the practice, guiding students through five-minute breathing exercises before they move into a guided meditation recorded by a local yoga instructor.
The program is one of a handful of formal mindfulness initiatives now operating across Cairns schools, part of a broader push to embed mental health practices into the school day. In 2025, the Queensland Department of Education reported that 43 per cent of state schools in the Cairns region had at least one staff member trained in a recognised mindfulness program, up from 28 per cent in 2022.
Why schools are turning to mindfulness
The shift reflects a growing body of research linking mindfulness training with reduced anxiety and improved focus. A 2024 meta-analysis published in the Journal of School Psychology found that school-based mindfulness programs reduced symptoms of depression by an average of 18 per cent in adolescents. In Cairns, where youth mental health presentations at Cairns Base Hospital’s emergency department rose 22 per cent between 2021 and 2025, school leaders say they are looking for low-cost, scalable interventions.
At St Mary’s Catholic College on Anderson Street, the ‘Pause, Breathe, Be’ program has been running since Term 2, 2024. The program, developed by the Australian charity Smiling Mind, trains teachers in five-minute classroom activities. Year 9 students at St Mary’s complete a weekly 15-minute session in their pastoral care class. Principal Louise O’Neill has said the school saw a noticeable drop in behavioural referrals in the two terms after the program started.
Local providers and cost barriers
Cairns has a small but growing ecosystem of mindfulness providers. The Cairns Wellness Centre on Grafton Street offers a six-week ‘Mindful Schools’ training package for teachers, costing $380 per participant. The course covers basic meditation, body scans, and classroom management strategies. Since January 2025, 47 teachers from 11 schools have completed the training. The centre also runs an after-school ‘Mindful Kids’ group for primary-aged children at the Edge Hill Community Centre on Monday afternoons, priced at $15 per session.
But access is not universal. Schools in lower socioeconomic areas, such as Woree State High School and Manoora’s St Francis Xavier’s School, told The Daily Cairns in 2025 that they lacked funding to bring in external trainers. Woree’s school chaplain runs an informal 10-minute morning meditation over the school’s PA system, but the school has not been able to afford the Smiling Mind licence fee, which starts at $1,200 per school per year for a whole-school subscription. Manoora’s P&C has raised $650 so far for a pilot program starting in Term 3, 2026.
Queensland Health’s Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS) in Cairns has started offering free half-day ‘Mindfulness 101’ workshops for school staff. Since July 2025, workshops have been held at the CYMHS office on Sheridan Street and at the Cairns Convention Centre. Attendance is capped at 25 teachers per session. The next workshop is scheduled for 14 August 2026. Enrolment is open to any staff member in a Cairns school, regardless of funding.
For parents and carers looking to introduce mindfulness at home, the Cairns Library on Abbott Street hosts a free ‘Mindful Morning’ for families on the first Saturday of each month. The session runs from 9:30am to 10:15am in the children’s section. No booking is required.
As the evidence continues to build, school leaders across Cairns are watching the next round of state government mental health funding, due to be announced in November 2026. The Education Department’s recent tender documents indicate a pilot program could expand the Smiling Mind subscription model to up to 30 more schools in the region by 2028. For now, most students still rely on whichever teacher is willing to press play on a five-minute guided meditation, and that teacher’s time and training are often in short supply.
