I recently conducted a survey with middle school students at my overseas international school. I was looking for information about student feelings about trusted adults they felt comfortable approaching if they needed someone to talk to. 

What came up in the results was something I had never really considered: many of the parents in our community had temporary postings, and there was a regular turnover in our student population. This means that friendships are often cut short and students are left behind to grieve and then struggle to fit into other friend groups. 

With this insight, I approached members of our school’s Compassion Club and together we brainstormed ideas for helping these left behind students. 

We developed a series of action steps that our club members could follow to help recognize the students in need, and then to help them successfully integrate into new friend groups. 

Here is the plan outline we developed. 

Here is the poster we created to promote our program around the middle school. 

Feel free to use these in any way you need. If you come up with some new ideas or refinements, please share them. I am always open to continuous improvement.

Ed X!