Happy teacher = happy child
“CORE recognises the stress and burnout teachers face. Supporting them to identify what constitutes a good teacher helps them strengthen their own wellbeing and take actions to become the teacher they want to be. This leads to more compassionate, enabling and quality education environments where children can grow socially and emotionally.'”
April Coetzee, teacher and War Child researcher
Teachers' mental health
- 75 million school-aged children in conflict-affected countries need a quality, protective education.
- Teaching in these settings is stressful. There is little professional development, resources are scarce and salaries are often irregular.
- By failing to address teachers' well-being, many people don’t enter the profession, leave it or need to interrupt their work to manage their burnout or distress.
CORE is made up of five two-hour wellbeing workshops and three months of intensive teacher coaching - spread across six modules during regular school hours. To download a schematic overview, click here.
Whole-School Approach
We use a whole-school approach in order to assist the improved wellbeing of all teachers and create a supportive, enabling and compassionate classroom and school environment. We provide reflective, teacher-focused and iterative support that encourages the teacher to clarify what qualities truly matter to them and take committed action to fulfil this.
Our partners
CORE is being developed with the support of a variety of expert partners. These include:
- Global Ties for Children, New York University
- The Lego Foundation
- Innovations for Poverty Action
Based on Evidence
We are currently implementing a feasibility study in Uganda that will test the relevance of CORE in both formal and non-formal school environments. We will also seek to measure changes in teacher wellbeing. Data will be available mid 2023.
Research and development
How we ensure our work with children is effective
The War Child Care System is made up of nine Core Interventions, developed to address the urgent needs of conflict-affected children and their communities. These interventions are supported by a number of tools and enabling trajectories that serve to promote access to care and a process of localisation.
Meet our Research and Development Team
April Coetzee considers herself first and foremost a teacher. On top of that, she is also a War Child researcher and PhD student of the University of Amsterdam. She has spent over 15 years in the field of Education in Emergencies in vulnerable and conflict-affected settings.
