Early Friday morning saw the return of the Counselor Coffee Morning Workshop, a program popular among Middle School parents. Organized by the Middle School counselors, it holds discussions on the ways to cultivate responsible digital citizens, helping parents to guide teenagers through the hazardous maze of the Internet. It thus serves as an important guide to student psychological development in the current era, attuned to one of the school's key cultivation goals for the new school year, ‘Digital Citizenship’.
Promoting the physical and mental health of students as part of their overall development, is a major issue of national and social concern. The national Ministry of Education has formulated a special action plan to comprehensively strengthen and improve the mental health of students, amid the unprecedented pressures and opportunities of today’s networked society. It recommends a broad-spectrum approach, involving the promotion of health education, monitoring and early warning of risky behaviors, counseling services, and intervention. This ‘four-in-one’ approach to student mental health brings together the school, the family, the wider society, and relevant government departments to effectively address mental health concerns among students. Pao School fully endorses the comprehensive approach, and has set “To ensure an appropriate balance between the pursuit of academic excellence and whole person education to support the mental and emotional well-being of our school community.” as one of its three key priorities this year.
The two counsellors, Ms. Tina Wu and Ms. Laurel Li began the ‘Digital Citizenship’ by explaining the priorities of Pao School in the new academic year and its connection with the development of digital citizenship.
Basing on the principle of ‘Protect, Respect and Thrive’, the one and half hours of sharing session aims to make sure that the ever more intense usage of computers is guided in ways that are meaningful and pedagogically responsible. Parents were provided with knowledge about the development of the teenager brain, and drawn into a discussion of the "needs that lie behind the digital usage" of their children before being divided into smaller groups to explore how a ‘Family Digital Usage Plan’ might be best formulated.
From primary to high school, school counsellors are continually available to provide professional counselling and support services to protect the mental and emotional health of community members. (Supporting the well-being of our school community) The coffee mornings are one of the many programs offered by the Middle School Counseling Office. In recent years, they have also hosted outreach programs on topic such as ‘Communicating Effectively with Adolescents’. These parent education programs have been well-received by Pao School community. " Instead of waiting for a crisis to emerge, we opt to use a preventive approach that helps students develop resilience and build up their own support systems, so they can better cope with difficulties in the future," Ms. Tina Wu explains.
The Middle School counseling programme involves Individual Counseling and Group Counseling. Students can schedule an appointment on their own, and counsellors also provide one-on-one service that focuses on individual needs. The purpose of individual counseling varies widely according to the students’ needs. These can include issues of social and emotional development, identity development, interpersonal relationships, and goal-setting, among others. In addition, teachers and parents can apply to refer students for counseling through the online form, so that through short-term individual counseling (of 6-8 sessions), counselors can have a positive influence on the students’ cognitive, emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral development. Group counseling caters to the diverse needs of students, helping them to integrate into groups, find friendship, and improve social skills, as well as coping with grief, anger management, and other life strategies.
Middle School has also offered its students two social emotional development related CCAs this year. In the Healing Art Expression CCA, students will have the opportunity to express themselves through a myriad of creative arts in a non-judgmental environment. The Mindfulness Workshop, on the other hand, facilitates a journey of mindfulness, where students can embrace the power of the present moment using various techniques such as painting, breathing exercises, and movement in order to develop a more calm and focused state of mind.
The Counseling Office also organizes various school-wide activities to promote mental health awareness among all students and parents. These are designed to build a campus culture where mental health is easy to talk about. By establishing partnership with teachers, school staff, parents, and the community, the Counseling Office hope to enhance students’ support system and promote a climate of well-being throughout the school. For example, last school year, the theme of Unity Week in the Middle School was ‘Accepting Our Differences’. The Counseling Office organized programs such as sessions on the social emotional management, bingo games, and ‘The Power of Words’ games. These activities educated students about the topic, while helping them to understand and cope with their own differences, and those of others.
Middle school is a very critical stage, a time when children are often experiencing rapid growth and development, as well as curiously exploring the world and their self-identity. We realize that during this particular stage of adolescence, children, parents, and teachers all face different challenges, and these challenges can be meaningfully broken down into parts: helping children to build positive social skills and values, to explore their interests and career paths, to learn how to live in harmony with their complex emotions, and to effectively realize their unlimited potential. We are so happy to be there for our children and families and to spend this precious time together.
——Tina Wu and Laurel Li,
Middle School Counselors
