Teaching that transforms

Recently, Apeejay School, Panchsheel Park, hosted an insightful capacity-building workshop on ‘Promoting Mental Health and Awareness among Students’. Organised as part of the CBSE-mandated 50-hour training requirement, the programme aimed at empowering teachers with the skills and sensitivity needed to respond to students’ emotional and behavioural needs in a rapidly evolving educational landscape.

The workshop was facilitated by two distinguished CBSE Resource Persons: Ms Neera Kohli, who is associated with PM Vidya and NCERT; and Ms Sumita Bhargava, State Teacher Awardee, Master Trainer, and Course Designer with PM eVidya, NCERT, and the Core Academic Unit (DoE, GNCTD). Their collective expertise brought depth, clarity, and real-world perspective to the session.

Teachers from the school participated with enthusiasm, engaging wholeheartedly in a variety of interactive activities designed to deepen understanding and encourage reflective practice. The programme featured role-plays, symptom-identification tasks, group discussions, and case-based problem-solving exercises that allowed teachers to analyse real-life classroom situations. These activities helped participants identify early signs of stress, anxiety, and behavioural concerns in students, and explore strategies for timely intervention.

Through collaborative discussions, teachers examined the underlying causes of common emotional challenges faced by learners. The facilitators emphasised the importance of empathy, active listening, non-judgmental communication, and building a supportive classroom climate. Practical tools and classroom approaches, ranging from mindfulness practices to positive reinforcement and creating safe expression spaces, were shared to help teachers promote holistic student well-being.

An important aspect of the workshop was enabling educators to design effective response systems for students in distress. By working through sample cases, teachers gained clarity on when to guide, when to counsel, and when to escalate concerns to experts or parents, ensuring that no child’s needs go unnoticed.

The Vice-principal of the school, Ms Vandana Bansal, expressed her gratitude to the resource persons for their enriching insights. She encouraged teachers to integrate the learning into their day-to-day practice and reaffirmed the school’s commitment to nurturing not just academically strong, but also emotionally resilient students.

The workshop concluded with renewed motivation among teachers to create classrooms where mental well-being and learning go hand in hand, truly exemplifying ‘teaching that transforms’.