Transitioning back to in-class learning

With NSW and Victoria emerging from lockdown, the Student Wellbeing Hub has updated its COVID-19 wellbeing resource page.

This newly updated page on the Hub features a comprehensive range of resources, from tips for helping Year 12 students to manage stress and exam periods through to ways to counter misinformation.

Students, teachers and families have faced significant mental health challenges as a result of extended lockdown periods and transitions to remote learning, said Education Services Australia (ESA) CEO Andrew Smith.

“We’ve curated a number of high-quality, evidence-based resources to help schools and families provide much needed support for young Australians, while helping them understand their own mental health. These will offer immeasurable help as schools in hard-hit regions in New South Wales and Victoria return to the classroom.”

The new resources include a webinar discussion with educators and a psychologist sharing tips to aid the transition back to in-person learning. Key takeaways for schools include the following:

• Treat the return to school as an adjustment period: prioritise wellbeing and community over learning, to help ease students back into the school environment.
• Create a positive, hopeful environment: celebrate the school’s achievements as a whole rather than focusing on individual responses to the pandemic. Don’t test students on what they learnt during lockdown; rather, let them know there is ample opportunity to relearn.
• Help students make sense of this time: ask students to reflect on questions around goals and values and how these may have changed during lockdown. It is likely they will see that not much has changed, reinforcing ideas of familiarity.
• Create new memorable experiences: make up for lost time and milestones by hosting school-wide competitions, functions with families or year-level lunches.
• Leverage the whole school network: open communication between teachers will help staff identify at-risk students who may need additional support re-engaging.
   

Schools can read a summary of the discussion or catch up on the whole webinar.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Monkey Business Images