Impact on students

The coronavirus itself already has an impact on your student’s life. With all the reports about learning delays and catching up on them as quickly as possible, we are adding to the pressure. It only contributes to more feelings of stress, performance pressure and fear of failure. To keep this impact to a minimum, School & Veiligheid advises:

This way, you can continue to monitor and safeguard the students’ well-being.

Reduce the pressure: look at things differently

Look at the past year from a different perspective: try to trust that your students are learning many life lessons during this coronavirus crisis. Life lessons with which they can compensate for the learning delays they have incurred. And help your students see it this way too. By looking at things differently, we take some pressure off.

How do you do that?

You can do this by talking to your students and pointing out their successes and positive moments. This also applies to children who are dealing with difficult circumstances at home. What went well? Perhaps he discovered new talents during the period of home education, for example in hobbies or sports. Or perhaps he learned to work more independently on school assignments.

According to the NJi, we can encourage this way of thinking by actively involving children and young people in policymaking and letting them know that their contribution matters.

Stay in contact with your students, even at a distance

How can you, as an education professional, keep track of students’ well-being from a distance? How do you ensure that they continue to feel part of the group? How do you maintain a pedagogical connection with your students? At least three things are important:

  1. Stay in contact with your students
  2. Facilitate contact between students
  3. Maintain good cooperation with parents

1. Stay in contact with your students

As a teacher, you are an important adult and a stable factor in your students’ lives. That is why it is important to stay in regular contact. Let students know that you are still there for them, even at a distance.

You do this in the same way as you make contact with your students at school. But because some of the non-verbal contact is lost, you need to pay extra attention to this. Regularly explicitly invite students to tell you how they are doing. We offer you some practical tips for this.

Practical tips

  • Choose a fixed time each week for a session with the whole class, replacing the mentoring period or Monday morning circle. Set a time limit for this contact moment. The regularity and the time limit provide structure for both you and the students.
  • Keep working on your relationship with your students. Aim for structured one-to-one contact moments with every student at least once a week. Give students space to talk about their non-school-related interests and achievements. Tell them that they can expect your help if needed. In addition to providing predictability and structure, it is important that the student feels seen and heard.
  • If, as a teacher or mentor, you notice that a student does not feel connected to you, try to be flexible. In such a case, look together with the student for a colleague within the school to whom the student does feel connected. This colleague can temporarily take over the role of mentor. This reduces the risk that the student’s mental health will be further compromised.
  • Make the purpose of the contact clear: Make sure students know how and when they can ask questions about the material and when they can simply have more informal contact.
  • Preferably use video calls with the camera on. If this is not possible, aim for telephone contact.
  • Support students in their need for autonomy. Make clear what you expect from the students, while also allowing room for their own input.
  • Promote the student’s sense of competence. Make expectations clear. The expectations you have as a teacher of the student play an important role in students’ self-acceptance. Establish clear guidelines. Without guidelines, students become confused; it helps when they can work towards a specific goal.

2. Facilitate contact between students

Unlike in the school situation, students do not automatically have contact with one another now. Some students are being educated at home, while others do attend school. For example, because they have parents who work in a crucial profession. Students who are at home and watch while part of the class is together may feel excluded. Be aware of this.

Students who are in the stage of puberty in particular have a strong need for social contact. For these students, it is especially important that they continue to experience a sense of belonging.

To keep the group feeling alive, you can give assignments that require them to work with one another, such as:

1. Have students interview one another.
2. Have a chain letter circulate.
3. Give a group assignment: a study or experiment for which each student has to collect data at home.
4. Have students review one another’s work.
5. Have students take a quiz together under your guidance.

Practical tips

  • Continue to check in with everyone in the group. For example, via online video calls. It is helpful if students can share stories with one another about how they are experiencing this period. This creates recognition and a sense of shared experience.
  • Pay attention together to difficult situations, such as illness or a death in a student’s environment. And of course, also pay attention to festive occasions such as a birthday, just as you would in class. Try to continue annual celebrations as much as possible, even if they can only take place online. Think of a digital carnival party or an online Easter celebration.
  • And have fun together. Make room for the enjoyable things that online collaboration brings. It can be very funny when a cat suddenly jumps onto someone’s lap and appears on screen. Pay attention to it and laugh about it together. That brings relaxation in strange times.
  • Just as in the classroom, make agreements together about how to interact pleasantly with one another during online contact. And keep repeating these agreements. Discuss what is different now in the way you interact compared with the physical situation. Together, map out what is going well and what could be improved. Share tips on what you can do if you do not feel comfortable in the group.

3. Maintain good cooperation with parents

In uncertain and stressful times, it is especially important that parents can provide a safe haven for their children. As a teacher, you can contribute from a distance to preserving this safe home environment.

Keep parents broadly informed about the online teaching methods you use. And let them know how you inform parents and students. This helps parents understand, for example, changed plans or differences in approach between teachers.

Emphasize to parents that their child’s well-being always comes first. Even if this means that their child does not do homework one time or does not attend a lesson. This can reduce stress, frustration and conflict among students and between parents and their children.

Sometimes parents need advice on how to talk to their child about the current situation. If so, refer them to the Kenniscentrum Kinder- en Jeugdpsychiatrie (KJP)’s Guide: How do you talk to your child about coronavirus?.

Questionnaires for monitoring well-being

A tool for digitally mapping students’ well-being is the free student well-being tool from AVS and Intraverte.

Kees van Overveld, together with the Flemish education website Klasse, created the questionnaire ‘How are you doing?’ (PDF) for students in primary education.

In addition, more questionnaires are circulating on social media. These digital forms can be duplicated and are therefore easy to adapt to your own situation. They are not ours. So, are you the developer of one of the forms below and would you like your name to be mentioned as the source in this article? Please contact us at: [email protected].

For example, this form is available with questions you can ask your students. For example, about how you can best support them, which resources they have at their disposal and how they feel. You can also use this questionnaire ‘How are you doing?’ for secondary vocational education when the vocational education institutions reopen.

Practical tips

Below are examples of positive signs to look out for:

  • Appears cheerful;
  • Makes a vital, energetic impression;
  • Comes across as relaxed and open;
  • Is happy to start the school day;
  • Has contact with other students;
  • Does things together with other children, online or outdoors;
  • Maintains good contact with friends;
  • Feels appreciated by other children;
  • Feels that, under the circumstances, he/she has enough contact with friends;
  • Finds the teacher’s lessons enjoyable and interesting;
  • Gets work that he/she enjoys doing;
  • Likes the way he/she can work;
  • Enjoys actively participating in the lessons;
  • Has good contact with the teacher.

Are you worried about a student? Then read more under Mental well-being under pressure or Serious concerns.

Mental well-being under pressure

If, as a teacher, you notice that students’ well-being or sense of safety is under pressure, it is important to address this. Also try to involve the parents.

Practical tips

Some tips for dealing with this:

  • First meet the three basic needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness. These needs are under pressure during a time of crisis. Only then can a student return to learning. This requires putting pedagogy before didactics.
  • Show understanding for the student’s feelings and behaviour, but do not encourage them further. Ask questions that make the student think and help them move out of the emotion.
  • Do not make it bigger than it is. More students than usual will feel down or anxious, but that does not mean they all have a disorder or depression. Choose your words carefully, because otherwise your words may unintentionally influence the students’ emotions and behaviour.

More information can be found at Steunpunt Coronazorgen.

Serious concerns

Are you seriously concerned about a student’s mental health? Do you strongly suspect that a student is struggling with an eating disorder, anxiety disorder, depression or suicidal thoughts? The following organisations can provide further assistance:

  • GGD (regional)
    GGD stands for Municipal or Joint Public Health Service. This website will help you find the nearest GGD.
  • 113 Suicide Prevention
    Stichting 113 Zelfmoordpreventie is the national organisation for suicide prevention. Need immediate help? Call 0900-0113.
  • Veilig Thuis
    Veilig Thuis provides advice, help and support concerning domestic violence and child abuse. You can contact Veilig Thuis if you are looking for help, if you are concerned about someone else or as a professional. You can remain anonymous if you wish.
  • MIND
    Do you or someone close to you have an eating disorder and need personal help or advice? Contact one of the MIND Korrelatie helpline staff members, anonymously if you wish. You can call, chat, WhatsApp or email one of the psychologists or social workers.

Mental well-being during distance learning

In short, it is important to pay attention to your students’ mental well-being. By not focusing continuously on learning delays, you prevent the stress and uncertainty that students and their parents are already experiencing from becoming too great.

If you have any further questions, you can contact the staff of the School & Veiligheid helpdesk. They can be reached on school days from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. By telephone: 030-285 66 16 or by email: [email protected].

Further reading