Student Welfare in Basic Education

(subtitles for the video available in English)  

Student welfare encompasses services to promote, maintain and facilitate successful learning, good mental and physical health as well as social well-being in the school community. It is important for a child to feel safe and comfortable studying at school, and to receive help in any problems they may encounter.  

Student welfare is the common task of all those who work in the school community. Student welfare is primarily preventative, communal well-being work that supports the entire school community. Its objective is a thriving school community that can support the learning and well-being of every student, head off potential problems and offer support at the earliest possible stage through risk mitigation. A thriving school community is a place of trust and interpersonal openness: each member feels they are part of the community and are being heard. 

Each student has the right to individual student welfare. Individual student welfare refers to student-directed school health care services, school psychologist and social worker services as well as multidisciplinary student welfare services directed at the individual student. Individual student welfare services are always carried out in cooperation with the student and their guardian. 

The communal student welfare working group seeks to develop, evaluate, plan, and coordinate student welfare work being done in the school. The student welfare working group in our school meets to discuss communal student welfare matters around every four weeks. 

The student welfare working group in our school is composed of the principal, the deputy head(s), the school nurse, the special education teachers, the school social worker, and the school psychologist. In addition, other experts, teachers, or counsellors may be invited to the meetings. The coordinator of the pupil welfare working group is the MYP special education teacher Tiia Seppänen. You may find the contact information below. 

For the individual student’s welfare meetings, the attendees will always be selected as appropriate to the meeting and selected together with the student and the guardian. 

School social worker and school psychologist 

The purpose of the work of the school social worker and the school psychologist is to promote and support a student’s well-being, healthy growth, and development, as well as to ensure learning proceeds smoothly. They may be contacted about any question concerning a child’s or a youth’s growth, development, learning, or any other school-related matter. They are open to questions from the student themself, a guardian, a teacher, or another party. 

The tasks of the school social worker and the school psychologist include, among others: 

• working on any problems that emerge in a student’s development, school attendance, learning, mental health, or social relationships, and evaluating the need for support and other action to remedy them 
• promoting the well-being and safety of the individual student and the entire school community, as well as a positive learning environment, in cooperation with the teachers and other school personnel 
• supporting a pupil and their family if necessary when cooperating with other parties and services. 

Health Services in OIS