We do want successful students, but we also want happy and well-balanced students. We want children who can enjoy their childhood; who have the resilience to deal with setbacks and failures; who discover activities that they are truly passionate about and who are not just fixated on getting a job that will pay them well. And as a school, we want to work with parents to ensure that all our students are successful but also are physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy and thriving.
——Mark Bishop, Executive Headmaster
The well-being of students has long been a focus for educators and the government. Over the past few years, Pao School has made supporting the mental and emotional needs of the school community a key priority for the school.
From primary to high school, school counsellors are always available to provide professional counselling and services for the mental and emotional health of community members. The counselling team not only provides one-on-one counselling for teachers and students in need but also regularly carries out activities to bring greater awareness to well-being, which are adapted to the needs of the students on each campus in relation to their age and needs. Furthermore, the team provides training to teachers and parents to help them support the students.
Middle School Unity Day
As the guardians of students' mental health in Pao School, the school’s counsellors are equipped with professional counselling qualifications and strong educational backgrounds. In addition, they have abilities and skills such as counselling, listening, empathy, and building trust with others – alongside trustworthiness to sure they maintain confidentiality for those that come to them for help.
Mental and Emotional well-being on campus
On the Primary Campus, alongside providing one-on-one and small group counselling, the counsellors share guidance with the students on how to better adapt to and integrate into campus life, such as on time management and building friendships. At the same time, they hold assemblies for different year groups to educate them on different themes related to physical and mental health. For example, the Primary School counsellors will often share guidance and information regarding well-being with parents through the principal's letter.
For young children, counselling can help them grow to become more confident. For parents, these professional insights and perspectives can help them see things they may have overlooked but are very important, help them understand their children's behaviour, and relieve their anxiety.
Every winter, the Primary School takes part in its annual Anti-Bullying Week, themed Reach Out, to encourage students to reach out to adults when they need to. As part of the week’s various activities, the children also celebrate Unity Day, which they mark by wearing the same colour instead of their usual school uniform to show their unity as a community.
During their Middle School years, students face a time of rapid growth and development, while also exploring more of the world and their self-identity. This presents students, parents, and teachers with different challenges, but also different opportunities for growth. For example, the students are able to further develop their social skills and values, explore interests and possible career paths, and learn more about managing their emotions.
Like the Primary School, Hongqiao Campus also celebrates Unity Day each year. For the event, the Middle School counselling team organises activities across the span of a week, which was themed around Accepting Our Differences this year. A series of activities were carried out, including social-emotional lessons, and games such as bingo and the power of words. These activities not only bring awareness and impart information to students but also help them understand and deal with the differences between themselves and others - through which the campus gains a stronger sense of inclusivity and community. In addition, the counselling team also offer CCA activities surrounding topics such as psychology, career exploration, cross-cultural understanding, and body positivity.
In 2013, the Songjiang campus established the Social and Emotional Office, which provides full-time counselling and various activities to promote wellness. The counselling team also works closely with the Student Life Office and the Academic Affairs Office, allowing them to offer a student-centered service. This is especially important for High School students, who are beginning to become more active thinkers and develop a greater sense of self-awareness as they gain maturity. During this time, they face more complex challenges, such as academic and college admission pressure, maintaining interpersonal relationships, and emotional fluctuations caused by adolescence.
As such, the High School offers various avenues for students to get support. These include counselling groups on Tuesdays, Well-Being Wednesday SEL activities every Wednesday, activities to promote social skills, and a CCA that provides students with a safe space to freely express their ideas and opinions. On Well-Being Wednesday, the counsellors organise interactive activities on different themes such as "A Thousand Reasons to Love Life", "People or Things I Want to Be Grateful for", "Positive Body Image", "Stress Coping Skills", and "Empathy”. Through this, the campus can cultivate an inclusive and open environment, whilst allowing teachers and students to gain more awareness of mental and emotional health.
In addition, various well-being related activities take place annually. For example, in October, Songjiang campus held its first Psychology Week. During the week, in coordination with the Student Life Office, the Social and Emotional Office organised a series of activities related to psychology and mental health, including inviting experts such as Fudan University’s Professor Wang Yan to share her knowledge of the parent-child relationship, adolescent mental health, and developmental psychology.
In May, the counselling team will work with the Student Life Office and the Academic Affairs Office to carry out Mental Health Awareness Month – a series of health-themed activities designed to help relieve students' pressure and develop resilience. Then, in June, the school will welcome Health Week, with activities such as contests surrounding health knowledge, book exhibitions, health week tips, vegetarian food offerings, outdoor exercises, and bubble-blowing and kite-making competitions.
Teacher training for student growth
School counsellors also provide teachers with professional guidance on a regular basis. The team organises vocational training at school for teachers so that they can develop a greater understanding of student physical and mental growth from a knowledge-based perspective. As students in different year groups face different challenges, this training is also carried out with a focus on different year groups.
The Middle School Counselling team shared that, during the school's teacher training, they cover topics such as the psychological perspective of the post-epidemic era, research on adolescent development, targeted problem-solving strategies, and the establishment of a more complete support system. At the High School, training has been developed with special consideration for the needs of older students and the unique environment of the boarding school system. As such, they cover a vast range of topics to help students with challenges such as adaption to dormitory life, time management, self-management, communication, and managing pressure.
Working as a team with parents
A child’s growth is inseparable from the care and guidance of their parents. In order to provide children with the best support possible, the work of school counsellors therefore also extends to the parent community.
As such, in the Middle School, the counselling team arranges a coffee time for parents and counsellors twice a semester. These meetings mainly cover the well-being for adolescents and the characteristics of puberty between the ages of 10-15, including discussion of topics such as body positivity, learning strategies, attention span, and social network usage. Finally, in High School, the counsellors and the Student Life Office regularly arrange online parent-child education forums for parents to strengthen their relationship with their child and to recieve guidance on resolving possible issues. In these forums, parents learn different ways and means of communicating with teens, helping teens use social media and the internet, and developing a healthy parent-child relationship.
*Many thanks to the Primary School and Middle School Counselling Teams, and the High School Social-Emotional Counselling Office for their contributions to this article
