Building collegiate relationships in schools

This guide looks at how school or college leaders can build collegiate relationships at all levels in their settings. It emphasises that building a collegiate environment is the foundation for resilience and improving mental health and wellbeing across education settings.

The content is broken down into several main areas, including:

• managing difficult relationships
• breaking down barriers to communication
• improving your own response to conflict as a leader
• active listening
• giving and receiving feedback.

The guide includes a detailed explanation to the different types of listening, such as cosmetic listening, active listening and deep listening. It then explains which types of listening are most effective for building positive relationships.

It recognises the difficulty in knowing how to manage different needs, expectations and requirements of relationships within the school or college community.

Using this resource

This resource is designed for:

• use by mental health leads working with students aged 5 to 19+.

Learning outcomes

This resource addresses the following learning outcomes:

• Create a plan to develop, implement and sustain a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing, tailored to their setting’s needs.
• Reflect on personal development needs, and put in place plans to be effective in role.
• Sustain and continually improve the approach in their setting, working effectively with peers and support networks.