Case study: Wellbeing at Macau Anglican College

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In this case study, the Komodo team spoke to Macau Anglican College Head of Secondary Section Andrea Munoyenda. 

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Macau Anglican College is an Anglican Christian school located in Taipa, Macau SAR. Established in the year 2002, the school provides education from Kindergarten to Senior Secondary with the total enrolment currently at 1,430 students. Of the school's philosophy and mission, Andrea tells us "At Macau Anglican College, inspiring a new generation of learners to become successful and confident individuals is not just a talk. It’s our promise and we hold it dearly.” Macau Anglican College (MAC) staff are committed to providing a safe and positive learning environment for their students and ensuring their wellbeing strategy is the best it can be. “We have a very dedicated Pastoral Care Team staff which is made up of the Form Lead Teachers, student counsellors, a school Educational/Clinical Psychology consultant and the Head of Secondary. This team meets regularly.”

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From relying on staff’s ability to read through students’ behaviour to regularly gathering representative data to understand how they’re really feeling: introducing Komodo enabled Macau Anglican College to create tailored wellbeing activities designed to create meaningful, long-lasting changes to student wellbeing. ‍

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THE CHALLENGE: 

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Prior to implementing Komodo, MAC faced several challenges. Andrea tells us that “chief among them was the lack of wellbeing data representative of the entire student population which could be used to come up with proactive evidence-based interventions.” This is a frustration shared by many schools that approach us at Komodo. Despite a team of brilliant staff working hard to build positive and constructive relationships with students, the staff did not have a structured way of gathering wellbeing insights from every student.  

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Wellbeing and pastoral care matters and concerns were primarily driven by staff members on all levels working through individual interventions as they were required. The MAC team recognised the limitations of their strategy and were searching for a way to make more consistently informed decisions surrounding their wellbeing practices “Our interventions before implementing Komodo were based on a few pastoral and wellbeing matters brought to our attention either by teachers especially Form Lead Teachers (FLT’s) who form part of our Pastoral Care Team, student counsellors, parents/guardians or students themselves. Obviously, this method of collecting data was inadequate as well as reactionary and without any specific wellbeing domains. The data collected was collected from a very small sample of the student population yet it was used to react with strategies for the whole school.” 

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Andrea and the other staff at MAC were searching for a tool that would:

• Assist staff in gathering a more informed picture of their student's wellbeing. 
• Enable the school to develop a consistent, reliable, representative and scientific method of collecting wellbeing data.
• Accurately identify students who may require help so the school can implement evidence-based interventions. 
• Allow the school to implement proactive, information-driven wellbeing practices.
• Provide students with a safe and convenient platform to express their emotions. 

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THE SOLUTION

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Since MAC introduced Komodo to their students in August 2022 they have been able to collect representative data from on average 95% of the student population.

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‍“Our students take the Komodo surveys once a fortnight and the Pastoral Care Team meets regularly after looking at the wellbeing data. The Form Leader Teachers urgently follow up on any requested check-ins as well as the recommended check-ins.” The team analyses the data to inform their action plan. Andrea explains how the team flags potential issues and tracks their progress “We use Komodo data to inform us of the areas that we need to pay attention to. For example the amount of sleep and device use, which have been on the down-side  although we are making some progress in improving these two.”

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As an example of the proactive steps MAC are taking to address identified weaker areas in their student wellbeing Andrea shared some of the activities that were rolled out to combat issues with sleep and device use. “[We know that] normally, these two can be connected to each other for example, when students spend more time on their devices at night, that time eats into their sleeping time. Therefore, we have organised some activities to try and address these two.

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We had talks on the Responsible Use of Social Media, A Talk on Sleep (benefits of a good night's sleep versus the negative impact of sleep deprivation). We also had A Good Night Sleep Project for students, a Students' Chill Room (for napping or chilling before or after their examinations) and we also emailed parents and students with an update on Komodo Wellbeing and highlighted the benefits of the platform so far and along with that we shared some Komodo digital resources to address digital wellbeing and sleep (Unlocking Quality Wellbeing with Sleep).” 

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“Recently we also had a very interesting whole school activity which we themed "A School Day in the 70s". On this day, everyone (teachers and students) had to spend the whole day without their devices and technology. All our lessons and daily routines were without the use of technology for both teachers and students (no computers, no ipads, no PPTs and projectors, and no mobile phones). The idea behind this activity was to raise awareness that while technology has brought us a lot of good, there are still times that we can do away with it and put our devices away and prevent over-dependence on technology and hopefully address the device use challenges we are picking from Komodo data. To spice things up, our teachers had to dress up like teachers in the 70s. The activity received lots of positive feedback even from parents.” 

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Engaging, informative activities such as the ones MAC have rolled out to students prove that when you are equipped with the right insights into areas where students may be struggling you can facilitate meaningful learning opportunities and conversations, driving awareness and eventually progress overall. 

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THE IMPACT

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Andrea explained to us the genuine benefits the MAC staff and students have seen as a result of using Komodo. 

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Staff development:

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As a result of the responsive check-in feature MAC decided to implement an Accidental Counsellor professional development training programme for all Pastoral Care Team members. This programme was designed to upskill them in terms of having effective coaching conversations with students requesting check-ins or those students with suggested recommended check-ins “These coaching conversations have been very effective and students have expressed their gratitude towards the platform as well as towards their FLTs. The teachers are happy with Komodo and its positive impact on our students' wellbeing”

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Enhanced wellbeing activities

Designed to tackle the issues students are proven to be facing MAC has used Komodo Data to inform a number of unique and engaging student activities designed to enhance student wellbeing both at school and in the community. 

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Valuable wellbeing surveys that ask the right questions:
“Besides getting reliable data, Komodo is giving us data fit for the purpose for which it's being collected because our students respond to survey questions that are carefully thought out by the [Komodo] team of psychologists making sure that the questions measure the wellbeing domains the school would like to address."

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Increased community awareness of wellbeing:‍

“We did a special launch assembly on World Mental Health Day and I think the timing of the launch was perfect. Our parents were all informed and more than 98% consented to have their children do the surveys. I think our school is off to a very good start with Komodo Wellbeing.” 

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Meaningful connections with students:

‍“There has been an increase of student-teacher interaction especially with Form Lead Teachers and Student Counsellors because the students who previously could not express their emotions to their teachers or student counsellors now have a voice and a safe space to do so. The FLTs or Student Counsellors can follow up and have coaching conversations with students. Students feel they have a voice and a safe space to express their emotions and views. They are generally grateful that the school has invested in this platform to improve their wellbeing. They are even more grateful when they see teachers following up on matters as a result of the data coming through from the platform.‍

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‍If you’re an international school considering improving your wellbeing strategy, we want to help!

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We partner with industry networks including BSME, COBIS and EARCOS and work with schools in over 22 countries, which are already gaining the insights needed to master student wellbeing. What insight will you gain?

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