It’s that time of year again: the annual study day at BBS Alice Salomon is being held at the Neuwied school site this time. In a democratic voting process, the teaching staff decided on the topic of “Dealing with mental illness in pupils”. A large preparatory team led by Yvonne Bachem was able to attract high-caliber lecturers so that the broad diversity of this important topic could be represented.
The plenary lecture on the topic “Psycho? Logical! Looking behind the pupil’s forehead. Introduction to behavioral psychology” was given by Dr. Benjamin Förster, psychologist, pedagogue and educational psychologist. The lecture, which was partly interactive, opened up initial perspectives on mental illnesses that could be explored in greater depth during the rest of the study day.
The college was then given the opportunity to attend workshops on various topics twice:
- Pupils with depression
- Mental stress in everyday school life from the perspective of those affected
- Truancy
- Conversation management for teachers
- Psychological first aid in everyday school life
We had the following speakers at our disposal: Ms. Janna Dreckkötter (social worker and speaker), Mr. Reiner Herrmann (child and adolescent psychotherapist), Ms. Verena Lonzeck and Ms. Lena Kleine-Büning (school psychologists) and Dr. Benjamin Förster, who had already given the plenary lecture.
In the workshops, individual topics were explored in greater depth and the focus was directed specifically at challenges in everyday school life. The aim was to understand the illness of depression and to develop strategies for dealing with affected learners. One particularly memorable workshop highlighted the perspective of those affected, as the speaker herself is familiar with mental illnesses and was therefore able to report on what those affected want and need. The topic of school absenteeism was also on the minds of the teaching staff in the run-up to the event, so that the desire for basic knowledge on this topic could be met. In general, it is also important when dealing with mentally ill pupils to know how to structure conversations with those affected. For this reason, another workshop was designed to expand the students’ own conversation skills. Due to the diversity of mental illnesses, a further workshop was offered that focused on an in-depth examination of selected, common clinical pictures as well as psychological first aid according to the ROGER principle and various support options. In addition, the participants discussed their own limits when dealing with mentally distressed pupils. The workshops were characterized by an intensive examination of the respective topics and the opportunity to discuss their own questions and challenges.
At the beginning of the study day, the staff were provided with freshly brewed coffee and cookies, while the lunch break was accompanied by drinks and a delicious minestrone with baguette and sour cream.
At the end of the day, principal Doris Schulte-Schwering took the opportunity to thank the speakers for this enriching day. But she also had high praise for the preparatory team: Marco Gilles, Annabell Bellinger, Alisa Albiez, Anne Gasper, Jens Gießwein, Iradet Bajrami, Jenny Trittin, Ulrike Köhler-Raithelhuber and, of course, Yvonne Bachem. “You are all great and worked hand in hand to make this day possible,” said Doris Schulte-Schwering.
Text: Doris Schulte-Schwering and Annabell Bellinger
Photos: Claudia Scheidt and Jutta Döring