Homeroom Solution

Last night at a party, I found myself in a circle of primary teachers who were either studying or fresh into their full time job.

Of course, the hot topic of ‘student wellbeing’ came up, and all unanimously agreed that schools just don’t focus enough (or at all) on wellbeing and mental health.

A brilliant suggestion:

One of them passionately argued to

replace homeroom teachers with counsellors, psychologists or some sort of mental health worker.

Most people remember homeroom as being that first 15-30 minutes of each day… doing f*** all. So instead of it being a chance to tell off students for uniform, what if it became a group counselling and wellbeing session?

Stigma

There’s stigma around seeing the counsellor in school. It’s uncommon, and it means admitting there’s something ‘wrong’ with you.

But if a health care worker leads homeroom instead, they can bring the counselling TO students, and normalise sharing healthy conversations around mental health.

Most importantly, students will realise that their wellbeing does in fact come first.