Our discussion of ways to encourage student engagement centred on the importance of teacher enthusiasm, expertise, and empathy. We were mindful of privileging purposeful and focused engagement as distinct from mere entertainment. For many years now I have been advocating three essential attributes for teachers – passion, presence, and challenge. Good teachers have a passion for teaching and learning, a passion for their students, and a passion for their subject. Good teachers know their students and foster a belief that all students can learn. Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness, an ability to laugh at themselves, and a commitment to high expectations of self and others. And good teachers know that teaching is a daily exercise in vulnerability.

I agree with the assertion that caring is the foundation of all successful education. Students feel emotionally ‘met’ and able to perform at their best when their teachers care about them and communicate this care during the process of teaching and learning. Lockdown powerfully highlighted the critical importance of intelligent caring, and we need to constantly remind ourselves of this. I say ‘intelligent’ because discernment needs to be exercised in the process of caring for students to ensure that autonomy, resilience, and self-discipline are fostered.

Recognition of the very real link between learning and wellbeing is particularly critical in our educational context today. Again, lockdown provided us with opportunities to witness this substantial connection. In endeavouring to address concerns about student wellbeing, let’s look firstly at quality learning and teaching, and appreciate the significant and powerful relationship between the two.

And finally, speaking from the perspective of an English teacher with a particular interest in literacy and learning, research has found that literature provides an inbuilt capacity to engage students, to mobilise their abilities for deep learning, to sustain their interest and to challenge their thinking.