YouHue: A Whole New Dimension to the Whole Child

YouHue at New Cairo British International School

In November 2018, Deputy Head, Tracy Connor, was looking for a tool to support her students’ social and emotional growth when she discovered YouHue. After reading about the app on the YouHue website, Tracy signed up her first three pilot classrooms–60 students ages seven to eight along with six teachers, one counselor, and two administrators (including Tracy herself).

Meeting Students Where They Are

“I wanted to give students a familiar platform in which they felt comfortable to share their thoughts and feelings,” says Tracy. “I feel YouHue does this as children are very familiar with the concept of emojis and texting. I was surprised at the level of depth that students open up on this platform.”

Tracy’s students created 117 expressions in their first week on YouHue. In the following weeks, that number went to 300, then 500. By the end of the first month, Year Three students had created over 1,000 expressions on YouHue. In their expressions, students tell their teachers and counselors about what makes them feel excited, confused, okay, anxious, happy, sad, angry, caring, and calm. They share perspectives about their friendships, schoolwork, karate competitions, birthdays, siblings, and so much more. Students express who they are, how they feel about classroom events, what they love, what challenges them, and where they need a little help.

“Students feel more confident to express themselves in a safe and respected way,” says Tracy. “Some students choose to only add an emoji, while others add detailed comments. It gives students an outlet…and it allows us to know the students on ‘another level’. They disclose things via YouHue that they would not necessarily disclose face to face–which allows us an insight into why students may be underperforming on certain days or during certain time periods.”

Increasing Communication School-wide

Following the success of their first three pilot classrooms, in March NCBIS added 60 more students when they started YouHue with their Year 6 classes–ages 10 to 11. “[YouHue] facilitates information sharing about student situations, and it opens up conversations between students about how they use YouHue and what they might talk about within it, which encourages other students to [share].”

In April, three Year 5 classes were added. During the same month, the Year 3 classes each won a YouHue “Self-Expression Award” for expressing themselves over 1,000 times in each class. That’s over 3,000 YouHue expressions! In May, Year 1, Year 2, Year 4, and Year 7 started YouHue for a total of 384 NCBIS students from age five to age 12.

A Whole New Dimension to the Whole Child

As the school year draws to a close, NCBIS is planning to continue YouHue in the next school year. Among the reasons why, Tracy says, “I believe it is an extremely powerful tool in helping students to communicate their state of mind… I feel much more satisfied that we can tackle students mental, social and emotional wellbeing on a deeper and more personal level–and faster. It gives us a whole new dimension to the whole child.”

You can Start YouHue with your students for free, today!