Emotional Support Unlocks Learning

A recent study explored how emotional wellbeing and academic success are connected in schools where Community Keepers (funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation) and Click Learning work together.

Thirty schools were part of the analysis:

  • 10 schools with long-standing Community Keepers support,
  • 10 new Community Keepers partner schools,
  • and 37 schools with Click Learning alone.

All schools used Click Learning’s literacy tools. What differed was access to psychosocial support.

Here’s what stood out:

  • At a school level, there are consistent trends of better academic performance where both psychosocial and academic support are present. Schools with long-standing Community Keepers and Click Learning overlap, especially in older grades like Grade 6, tend to show stronger results. This suggests that ongoing exposure to both interventions helps create the kind of environment where learning can take root.
  • While the data shows a strong correlation between psychosocial support and improved academic outcomes at the school and grade level, it doesn’t confirm a direct causal link. The connection is real, but complex.
  • At an individual learner level, it’s harder to draw clear conclusions. Many different factors influence academic progress, and smaller sample sizes make it more difficult to isolate the impact of psychosocial support. Still, the trends point in a promising direction and suggest further investigation could be valuable.
  • The relationship between wellbeing and learning is not straightforward. In some cases, more support was linked to lower academic scores, particularly in Grade 6, where learners may have faced deeper or longer-term challenges. This highlights the need for sustained, differentiated care.

Why this matters:

For school leaders and supporters, this is powerful evidence: when trauma is addressed and emotional literacy is supported, academic programmes are more effective.
This confirms what many educators already know intuitively – wellbeing and learning go hand in hand.