Student Voice

The importance of positive relationships between school staff and students in supporting student mental health, wellness, and feeling of safety appeared in 55 students responses; far out pacing any other student response.

Schools can encourage school staff to continually monitor students and offer support when needed and show they care about their students' wellbeing and work to ensure every student has a trusting relationship with at least one adult at school. 

Resources: 

• Relationship mapping (Harvard)- Relationship mapping is a no-cost, highly impactful strategy to help ensure each student at a school has a positive relationship with at least one staff member
• Facilitating Listening Circles (International Institute for Restorative Practices)- This professional development resource provides information and guidance on facilitating listening circles to provide students and school staff with an opportunity to speak and listen to each other.

Find more on the OPI's Positive School Climate website

Students recommended intentionally welcoming all students 21 times when asked how schools can support student mental health, wellness, and feelings of safety.

The Department of Education has established 4 key recommendations for administrators to consider to creating welcoming school environments:

1. Think Family Friendly 

First impressions matter to ensure families feel that your school is a place where they belong. To make campus visits a positive experience for family members:

• Post signs, in home languages, to guide visitors to important places on campus and make your site easy to navigate for everyone.
• Assign bilingual staff or volunteers in the office to greet parents and answer questions.
• Set up a family resource center with information on your school and community and encourage parents to drop by

When a school goes the extra mile to welcome families, home-school partnerships begin to grow to support student success.

2. Keep Campus Clean and Safe 

Is your school site a clean, inviting and safe place? A well-maintained campus goes a long way to better connect families and schools. To keep your site looking its best:

• Develop a clean campus policy based on feedback from parents, students, teachers and staff.
• Organize campus cleanup days and recycling programs for your school community.
• Maintain playground facilities and shaded areas for outdoor activities to ensure that they are safe and accessible for all students

Sprucing up a school not only makes it more inviting for families, it affects student performance, behavior and learning in class.

3. Embed Respect 

With a healthy school climate, parents see school as a caring place that students look forward to going to each day. Create a more welcoming and peaceful environment for all stakeholders by focusing on respect as a core value in your mission statement. To reinforce the message:

• Set a positive tone and communicate clear expectations for the campus that students, parents, teachers, and staff work together to build an environment of respect.
• Ensure that books and curriculum reflect all students’ lives in your school and community.
• Engage in professional learning on how to work with families; provide conflict management through assemblies; and offer parent and staff education on prevention of harassment and bullying.

4. Make Communication Easy

• Community forums
• Volunteer room representatives 
• Home visit 
• Backpack express 
• Phone calls 
• Email blasts
• Social media 

When asked how schools can support student mental health and wellness, 21 students recommended providing in-school mental health supports.

You can find more resources on the OPI's School Mental Health website. 

Students recommend creating a space that is distinctly dedicated to meeting the needs of students including, providing a comfortable space to spend time, access to water and food, and other resources such as school supplies. This recommendation appeared in 19 student responses. 

The video below gives an example of a space that was created in a Montana high school to meet the needs of students. 

The recommendation to provide education to students and school staff on mental health was recommended by students as a way to support student mental health and wellness.

You can find more resources on the OPI's School Mental Health website. 

Students expressed feeling a lot of stress and pressure associated with expectations to perform well academically; student recommended schools find ways to reduce that stress and pressure as a way to better support student mental health and wellness.

An article by the American Psychological Association (2012) states "Teachers and parents should emphasize children’s progress rather than focusing solely on grades and test scores. Learning takes time and each step in the process should be rewarded, especially at early stages when students most likely will experience failure.” 

As a way to support student mental health and wellness, students recommended schools provide more breaks throughout the day to allow students to relax and recharge.

"Brain breaks" have been shown to be critical to learning. The video below outlines some of the research behind the value of building in breaks throughout the school day and provides examples of how schools can incorporate brain breaks in effective ways.