The Komodo Impact Update: June 2023

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The Komodo Impact Update

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‍How Komodo is enabling student wellbeing in international schools*

*Statistics in this article represent the findings in the last six months (January 1st-June 30th, 2023) of data collected from schools internationally utilising Komodo.

Here at Komodo Wellbeing, - our goal is to impact students' lives positively and to set the standard of school-wide wellbeing worldwide. This goal and vision drives the heart of all we do and is a mission we are privileged to be a part of. With half of 2023 already behind us and another academic year completed for many countries worldwide, we wanted to look at how schools have used Komodo in the past six months. 

Komodo works with schools across 18 countries, from Singapore to the Cayman Islands. We are proud to receive positive feedback from educators around the globe every week telling us the impact Komodo has had on their student's wellbeing. Whilst each school has its own unique ecosystem we continue to see and hear similar strengths and difficulties across many of our schools. 

In a post-pandemic society managing school-wide wellbeing and psychological safety is increasingly important. Mental health issues have only increased as a result of the pandemic. Before the pandemic, on average, 1 in 8 students in a classroom had a diagnosable mental health disorder. This statistic has jumped to 1 in 6 following Covid-19. That’s an average of 5 students per class and does not account for other students struggling with mental health and wellbeing on a sub-clinical level. 

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We understand the challenges that come with managing and supporting student wellbeing. Schools and education facilities have become a focus for early intervention and prevention strategies. Pastoral care is a huge undertaking for staff; even with the best intentions we hear from schools about the lack of time and personnel resources and the need to be efficient and effective in the pastoral care chain.  To support schools with this difficulty, Komodo Wellbeing's intelligent check-in system and data-driven insights ensure staff make positive and targeted interventions. Komodo software takes some of the guesswork out of who needs intervention and what needs to be the target. 

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In the past six months, Komodo has sent out over 240,800 wellbeing surveys globally across 18 countries. From these surveys, Komodo software has generated:

• Just over 6,400 total wellbeing check-ins were prompted from the Komodo platform. Each of these has provided the opportunity for teachers to be informed of a student’s need for support.
• Of this, just over 1,300 were student-requested check-ins, meaning students initiated their own support and used the Komodo platform to ask their teachers for additional help. 
• Additionally, over 5,100 of the total check-ins were generated through Komodo’s intelligent check-in software, designed to analyze individual data and observe shifts in student wellbeing profiles, notifying staff of declines in student wellbeing and prompting a student-teacher check-in.

Our 2022 annual product impact report counted 400 student check-ins in 12 months. In the first six months of 2023 alone, we have seen over three times that amount. This increase is a brilliant indication of the growth of Komodo into more schools across the globe and students using their voice, taking charge of their wellbeing and using Komodo to reflect on improving their wellbeing practices. 

The Komodo platform provides students with an opportunity to provide context on their wellbeing through the use of comments in the Feed function. Alongside the wellbeing check-ins requested, we’ve also seen a huge increase in wellbeing comments left in the feed jumping from 5,000 comments in 2022 to just under 13,000 comments in the first six months of 2023. Seeing so many students using the feeds feature to further connect with their teachers is excellent. We consistently hear from our schools that this feature opens lines of communication to students that otherwise were “flying under the radar.” 

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‍How can schools make use of the data that Komodo surveys gather?

The Komodo team recently spoke to Andrea Munoyeda, Head of the Secondary Section at Macau Anglican College (MAC). You can read the entire case study here. Andrea talked to us about how data from Komodo led to implementing a sleep hygiene program.

“Our students take the Komodo surveys once a fortnight, and the Pastoral Care Team meets regularly after looking at the wellbeing data. The Form Leader Teachers urgently follow up on any requested and recommended check-ins.” The team analyses the data to inform their action plan. Andrea explains how the team flags potential issues and tracks their progress “We use Komodo data to inform us of the areas that we need to pay attention to. For example, the amount of sleep and device use has been on the downside, although we are making some progress in improving these two.”

As an example of MAC's proactive steps to address identified weaker areas in their student wellbeing, Andrea shared some of the activities rolled out to combat issues with sleep and device use.

“[We know that] usually, these two can be connected; for example, when students spend more time on their devices at night, that time eats into their sleeping time. Therefore, we have organised some activities to try and address these two.

We had talks on the Responsible Use of Social Media, A Talk on Sleep (benefits of a good night's sleep versus the negative impact of sleep deprivation). We also had A Good Night Sleep Project for students and a Students' Chill Room (for napping or chilling before or after their examinations). We also emailed parents and students an update on Komodo Wellbeing and highlighted the platform's benefits so far. We also shared some Komodo digital resources to address digital wellbeing and sleep (Sleep: Our Secret Superpower).” 

Engaging, informative activities like the ones MAC have rolled out to students prove that when you are equipped with the right insights into areas where students may be struggling, you can facilitate meaningful learning opportunities and conversations, driving awareness and overall progress. 

In the past year, Komodo has enabled thousands of students to access wellbeing support and given hundreds of school staff the ability to maintain a perspective on every single one of their student's wellbeing in an efficient and meaningful way. This data collection enables efficient interventions and encourages more robust connections between staff and their students.

We look forward to continuing our collaboration with so many schools across the globe and sharing the global and territory specific data and trends we see. Together, Komodo Wellbeing and school pastoral systems can create a safety net and protective layer for students enabling them to thrive and flourish through their development.

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