Better Learning Programme 1: Supporting Students' Recovery in Emergencies

This handbook is for teachers working with children in the demanding conditions of emergencies - war, conflict, natural disasters, and other types of crisis - and their aftermath. Children affected by stress from conflict and crisis situations often have difficulties learning and functioning at school. They experience a sense of chaos, loss of concentration and reduced memory, making it hard to keep up in the classroom or do their homework. Teachers, with the support of parents, have an important role in supporting children to stabilise and recover, so they can learn and thrive. The Better Learning Programme 1 (BLP 1) provides teachers with a simple psychosocial support framework, the “Recovery Box”, which they can use on a daily basis to promote children’s recovery from traumatic experience and stress. BLP 1 also helps teachers and children understand normal reactions to fear and stress, and provides ways to manage these reactions, including easy calming exercises that can be done as part of the regular classroom practice