Rotorua principals report rise in demand for mental health support

John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh. Photo / NZME

Some Rotorua students are experiencing "heightened levels of anxiety" around Covid-19 with principals reporting a rise in demand for school counselling services.

School leaders also say some students chose to start working after August's lockdown instead of returning to the classroom.

John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh said students were expressing worry about Covid-19, climate change and their future.

There had been "heightened levels of anxiety" this year with "far more students" turning to the school counsellors for support, he said.

"We have two full-time counsellors and they have been inundated dealing with students with high levels of anxiety."

Parents were also seeking out advice around how to support their children, he said.

Walsh said the situation was disappointing because he felt "young people should have an optimistic view of the world".

These feelings had impacted exam turnout as some students saw NCEA externals as "another stress".

John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh. Photo / NZME

"Some haven't turned up to exams or they haven't done as well as they could have. They have been distracted thinking about other things."

Others didn't see the need to take part in exams because they had gained enough internal credits to pass.

He said a small group of about five immune-compromised students had left school since this year's Covid-19 lockdown to learn at home.

"Some of them had a very positive experience of lockdown in the sense they felt they could achieve NCEA through distance learning."

Roughly 15 senior students had found employment and did not return to school after the August lockdown.

Walsh said they had taken up "well paid" jobs and apprenticeships in carpentry, as mechanics and electricians.

"I think it is a positive thing. Some of those students were not particularly focused on what they were going to do. Some of them looked at the prospect of going to university - getting a degree and a loan - with no guarantee of a job at the end of it and thought why not?"

He had also seen many senior students working "extraordinary hours" outside of school hours to save for university next year.

"Their families are not in a position to support them as a result of job loss or lack of business income."

Rotorua Girls High School principal Sarah Davis said students fared well through August's lockdown but the school's wellness centre noticed more demand when school returned.

"It all kind of hit pretty heavily when everyone came back."

An additional counsellor would start work at the school next year which Davis hoped would help support staff "respond proactively" to mental health needs.

"We have got another counsellor on board next year purely because of the funding from the Ministry of Education. They are acknowledging how schools are very much at the centre of the extra support students need now."

Rotorua Girls' High School principal Sarah Davis. Photo / NZME

Davis said a "small handful" of students who left after August's lockdown decided to re-enrol for next year.

"We are absolutely delighted we have got those re-enrolments into Year 13.

"They have realised the second part of the education puzzle is actually worth re-engaging with."

She said the timing of this year's lockdown made it difficult for some students trying to gain their NCEA qualification.

"Anyone who was a bit shaky - in terms of how they were progressing during Term 3 - the lockdown did no favours at all."

Bay of Plenty child and adolescent psychotherapist Joanne Bruce said children and young people dealt with transition and change associated with Covid-19 "pretty well" if adults around them remained calm.

"When other adults around kids become quite anxious and worried about the world, then children pick up that anxiety, worry and fear about going place and doing things."

Young people were also dealing with disappointment around cancellation and changes to school trips and events, she said.

"It is important we let them know there was life before Covid-19, and there is going to be life with Covid-19, it is just going to look a little different."

She said young people anxious about Covid-19 were not frequently presenting in her clinics across Tauranga and Rotorua but she was seeing high levels of young people with generalised anxiety, which could sometimes be attached to the virus.

"What happens is that we attach it to something that makes sense to try to make that uncomfortable feeling understandable."