California Safe and Supportive Schools

Cultivating Caring Relationships at School: 15 Activities That Promote Staff and Student Connection

Student-Staff Relationships

Cultivating Caring Relationships at School: 15 Activities That Promote Staff and Student Connection

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This resource, coauthored and reviewed by California Center for School Climate’s Youth Advisory Team, contains 15 classroom-based activities that promote the development of positive relationships between staff and students at both the elementary and secondary levels. Activities are designed to be low cost and easy to implement. Each activity contains detailed instructions as well as adaptations for both in-person and online learning environments.

Watch this video to learn about an activity in the toolkit!

View the transcript.

School Connectedness and Academic Achievement in California High Schools

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The CalSCHLS School Connectedness Scale is an important differentiator between low-performing and high-performing high schools and has value as an indicator of school quality. School connectedness appeared to have increased in California recently, but it still declined markedly after students left elementary school with a substantial majority of high school students not feeling highly connected to their schools. The lowest rates of both connectedness and test scores occur in low-income schools.

Climate Connection Toolkit

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The Climate Connection Toolkit outlines no- and low-cost, practical strategies for examining a school’s climate. It is designed to extend the utility of What Works Briefs for school climate improvement, created as part of the California Safe and Supportive Schools (S3) initiative, which outline research-based recommendations for universal and targeted school climate improvement policies, practices, and programs. The self-contained activities in the Climate Connection Toolkit, some of which were inspired by S3 grantees, are organized to assist school personnel in their ongoing efforts to improve the quality of relationships shared within and between adult and student groups on their campuses.

Lessons Learned from California’s Safe and Supportive Schools Project

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Over the course of the California Safe and Supportive Schools (S3) Project, the California Department of Education gained valuable insights into strategies that are effective in improving school climate in some of the most challenged high schools in the state. This What Works Brief describes the S3 framework and summarizes six of the key lessons learned:

  1. Go slow to move fast
  2. School leaders set the tone
  3. Empower adults and connect with young people
  4. Focus on norms first
  5. Prioritize meaningful actions and “quick wins”
  6. Changing relationships and engagement takes time and commitment