By Ian Fagan and Julian Fagan
Since the pandemic began, many students have experienced a steep rise in anxiety, emotional withdrawal and other mental health concerns. Remote learning disrupted routines, increased isolation and removed day-to-day supports that young people rely on. While technology has been blamed for contributing to these challenges, it also offers powerful tools to reconnect students, help them express what they are going through and enable teachers, school leaders and families to respond more effectively. New digital approaches are giving students a clearer pathway to emotional support and stronger wellbeing.
Historically, schools have depended on occasional large surveys and teacher observations to monitor student wellbeing. Those methods are still important, but wellbeing can shift rapidly from week to week and many students do not volunteer their distress. At the same time, threats to wellbeing—such as online bullying, exclusion, body-image pressures and anxiety-spreading content—often happen quietly and outside the classroom. For these reasons, regular and accessible student self-reporting, sometimes called student voice, has become essential for understanding and managing the complex social and emotional needs of young people.
Our research shows that students are willing to speak up when they have an appropriate outlet. Activity on social platforms demonstrates that young people will share feelings and experiences if prompted in the right way. In a busy school environment, however, students have few safe, comfortable and private opportunities to express how they are feeling in the moment.
During our final two years of school, we worked together to support Ian through a personal struggle with mental illness. That experience led us to conclude that young people need ongoing support and practical skills to maintain wellbeing—not just crisis intervention. This insight inspired the development of a digital approach designed to give every student a reliable voice that can be heard and acted upon.
Why regular check-ins matter
Regular student check-ins are a simple, effective way to detect changes in wellbeing before they escalate. Many mental health conditions emerge during adolescence, and brief, frequent prompts can reveal the small moments—stress about starting a new school year, exclusion at lunchtime, disappointing exam results or body-image worries—that foreshadow more serious issues. Understanding how students feel and cope in those moments helps educators shape social and emotional growth, reinforce healthy coping strategies and provide timely support.
Digital check-ins can balance academic demands with student engagement. Rather than relying on long, prescriptive surveys, effective systems let students respond quickly using emojis, images, illustrations and short open-ended answers. Wellbeing data should be intuitive, easy to interpret and, where appropriate, integrate with other school systems through flexible APIs. Event-based triggers—such as following a lower-than-usual exam score—can prompt targeted check-ins that reveal how students react in real time.
Addressing challenges
Two central challenges schools face are:
- Student wellbeing can change rapidly from week to week.
- Many students do not communicate their distress, making it hard to identify who needs help.
Regular digital check-ins address both challenges by engaging student voices quickly and providing teachers and leaders with up-to-date insights. These check-ins open a dialogue among students, staff and families that can lead to meaningful, sometimes life-changing conversations. They also create space to share positive experiences—gratitude, achievements and aspirations—that strengthen a safe, connected school culture.
Key considerations for effective check-ins
When designing a check-in process, keep these points in mind:
- Duration: Short is better. We have found 30–45 seconds (3–4 questions) is the sweet spot for student engagement.
- Medium: Digital delivery is often most practical and comfortable for students. However, online responses should lead to offline conversations when appropriate.
- Reporting: Reporting must be user-friendly and actionable. A layered system that gives teachers quick, clear feedback while allowing senior leaders to explore trends works well.
- Voluntary access: Allow students to check in unprompted. Normalizing regular self-reporting reduces stigma and encourages proactive help-seeking.
- Expressive options: Offer multiple ways for students to communicate—emojis, age-appropriate illustrations or gifs, and free-text responses—so you get the full picture beyond a simple “happy/sad” question.
Collecting data over time to shape programs
Even monthly check-ins can reveal meaningful patterns. Schools can map wellbeing across the academic year, identify periods of heightened risk, and compare cohorts to see when issues like bullying or social-media pressures emerge. Over time, this data helps inform targeted wellbeing programs, resource allocation and preventive strategies tailored to specific year groups or events.
Asking the right questions to unlock student voice
If you introduce online check-ins, question design is crucial. Open-ended questions give students the greatest opportunity to express themselves. Below are 25 example questions you might use to amplify student voice and deepen understanding of their experiences:
1. Is there anything your teacher doesn’t know about you that you would like them to know?
2. If you could be any historical figure, who would you be and why?
3. Describe a quality you admire in your best friend.
4. What are you grateful to your parents or friends for?
5. Who is your idol and why?
6. What is your biggest challenge right now and how can I help?
7. If you were the Principal, what would you change about the school?
8. If you were the Principal, what would you have done differently during an important event such as COVID-19?
9. What lesson have you learned that you would like to share with others?
10. What is one quality that you like about yourself?
11. When was the last time you felt really frustrated and what triggered it?
12. How do you feel about making new friends?
13. When was the last time you felt really anxious and why? (For younger students, consider using “worried” instead of “anxious.”)
14. Do you feel the world is a fair place? Why or why not?
15. How do you cope with failure?
16. What don’t you like about school?
17. What, if anything, concerns you about your future?
18. What is one thing you wish you were better at?
19. How do you feel about your life outside school?
20. Why do you go to school?
21. What haven’t you tried yet that you would like to try?
22. Do you feel it is easier, the same or tougher growing up in today’s world? Why?
23. What is one thing you regret?
24. How do you feel about what you’re learning at school?
25. What is something that you have changed about yourself this year?
About the authors
Julian Fagan discovered through personal reflection that academic success means little if students struggle internally. Together with his twin brother Ian, he co-founded the wellbeing software company Skodel with the mission of giving every student a voice that is heard and acted upon. The platform was designed to help schools check in with students regularly and translate those insights into meaningful support.
Ian Fagan is an entrepreneur in the education sector. After founding his first business right out of high school, he focused on student mental health—drawing on his own experience with mental illness—to develop solutions that help educators identify and support at-risk students. With his brother Julian, he helped create Skodel to give teachers timely, actionable information about student wellbeing.
This article was originally published by The Learning Counsel, a research institute and news media hub that covers the shift in education toward digital curriculum, and has been adapted here to emphasize practical strategies for supporting student wellbeing through regular, meaningful check-ins.