School Day: Enhancing Student Wellbeing for Better Learning

Sampo Lokki, Vice President, Sales

Today, children face a host of stressors like the pressure to succeed in the highly competitive world and fear of class participation. These predicaments bear a negative impact on their young minds, disrupting their learning capacity. The most significant factor in removing barriers from education is emotional wellbeing, which leads to academic achievement and a prosperous future. However, promoting the wellbeing of students is put on the back burner as the emphasis on high grades takes precedence. Being the “second home” for children, schools need to address the wellbeing of students in the most reliable way. Helsinki-based EdTech startup School Day offers an AI-enabled mobile app to equilibrate academic learning and emotional wellbeing. “Finland has a very convincing track record in placing wellbeing at the center of learning. Our innovative wellbeing solution improves students’ wellness for significant development in their mental health, social and emotional skills that eventually lead to better learning,” states Sampo Lokki, Vice President of School Day.

Lokki and his School Day team help schools build a positive school culture with a primary focus on wellbeing. To that end, their approach relies entirely on real-time research data. The School Day app collects massive amounts of student data utilizing questions based on long-term school wellbeing research that comprehensively cover different aspects of ‘holistic wellbeing’ as well. The AI analyzes and interprets the collected data for early and precise identification of any wellbeing concerns. To create awareness on the status of students, the School Day app presents timely analytics concerning wellbeing to school leaders, teachers, and parents. Real-time data allow school leaders and staff to make decisions based on facts instead of a gut feeling. Moreover, School Day app provides tips and ideas to school staff on improving students’ wellbeing; it also supports and guides teaching and pedagogical decisions. Most importantly, School Day enables students to become more aware of the factors that affect their wellbeing and guides them to enhance their physical and mental status.

Learning doesn’t happen without wellbeing. Our mission is to remove all barriers from learning – and for students and teachers to have a voice in their wellbeing

School Day gives students “a voice” in the classroom to create their learning paths and promotes interactive discussions on learning-related challenges as well as the development of solutions rather than one-sided lectures. Besides, to block out any distractions present in communication between students and teachers, School Day applies “active listening” that strengthens the student-teacher bond, increases unity, and improves classroom atmosphere. The strong student-teacher relationship further enhances students’ wellbeing with the development of attention capabilities that result in more meaningful learning.

The School Day app can also be integrated with the student information system (SIS) and learning management system (LMS) to provide real-time data and solutions on potential wellbeing issues which distract students from learning. With School Day’s simple-to-use app, the school staff can easily track and analyze the correlation between wellbeing and essential student information such as grades, attendance, and lesson markings.

Currently, School Day assists several education and technology enthusiasts apart from school authorities “to support fruitful wellbeing discussions with students, teachers, and parents,” as mentioned by one of the company’s clients. While School Day delights students with the fantastic feeling of being listened to, teachers find the blind spots of their respective classes, improve education techniques, and support wellbeing.

Moving forward, School Day strives to be at the center of global education and school wellbeing. With the zeal to revolutionize the education expanse, School Day is researching on the latest school wellbeing trends that result in social-emotional learning and happiness. “We work collaboratively with leading global universities to obtain best practices in education, pedagogy, and technology and add them to our existing offering—School Day Wellbeing Solution” concludes Lokki.