Inhaltsverzeichnis:
1. Why are offers of help at schools not taken up?
Although many schools have great offers for help with private, personal or school problems, these are often not well received. Pupils are faced with a number of inhibitions:
- Awareness: Sometimes it can fail because pupils are not fully aware of the help on offer. In the hustle and bustle of everyday school life, the new office hours of the guidance counsellors can quickly get lost or uncertainty can arise as to whether it is permitted to contact the guidance counsellor during school hours.
- Build trust: Sometimes it can also happen that pupils do not know the chosen counsellor personally as they have never had them in class – in this case, it is naturally not so easy to gain their trust. Pupils often have the feeling that they can only raise disputes if they can present evidence and therefore do not dare to address the problems.
- Fear of asking for help: Especially in the case of problems at school, such as bullying by fellow pupils or disagreements with teachers, there is a fear of being perceived as weak by the bullies or being exposed to negative consequences due to “snitching”. In general, it can take a lot of effort to admit that you need help and actively ask for support.
- Availability and coordination: Scheduling and location issues can also make conversations more difficult, as it is often not easy to find a suitable date in the school day that everyone involved can attend. In the event of acute problems at home, trusted persons from the school are often difficult to reach.
Get your free copy of the concept “Offer help more easily as a guidance counsellor or school social worker” now
In our concept for making it easier to take advantage of offers of help with Sdui, all the information outlined here is expanded on again and additional suggestions are presented on how you can support your pupils even better.
2. This is how you can make it easier to offer and take up offers of help
Once you know why existing support services are not being used, there are various ways to change this. Support your pupils in overcoming inhibitions by using a digital communication solution such as Sdui. Not only can this make it easier to reach guidance counsellors and school social workers, but the “anonymity” provided can also make initial contact easier. In addition, guidance counsellors and school social workers benefit from a much easier workload thanks to better control of availability and simplified organisation.
For example, Sdui’s functions can help you to make it easier for your pupils to access support services:
- Ensure that everyone is aware of the help available: Simply share the new office hours of the guidance counsellors or school social workers via News as a digital letter to parents and be sure that everyone has read the news with just one click thanks to the read confirmation. The translation function ensures that everyone really understands what is on offer. Use it to publicise anti-bullying campaign days in good time. This ensures that everyone is informed with the minimum of effort.
- Simplify the initial contact and help overcome fears: Give your pupils the opportunity to contact you “anonymously” via a secure chat message. This means you can also be contacted outside of limited office hours and can respond to enquiries in peace. Nobody has to be afraid of being caught looking for help. Voice messages enable a more personal exchange with (younger) pupils.
- Enable more conversations through simple appointment scheduling: The survey function in Sdui makes it much easier for you to coordinate possible dates – especially with several people. The results are automatically analysed for you and can be shared with everyone involved. Details and even last-minute arrangements can be clarified easily via the chat.
- Be accessible from any location and also digitally: Thanks to video conferencing and chat, these important conversations are not tied to meeting at school. Be there for your pupils from home in emergencies and enable conversations from the familiar surroundings of your own room.
- Maintain your own privacy and define your availability: Time-outs are important – simply set them up for yourself. Set chats to One-Way and set up notification-free quiet times. This way, your pupils have realistic expectations of when you can be reached. In emergencies, the call waiting function can be used to request that the chat be opened and help is always within reach.
- Don’t worry about data protection: You can rest assured that your conversations and messages will remain confidential, because communication via Sdui is GDPR-compliant. This means your duty of confidentiality remains intact.
Get your free copy of the concept “Offer help more easily as a guidance counsellor or school social worker” now
In our concept on how to make it easier to access support services with Sdui, all the information outlined here is expanded on and additional suggestions are presented on how you can support your pupils even better.
3. Conclusion
Many schools have great support programmes and guidance counsellors or school social workers are on hand to help pupils and their families with school or personal problems. Nevertheless, it is often not so easy for pupils to take the first step to seek help. A digital communication solution such as Sdui can help at many points to simplify both the offering and the taking up of offers of help and thus reduce inhibitions and strengthen trust. More anonymous contact options, uncomplicated appointments and easier accessibility help, while the privacy of the counsellors is maintained. This makes it easier and better to support pupils.
If you would like to find out more about “Offering help more easily as a guidance counsellor or school social worker”, please download our free concept.
Quellen:
- Concept: “Offering help more easily as a guidance counsellor or school social worker”
- www.spiegel.de