Build Trusting Relationships

RATIONALE

The trauma and isolation experienced during COVID-19 necessitate a focus on the development of strong and trusting relationships in the school setting. Prior to the start of the school year and within the first few days, districts and schools need to actively and warmly integrate students, families, and teachers into the social school environment and work deliberately to facilitate the (re)building of trust and relationships including those between students, between teachers, between teachers and their students, and also between teachers and families. In promoting strong relationships, schools can become communities supportive of its members’ well-being and its students’ academic growth.

CONCRETE STRATEGIES

DISTRICT-LEVEL

RECOMMENDATION

1. Conduct Schoolwide Assessments to Evaluate Relationships

In order to strengthen relationships, have all schools complete the 5Essentials Survey Assessment (UChicago) during the first part of the year and learn from their results on the measures of Student-Teacher Trust, Teacher-Teacher Trust, and Teacher-Parent Trust.
- - - Administrators and teachers at schools that have high results on the assessment should then mentor other schools in the district to support their areas of growth.

CAMPUS-LEVEL

RECOMMENDATION

1. Utilize Home Visiting for Relationship Building

Have classroom teachers conduct a home visit prior to the start of school as a strategy for developing strong parent-teacher relationships.
- - - Focus the visit on teachers getting to know their students and their families.
    - Clarify that the singular purpose of the home visit is to build relationships and not to discuss expectations at school or be evaluative.
    - Have teachers ask parents: “What would you like for me to know about your child?”
    - During the visit ask the child where their favorite place is in their home and take a picture of the family in that spot and put the picture up in the classroom.

TEACHER-LEVEL

RECOMMENDATION

1. Provide Direct Instruction on Friendship

Plan and teach a unit on Friendship within the first few weeks of school so that students gain a vocabulary around friendship and can work to build positive peer-to-peer relationships.

RESOURCES

Watch TEA's video from the Texas Project Restore on Building Secure Relationships and Building Strong Partnerships with Students' Families

Review Turnaround for Children’s blog post, Design Principles for Schools: Five Tools to Help You Build Trusting Relationships with Your Students

Read the Home Visit Project's Impact Report from 2021 to learn about the benefits of home visiting

Watch a series of videos focused on trauma and relationship building from Momentous Online

See Conscious Discipline for support in how to think about developing a strong School Family

Conscious Discipline's offers relevant Professional Development Trainings and E-Learning on a variety of topics

Watch NCTSN’s Building Relationships as a Foundation of Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools

Watch this Webinar on Leadership for Equity Through Positive Relationships, which "focus[es] on how school and district leaders can encourage and foster positive relationships amongst teachers, students, and the community... [and] examine[s] the relationship between equity and social and emotional learning."

Read School Stories from the 5Essentials in Practice:

Explore resources from Communities in Schools, a program dedicated to helping students thrive by surrounding them with a network of trust

Back to All Recommendations for Social Emotional Learning

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