To promote mental and social well-being, it is necessary to develop the basic skills, ‘life skills’, that pupils must possess in order to deal effectively with the challenges of their daily school and social life.

Life skills include critical thinking, problem solving, good decision making, effective communication and collaboration, as well as personal and social responsibility and empathy.

One of the innovative actions of the Project is the creation of a Risk Factor Observatory – Factors that endanger the students’ psychosocial well-being in the school environment.

The activity, in addition to identifying and recording critical factors that negatively affect children’s school well-being, forms a collaborative learning framework for pupils with regard to life skills that ensure mental resilience and psychosocial well-being.

The Observatory is implemented and operated mainly by pupils of a class who have “followed” the work of the Project for a reasonable period of time, introduces children to social science research methods – mainly ethnographic observation and, most importantly, provides pupils the opportunity to “define” and shape their school environment, which is a key quality feature for developing a climate that is supportive of psychosocial well-being.

You can see the methodology used here. [File .pdf – English]