Hi. My name is Catherine Wolcott, and I'm a Clinical Psychologist working at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Throughout this module, we'll be discussing tier one interventions or interventions that all students receive to support their mental health and well-being. First, we'll talk about the importance of the school's climate, with a focus on the significance of positive relationships. When students enter school, they have a set of feelings and thoughts about the type of place that their school is. Do they feel safe? Do they have people they can trust and talk to? Do they feel excited and empowered to learn? The National School Climate Center or NSCC is an organization dedicated to measuring and improving the climate for learning in schools. According to NSCC, a school's climate is the quality and character of school life. The quality and character of a school's climate is made up of six different areas as outlined by the NSCC. Safety, teaching and learning, the institutional environment, social media, staff leadership and professional relationships, and interpersonal relationships amongst students and staff. It is important to know that different organizations identify different dimensions of school climate, but nearly all involve a focus on relationships, safety, and the environment. Let's dive into the different dimensions of school climate outlined by NSCC. Safety means that students feel safe physically and emotionally from physical harm, violence, verbal abuse, teasing, and exclusion. Part of safety means that the school community has clear rules that are communicated and upheld to protect students and adults. For example, schools that have clear bullying policies and consistent responses to bullying provide the school community with a sense of safety. Teaching and learning refers to how schools create an environment for academic and social emotional learning. Positive teaching and learning includes constructive feedback and offering students different ways to show skills. Students should be provided with opportunities for critical thinking, the right level of challenge, and individual attention. In addition, school support learning positive social and emotional skills such as listening, conflict resolution, empathy, and responsibility. We've already reviewed ways to teach social and emotional skills to help reduce mental health concerns. The institutional environment is how connected students feel to their school community and also refers to the school's physical surroundings. Students and families can feel different levels of attachment and positive feelings about their school. The physical surroundings of a school include the school's cleanliness, orderliness, and availability of resources. Social media refers to students feeling safe online or on electronic devices even when they're not on school grounds. Social media has increasingly become a focus of bullying prevention activities and in promoting a sense of safety for students. Staff leadership and professional relationships also affect the school's climate. The administration of the school should provide a vision for the school that motivate staff and the school community. Professional relationships amongst staff should be supportive and collaborative to help build a positive school climate. Finally, interpersonal relationships are a critical piece of the school's climate. A foundation of interpersonal relationships in schools is respect for diversity. This means an overall appreciation for differences in an attitude of respect and tolerance. Interpersonal relationships include peer relationships and adult student relationships. Adults should provide carrying relationships for students, high expectations for student's success, appreciation for individual students, and concern for student's problems. Positive relationships among students themselves include friendships that helps students enjoy their time together, solve problems, learn together, and reach out to students in need. Lots of research has shown the importance of positive relationships for learning and success, making interpersonal relationships a key part of a school's climate. Although school climate is a broad concept that includes multiple dimensions, it's possible to measure a school's climate across these different areas. Research has shown that positive school climate has been connected to better attendance rates, test scores, and graduation rates. Negative climate, on the other hand, is associated with lower achievement and graduation rates and can create opportunities for bullying, violence, and even suicide. Let's think now about our eighth grade student, Javier, and how a positive school climate, in particular, positive relationships are instrumental in supporting his mental health. At Javier's school, teachers make an effort to get to know students as individuals regardless of how they're doing academically. In addition, teachers intentionally help students work together and they encourage students to help each other solve problems. When students are worried or concerned about each other, they view their teachers as resources that they can use. Teachers have positive relationships with each other and they communicate with each other to help support students success. In Javier's case, the positive school climate has allowed Javier's reading teacher to notice differences in Javier's behavior and respond when Javier seems down. She talks to Javier about how he has been feeling and behaving and because she knows him personally, they have a foundation of trust. She has spent more time with him after class to support him even though she is still not clear on what has led him to be so disengaged. Javier's peers has also gone to teachers as they've tried to help him, but have noticed a change in how he's been feeling. This supportive environment has allowed peers and teachers to express concern about Javier and offer him support. Despite this increased connection however, they remained concerned about his mood and his behaviors. Luckily, the school has a positive overall foundation and climate where Javier feels safe and connected to the adults and students around him. This will be an important foundation as he continues to require extra support. In upcoming videos, we will identify additional universal supports that will be helpful for Javier and Kelsey to be successful in school. Our next lesson will focus on social emotional learning.
