WHAT SOCIAL EMOTIONAL SUPPORT IS FOLLOWED AT SCHOOL?

Is social emotional support necessary? Yes….

It is important for us to know the concept of social-emotional support and its necessity. As a provider of social-emotional support and competencies, you should identify the key skills and attitude necessary for realizing and managing emotions, feeling, listening as well as showing empathy to others. Making responsible and thoughtful decisions based on the surrounding and crisis circumstances should be your responsibility. If you are a teacher then you hold huge responsibility while providing social-emotional support to your respective students. By different Social-Emotional Learning programs, we can improve:

• Student’s social-emotional abilities, skills,
• Attitude towards others and self,
• Positive social behaviour, connection to school and
• Academic performance

Through this support, we can also reduce student’s emotional distress and their conductproblems or disorders. At this point where with hectic schedules, academic and social pressure and competition, we should support our pupils from home as well as school. Here they can develop their skills, which will help them in understanding and balancing their emotions, setting and achieving their positive goals, showing and feeling empathetic and establishing themselves as responsible humans. I think schools can definitely play a crucial role in this development through their effective support.

Social Emotional Support: Key ingredient for reopening schools

Uncertainty abounds over the facts of what the 2020-2021 education institutions and school years will actually look like. We should try to question ourselves. Will students be ever able to go back all over again into their lovely brick and mortar classrooms? Will we have to rely simply on remote learning again? How will hallways and classrooms be set up for ensuring social distancing? Regardless of all details and current situation, we know with some certainty that the return of the students to schools after long months of school being shut will be different.

Returning to schools could be stressful for students like you, your parents and your educators. Hence regardless of district’s and states individual reopening plans and strategies, one key ingredient which must be included in this strategy is the system of emotional and social support for the students in their study as well as lives. As a student when you go to your school, you intend to search and consider the following emotional needs:

• Acceptance
• Affection
• Validation
• Autonomy
• Trust
• Security
• Prioritization
• Empathy

With our child mind, we look for emotional support, caring, love and trust from our teachers, as they are the ones who act as our parents in schools. We all know that schools are our second home and thus the emotional, social support we receive at home; we also look for such support at our schools. In Covid-19 crisis and pandemic, where there has been a huge gap and distance between schools and students due to school closure and lockdown, you should now realize that Social-emotional support is very much essential. Once the school reopens students in panic and fears due to Covid virus will feel distracted and fear to attend schools. As a teacher or faculty, you should show your empathetic support to them.

Want to know more about the critical segment of Academic Recovery!It is Social-Emotional Support

Anyone connected to any school in some way will definitely agree with me that the sudden seismic disruption and hamper to our education system because of the Covid pandemic has resulted in students’ learning gaps. You can notice that uncertainties, anxiety, upended routines and lack of social communication or interactions have affected students, educators, parents and of course all the young members.

It has become essential for all of us, who are associated with schools directly or indirectly, to regulate and monitor their behaviour and deliver concrete strategies to cope with student’s stress. When students will be able to resolve their conflict and manage their personal emotions effectively, then they will be less likely to disrupt. This academic recovery can ensure students to focus more on their schoolwork, even during the upheaval time like this year’s crisis.

What Social Emotional Supports are followed at school? Let's Explore

To support students socially and emotionally generally schools follow various approaches and programs. You should be empathetic towards your students. You will see that usually schools instruct their teachers and the management to recognize and manage student emotions, befriend with students, control their impulses, become vocal and communicative with them and collaborate with them through healthy discussions. Some activities, which you will find to be followed by many schools regarding social emotional support, are:

• Using story times for the teachable moments
• Working on student-teacher partnership
• Teaching students the goodness and needs for working in groups
• Nurturing a good culture of kindness
• Practising many role-playing activities
• Developing their social-emotional vocabulary
• Making space for them to make reflective writing
• Setting up calm down section for student counselling
• Teaching kids for managing conflicts through peer meditation
• Allowing student-teacher or student-student talk time for problem sharing and idea development
• Teaching students to check their own progress
• Using anchor charts for teaching social-emotional skills
• Playing games with your students to build community

You need to act like your student’s philosopher, guide and emotional supporters cultivating friendship, trust and advice for their development as a responsible human who is socially and emotionally strong and reliable.

Are you sure Social-Emotional support can help in the emotional well-being of students? Let’s find out

We have all witnesses that students have been heavily affected in multiple ways through covid-19 along with the school closure. It is critical and crucial that we all are mindful of students’ emotional well-being. Schools can encourage support to the traumatic students who have faced family loss or financial loss during this pandemic. You can provide education resources to the needy students along with the assurance of 24*7 available academic support. I think an educator along with the student’s parents should be equally concerned regarding their student’s wellbeing. Schools are the ideal settings for supporting the emotional and social well-being of any student. Here you can realize that schools have enough scope for offering opportunities and resources for building resilience. When students receive this support, then you will obviously witness less disciplinary issues with upgraded communication skills and focus on study. This can translate into academic outcome improvement with better health.