Supporting student mental health and wellbeing – Safe and Inclusive Environment

Why:

When children and young people feel safe, welcome and included, they can regulate their emotions and behaviour and they can learn.

In practice

Three things you can do:

• Discuss with your class the right to be safe in the classroom and establish agreements about the behaviours that will support everyone to feel safe. Help students to identify behaviours that might make some children and young people feel unsafe. Ensure you notice and respond when things are happening in the classroom that are unsafe. Regularly reflect with the class about how the class is tracking and whether any changes need to be made.

• Use a daily welcome circle that meaningfully engages children in conversation (instead of “what’s your favourite ice-cream?”, try “tell us about your first memory of ice-cream”), connects them and you through fun activities and games (get them to come up with ideas and run the activities), and introduces them to the language of emotions and supportive practices such as mindfulness and gratitude.

• Use the practice of professional journalling to reflect on your own beliefs, assumptions and biases. Find ways of challenging these. Try following Adam Grant’s advice and create a ‘challenge network’ – “a group of (disagreeable) people we trust to point out our blindspots and help us overcome our weaknesses”.

Next steps:

If these ideas interest you and you would like to learn more, please contact us. We can help with workshops and webinars, professional development days, coaching, and consultancy engagements.