In the 2020-2021 school year, the theme of the student conferences was ‘taboos’. Students from all over the Netherlands came together online to talk about bullying, stress and sex. It turned out that many students do not know who to contact at school if they have a problem, have questions or want to discuss concerns. Confidential counselors are sometimes not known to the students or not accessible. For LAKS it is important that students can talk about their problems or concerns at school. That is why LAKS conducted a study into bonds of trust in schools in the 2021-2022 school year.

Taboos in education

The 2020-2021 student conferences on taboos in education have shown that there are various themes that students find difficult to discuss at school (with fellow students, mentors/teachers or confidants). During these conferences, the focus was mainly on stress, sex and bullying, but students generally indicated that they do not know who to turn to with their questions, concerns or problems. You can read a detailed report of the student conferences and the findings in the report “Taboos in education”. Based on the findings, LAKS has decided to conduct a study into trust networks among secondary school students.

The research showed that schools have a formal network of trust, but that students are often not well informed about this network, and in particular about the possibility of going to a confidential counselor. Students know that there is a confidential counselor, but it is often unclear who the face behind this person is. It is therefore necessary to make the confidential counselor visible by having them come more often during a mentor lesson or by participating in an extra activity.

Students also indicated in the study that in most cases they go to their mentor or another teacher with whom they click. It is necessary to actively work on building bonds of trust. For example, it is important to have space in lessons to have personal conversations between student and teacher. This contributes to building the formal and informal network of trust. Personal conversations are important for a relationship of trust, even when things are going well with a student. A mentor is often the closest to a student within the school. That’s why it’s important to invest in good mentorship. This can be done, for example, by offering mentors regular training in pedagogical skills and encouraging mentors to request feedback from students.

The full report of the research can be found here. And also read our press release about the publication of the research here.

Exploratory research into bonds of trust

This school year, LAKS, in collaboration with youth research agency Onetwentyone, conducted an exploratory study into bonds of trust. Before that, LAKS went to a number of different secondary schools in the Netherlands. At the schools we spoke to a group of students about the bonds of trust at their school (think: mentors, confidential counselors, complaints committee, care coordinator, school psychologist, etc.).

Follow-up

With the results of this exploratory study, LAKS wants to write advice in the next school year for the people involved in the relationship of trust at school. Such guidelines are available, but are not written based on the experiences and opinions of students themselves. In addition, we will hopefully also discuss the theme with the ministry and other parties in the field.

In December 2021, LAKS, in collaboration with CJP, conducted a short survey among secondary school students to gauge on a larger scale what young people think of the bonds of trust at their school. The results of this survey can be found under this project.