{"id":806912,"date":"2020-12-07T23:33:36","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T22:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/eu\/?p=9555"},"modified":"2026-06-05T12:13:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:13:58","slug":"7-ways-to-support-student-wellbeing-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/7-ways-to-support-student-wellbeing-online\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Support Student Wellbeing Online"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many&nbsp;students&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/eu\/europe\/how-to-support-struggling-learners-with-online-lessons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">struggle&nbsp;with&nbsp;online&nbsp;learning<\/a>. But what about&nbsp;their&nbsp;mental health?&nbsp;It\u2019s hard to tell&nbsp;how&nbsp;learners&nbsp;feel&nbsp;when you only see them through a computer screen.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number of mental health disorders seen in children is on the rise.&nbsp;Around half of all lifetime mental health problems&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentalhealth.org.uk\/statistics\/mental-health-statistics-children-and-young-people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">start by the mid-teens<\/a>.&nbsp;It\u2019s vital we support students\u2019 wellbeing, as well as academic outcomes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whilst they feel&nbsp;more distant&nbsp;when you\u2019re teaching from home,&nbsp;your students&nbsp;need you more than ever.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What causes&nbsp;mental health problems?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s&nbsp;never one answer to&nbsp;what causes&nbsp;mental health concerns. Your learners come with a variety of home experiences&nbsp;and situations that can impact on their wellbeing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students may&nbsp;struggle&nbsp;with:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Digital poverty:&nbsp;Learners&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/eu\/europe\/7-ways-to-stop-a-poor-internet-connection-ruining-your-online-lessons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">without reliable internet<\/a>&nbsp;and technology at home&nbsp;feel&nbsp;left behind&nbsp;and isolated.&nbsp;They&nbsp;are&nbsp;frustrated they can\u2019t keep up with their peers.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Isolation: It\u2019s hard as an adult to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/eu\/uncategorised\/10-motivation-boosts-for-teachers-working-from-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">get motivated to work<\/a>. Students can struggle to self-regulate and feel unable to manage schoolwork.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><li>Financial difficulties: Financial insecurity and debt put&nbsp;a tremendous burden&nbsp;on families.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Caring responsibilities:&nbsp;Many children are home carers&nbsp;supporting parents or younger siblings.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Unsafe home environment: For students who are victims of domestic violence or abuse, online learning means spending more time at home.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students with pre-existing&nbsp;mental health needs often have support structures in place. Whilst there are challenges, it\u2019s possible to move&nbsp;from face-to-face&nbsp;to&nbsp;virtual&nbsp;support.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what about other&nbsp;learners&nbsp;who have not shown previous&nbsp;issues?&nbsp;Many&nbsp;of your&nbsp;students&nbsp;are likely to need increased pastoral support&nbsp;whilst they learn remotely.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s seven ideas to help you support&nbsp;their&nbsp;mental health and wellbeing&nbsp;needs&nbsp;in your school.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1:&nbsp;Signpost&nbsp;wellbeing support&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may never spot the students struggling with mental health.&nbsp;They&nbsp;often hide problems and never ask for help. Signposting support to all students, not just the ones you\u2019ve flagged&nbsp;as a concern, means everyone can access the help they need.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Make&nbsp;time in each lesson to&nbsp;talk about&nbsp;where they can&nbsp;find&nbsp;support. Add helpline numbers and&nbsp;useful&nbsp;websites to the last slide in your presentations. Create a page on&nbsp;a&nbsp;collaborative platform&nbsp;like&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/microsoft-365\/microsoft-teams\/group-chat-software\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Microsoft Teams<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/edu.google.com\/products\/classroom\/?modal_active=none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Classroom.<\/a>&nbsp;Regularly email wellbeing tips&nbsp;home or share them on social media.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2:&nbsp;Create&nbsp;opportunities to talk&nbsp;about mental health&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your live virtual lessons don\u2019t need to be&nbsp;just&nbsp;about learning. Add a little time for them to chat together. Home learning can feel isolating.&nbsp;Talking time lets them keep those class bonds strong.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Create&nbsp;virtual&nbsp;drop-in sessions students&nbsp;can choose to&nbsp;attend. Many&nbsp;young people&nbsp;message rather than phone&nbsp;their&nbsp;friends. Promote virtual coffee shop events where the purpose is to talk.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But&nbsp;remember,&nbsp;vulnerable students are unlikely to share worries&nbsp;with&nbsp;a large group.&nbsp;Make sure they know how to talk to you alone.&nbsp;Remember students with limited access to&nbsp;technology. How will you reach out to them?&nbsp;Many&nbsp;schools have&nbsp;created&nbsp;rotas to call all&nbsp;students&nbsp;to see how they are.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">3:&nbsp;Make wellbeing&nbsp;buddies&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some&nbsp;learners&nbsp;won\u2019t want to talk to you, but they might&nbsp;open up&nbsp;to a peer.&nbsp;Pair students up using&nbsp;their&nbsp;school email addresses and show them how&nbsp;they can&nbsp;support each other.&nbsp;Share regular&nbsp;topics for discussion&nbsp;and&nbsp;give them a&nbsp;chance to&nbsp;talk about&nbsp;worries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Remember to follow&nbsp;your school\u2019s&nbsp;online&nbsp;safeguarding&nbsp;procedures and think about how you can monitor communications. Remind them to talk on your school\u2019s chosen platform, or cc you into their emails to let you monitor and keep them safe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">4:&nbsp;Look for&nbsp;mental health&nbsp;warning signs&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A perfect student suddenly not&nbsp;meeting&nbsp;deadlines?&nbsp;The reliable learner who\u2019s missing your live&nbsp;lessons?&nbsp;There&nbsp;are&nbsp;often signs that a student is struggling.&nbsp;Instead&nbsp;of going zero-tolerance, talk to them about what the problem is and let them share their&nbsp;worries.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Use regular surveys or&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2019\/10\/23\/google-launches-5-experimental-digital-well-being-apps-for-android\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">digital wellbeing trackers<\/a>&nbsp;to gauge wellbeing across your school&nbsp;and&nbsp;spot pockets of problems to address.&nbsp;Include a space for students to add in their own&nbsp;concerns&nbsp;rather than making them entirely tick boxes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2020\/12\/ChildSmilingOnPC-890x594.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9557\" title=\"\"><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">5:&nbsp;Promote&nbsp;health and&nbsp;wellbeing&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Make healthy living&nbsp;the&nbsp;top of your teaching agenda.&nbsp;Encourage healthy eating, exercise,&nbsp;and hobbies&nbsp;to keep your students active and happy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Create virtual clubs&nbsp;that can&nbsp;run&nbsp;on video calls, like&nbsp;online&nbsp;yoga or exercise classes.&nbsp;Create&nbsp;positive&nbsp;competitions,&nbsp;such as&nbsp;how many miles&nbsp;a&nbsp;year group&nbsp;can walk in a&nbsp;month.&nbsp;Make it collaborative rather than competitive to encourage everyone to take part.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">6:&nbsp;Educate parents about mental health&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vast majority of&nbsp;parents&nbsp;care deeply about wellbeing and will be supportive of your efforts.&nbsp;They often spot problems before you do.&nbsp;Just don\u2019t assume they\u2019ll know&nbsp;how&nbsp;to help.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Offer advice&nbsp;using your school\u2019s&nbsp;social media&nbsp;accounts&nbsp;and&nbsp;share tips&nbsp;for them to use at home. Tell parents&nbsp;about&nbsp;warning&nbsp;signs to watch out for&nbsp;and what they can do to help.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Run&nbsp;online meetings to discuss wellbeing&nbsp;with parents&nbsp;and offer&nbsp;them&nbsp;1:1 calls to discuss their&nbsp;child.&nbsp;Check there\u2019s a robust process in place. Who do parents call? What happens then?&nbsp;It\u2019s important that no one gets lost in the system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">7:&nbsp;Make wellbeing a school priority&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the pressure of moving to home learning, mental health might not feel like your top priority.&nbsp;But failing to meet the wellbeing needs of students now will&nbsp;just&nbsp;cause bigger problems later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Try:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Adding wellbeing to the agenda for staff meetings&nbsp;<\/li><li>Looking at tracking procedures for flagged students&nbsp;<\/li><li>Checking&nbsp;how&nbsp;staff&nbsp;can&nbsp;raise new concerns&nbsp;<\/li><li>Running wellbeing events, lessons, and classes&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reach&nbsp;out to local mental health charities in your area&nbsp;to see if they have useful resources you can use. Many will run&nbsp;sessions&nbsp;by trained professionals you can access.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t forget your own mental health&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s easy to worry about student wellbeing and forget your own mental health&nbsp;needs. You need to&nbsp;prioritise&nbsp;looking after yourself if you\u2019re going to support your students when they\u2019re working remotely.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your work-life balance is important.&nbsp;Make&nbsp;opportunities for&nbsp;exercise&nbsp;in your day. Include&nbsp;time for&nbsp;hobbies&nbsp;and&nbsp;check out&nbsp;useful&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/eu\/europe\/5-simple-stress-busting-mindfulness-apps-for-teachers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">apps for relieving stress<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Final thoughts&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Student mental health is a worry in all schools,&nbsp;but the rise of distance learning makes it harder to spot&nbsp;young people&nbsp;who are struggling. Working online can make your students feel more distant, but they&nbsp;still&nbsp;need&nbsp;your personal support for their wellbeing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working at home&nbsp;can&nbsp;feel isolating for&nbsp;everyone. Build&nbsp;opportunities to talk&nbsp;as a class and school community. Let your students, and staff, share how they\u2019re feeling. You can help every member of your class access the support they need.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":9556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2656],"tags":[131,537,153,997,995,542,543,558,79,80,410],"class_list":["post-806912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-education","tag-elearning","tag-how-to","tag-parents","tag-remote-education","tag-remote-learning","tag-remote-teaching","tag-students","tag-teachers","tag-wacom-intuos","tag-wacom-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}