Newsletter #2

Dear UPRIGHT friends,

We hope you and those around you are save and well as we face the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic is presenting all around the world. The outbreak has affected us all in various ways, our health and safety, productivity and everyday routines have been disrupted.

Our members from the Directorate of Health in Iceland have compiled these 10 Good advice in times of coronavirus. The advices are based on what evidence-based knowledge has taught us to be useful in enhancing physical, psychological, and social wellbeing. The advice can be found here.

Now that the second school year of UPRIGHT is coming to an end, we want in this newsletter to reflect on what we have achieved. We want to thank all our control and intervention schools for joining the UPRIGHT community and for their contribution to the project. Among other things, in this newsletter you´ll find an article on how we are doing, updates on the UPRIGHT platform, an article on parents and school cooperation and an interview with one of our teacher who is implementing the programme in her school.

One of our main objectives is to provide scientific evidence on specific resilience factors that contribute to promoting mental wellbeing among adolescents. The contribution of our control schools, who will receive the program after the evaluation, is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. We are so thankful for their participation and welcoming attitude towards the program and us and hope that their students, teachers, parents and other in their school community will benefit of the UPRIGHT program in the future. Thank you once again for your important participation.

Teachers, parents and students have all put in a major effort in order to make things functioning at home during these months due to governmental restrictions such as the closing of schools to cope with the spread of the pandemic. In our UPRIGHT project, we have adapted our procedures in the schools, i.e. there has been a lot of work in rescheduling the evaluation of the programme. We are grateful for our amazing educational community, for your understanding and help during these difficult and strange times.

Now one of the important activities for us, as a research project, is answering the questionnaires of evaluation. We thank all of you who have already participated. Our target is to reach 6000 adolescents and 6000 families!!

We call for teachers, families and adolescents who have signed informed consent form to participate! It takes only about 20 minutes to participate throughout the online surveys. You might already have received the link for the questionnaires by email. Please check your inbox!

The UPRIGHT researchers have developed some materials to implement the whole-school approach intervention in the schools. Our aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of this programme before making it available for the community. Therefore, during the duration of the project, these materials will be password-protected and available for the schools implementing the UPRIGHT intervention via the online platform.

We have developed improvements and the UPRIGHT online platform has been restructured to facilitate access and downloading of materials by our stakeholders. A virtual assistant/coach feature, which helps school staff to get oriented in visiting and using the UPRIGHT materials, has been added.

In the open section for the Community, the population can follow the news on the activities that our local school communities are experiencing in the context of the Well-being for All programme. Overall, in the last two school years, more than 3,000 people have joined us in the UPRIGHT online platform to be informed and supported in piloting the Well-being for Us and Well-being for All programmes.

We hope that we can continue to rely on the great participation of our school communities for the coming months, and will continue to share with you any news on the UPRIGHT progress and achievements, at both the local and international level.

As parents we all want the best for our children, we want them to feel save and well and do our best to nurture their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. When they start school, a cooperation between parents and the school begins, with focus on the child´s wellbeing. Both partners play an important role. Parents are their child´s first and most important teachers and are responsible for raising them while the school’s main role is to support parents in educating their students in alignment to the situation of the family. It is also the school’s role to establish and maintain a good cooperation between parents and the school.

Research has shown that when parents are involved in their child´s education and maintain good communication with the school and their children´s teachers, the child feels and does better at school. The child is furthermore likelier to have a positive attitude towards the school and learning. The aim is to enhance the child´s wellbeing and educational and learning skills and it will not be done without the cooperation between parents and the school. Good cooperation is grounded in mutual respect and understanding of what each party can bring to the table.

Parents that take on an active role in their child´s education maintain a good relationship with the school and their child´s teacher. They are also aware and show their interest in what they are doing at school and attend meetings and other events arranged by the teacher or the school. It is important for parents to have a realistic view of their child´s capacity and focus on their child´s unique strengths as well as providing extra support where needed.

Has the UPRIGHT programme been useful for you as a teacher?

UPRIGHT has increased my patience in teaching and strengthened my resilience skills. I have dedicated myself to positive thinking and I am able to choose my battles. My job satisfaction has increased, and I´m more focused on subjects I have on hand in my work. The program has enhanced my active listening both towards my colleagues and towards my students. I find it easier to tackle difficult situations and I´m able to keep calm and use my coping abilities to solve a project in a positive way.

Has the UPRIGHT programme affected you in one way or another in your personal life?

The UPRIGHT material is beneficial in one way or another for teachers. I am more conscious, and the program affects the skills we need to live our daily life, whether it is in conversations with my colleagues, partner, or children. UPRIGHT has taught me a different and better way of thinking. It has enhanced my resilience skills in the tasks I have to deal with in life and it encourages me to rethink every decision I make. I consider myself a better parent, partner, and person in everyday life. I have managed to reduce stress factors in my daily life and I´m aware of my tolerance and my confidence has increased.

Are there any benefits of the programme in your opinion?

The main benefits of the UPRIGHT program is how diverse it is. Each chapter of the material can be customized in a way to suit all students. The tasks in each chapter offers many ways of teaching which have been very welcome in the strange times we are facing due to COVID-19.

Do you think your students are adapting the skills taught in the programme?

I believe that students will adapt to the UPRIGHT program over time, it will make them more conscious and help them to be present, as well as enhance their resilience skills when they are dealing with difficult situations or tasks. Although students will not be able to master the content immediately, I would say that they will use it in one way or another. By increasing their knowledge of their mental health and utilizing our pitch stories, we contribute to students’ well-being. We reach a wider group, and everyone can find something of their interest. They gain self-confidence and are prepared to deal with life.

During the COVID-19 pandemic has UPRIGHT helped you in any way?

The UPRIGHT program has been useful for me during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have been present and been able to adjust myself. As a result, I have been there for the people around me and have been able to face my students in a calm and balanced way when needed.

Has UPRIGHT changed the ways that teachers work together?

One of our school’s strengths is adaptability and we try to handle every task that we are given. I have to say that we are lucky to been chosen as an intervention school for the UPRIGHT program. We have adopted the vocabulary of UPRIGHT and showed resilience throughout our work. I think over time, the UPRIGHT program and its learning will have a place in our school and affect the school spirit.

Do you have any messages for other UPRIGHT teachers?

The most important thing about the UPRIGHT program is to take it open-minded. It is a lot of interesting material. Teachers must demonstrate resilience, patience and be here and now. The material offers many teaching opportunities and is not necessarily limited to UPRIGHT classes, it can be adapted to other classes. From my point of view, teamwork is important, and that we share our ideas with other teachers and share access to material we want to use. Group meetings where teachers come together and share their experiences are also great.

Our first scientific article, UPRIGHT, a resilience-based intervention to promote mental well-being in schools: study rationale and methodology for a European randomized controlled trial, has now been published in BMC Public Health journal. The article can be found here.