Five Attributes of a Successful School Social Worker

School Social Workers Traits and Characteristics

Patience
Active Listener
Empathetic
Self-Carer
Boundary Setter

The top five attributes of a successful school social worker include the traits and characteristics that these professionals share. Instead of working in a government agency or a hospital, they work in public and private schools. They can work with young kids in an elementary school or junior high and with older students in a high school. Though some social workers also work in vocational schools and colleges, the most successful in this field share some of the same attributes.

Patient

One of the key attributes of a school social worker is that the professional is a patient person. Kids often have minds that race from one idea or thought to the next without a break. Social workers need to know how to follow along with them as they talk and how to interject new topics to get the children to focus. They also need patience because they may work with kids who prefer talking about their favorite television shows and music rather than what is really on their minds.

Active Listener

An active listener is someone who can listen and follow along with a conversation but think independently at the same time. When working with a student in school, the social worker needs to have a list of questions and topics to talk about with the student. He or she will listen as the child talks and make mental notes of how certain comments can relate to the issue they need to talk about. Social workers must know how to keep track of the conversation without constantly pausing to jot down notes.

Empathetic

Though social workers can be sympathetic, they should be more empathetic. A sympathetic social worker will view issues from the child’s point of view and put himself/herself in the shoes of that child. This can make the work more stressful because the social worker has a difficult time separating from that situation. Someone who is empathetic knows how to separate what happens at work from what happens at home. Though they can help children and see the world from their points of view, they also know how to look at the situation from an adult’s point of view.

Self-Carer

One of the top attributes of a school social worker is that the individual is a self-carer. Self-care refers to anything the professional does to care for himself/herself away from work. Social workers can feel a lot of stress as they listen to children talk about bullying at school and any type of emotional abuse at home and as they find solutions to those issues. They need to know how to relieve stress at home and how to care for their minds and bodies. This can include taking regular vacations, getting some exercise and spending time with loved ones.

Boundary Setter

Students can form deep bonds and connections with their social workers, which is why those workers need to know how to set and establish boundaries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 300,000 social workers today work in school settings. The most successful of those social workers know that boundaries can help them in the field. Those boundaries prevent kids from developing deep affection to and other feelings for the workers. Some children see social workers as the first adults who listen to them and care about them, which leads to them treating those workers as their parents. Good school social workers must know how to get kids to trust them without fostering any feelings in those children.

Private and public schools hire social workers to work with children as young as five up to 18 or older. They need strong organizational skills because they may see dozens or even hundreds of children every month. The five attributes of a successful school social worker include being a self-carer and knowing how to set boundaries.