At the beginning of the symposium, Dr Juliane Schlesier gave an introductory lecture in which she began by pointing out that the focus of research and the public is usually primarily on students' performance and less on their socio-emotional experience and development. However, a positive emotional experience and a high level of well-being lead to better performance (Lichtenfeld et al., 2022; Lazarides & Buchholz; Mega et al., 2014; Pekrun et al., 2017), meaning that the emotional experience at school should also be taken into account with regard to children's performance. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the pandemic restrictions - which were primarily aimed at restricting social interactions - have had a negative impact on the emotional experience of pupils and (prospective) teachers (Hußner et al., 2022; Naumann et al., 2021; Westphal et al., 2022): For example, teachers suffered from emotional exhaustion and some children had significantly more negative emotions in class than before the pandemic. This shows that social interactions are central to the emotional experience of students - especially when they are particularly emotionally challenged in some situations (e.g. when they fail a task, get a bad grade, etc.; Schlesier, 2020; Schlesier et al., 2023). The aim should therefore be to gain a deeper understanding of social interactions in emotionally challenging classroom situations on the one hand and to determine how the interactions between teachers and students can be supported on the other.

The first keynote speech on the topic of "Why social relationships are so important in the school context" was given by Prof Dr Dr Diana Raufelder from the University of Greifswald's School Pedagogy department and looked at the various social relationships in the school context and their effects on students' performance, motivation and emotional experience.

Diana Raufelder emphasised that teachers can not only benefit from the teacher-student relationship, but that they should also particularly value it, as it can be a prerequisite and consequence of successful academic appointments and private actions (Horstkemper, 2000, p. 144). Empirical findings show that a good teacher-student relationship has a positive effect on school performance, motivation and the development of students' social and emotional skills (Davis, 2003; Roorda, Koomen, Spilt & Oort, 2011; Wentzel, 2009, 2010; Zimmer-Gembeck, Chipuer, Hanisch, Creed & McGregor, 2006). Student-student relationships also have a major influence. Positive peer relationships lead to a greater sense of well-being, a better attitude towards school, greater motivation and better performance (Juvonen, & Wentzel, 1996; Wentzel 2005; 2010; 2017).

Diana Raufelder also presented the results of a study on whether the perceived teacher-student relationship, belonging to the school and social exclusion moderate the development of learnt helplessness during adolescence. She comes to the conclusion that the school's sense of belonging can protect students (especially at grammar schools) from developing learnt helplessness if they are supported early on. In addition, relationships should be strengthened, as a positive teacher-student relationship reduces the likelihood of learnt helplessness. It is important to note that social exclusion is a risk factor that either contributes to alienation from school (secondary schools) or to the reinforcement of learnt helplessness (grammar schools). For this reason, social exclusion should be counteracted at an early stage and the sense of belonging should be strengthened in everyday school life.

Junior Professor Dr Daniela Raccanello of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Verona, Italy, presented Keynote 2 with the topic "How to Foster emotional competence in primary and secondary students: Development of evidence/Based Interventions". The Development of Evidence-Based Interventions]". She talked about what learning and achievement emotions are and what constitutes them. She also explained how emotions can be categorised and what their function is. The second part of her keynote speech focussed on emotion regulation, i.e. the processes by which an individual influences which, when and how emotions are felt and expressed (Gross, 1989). Junior Professor Daniela Raccanello pointed out that the "HEMOT-Helmet for EMOTions" app can offer preventive emotional precautions in the event of a disaster: Children, young people and adults can use it to research and train how to deal with their emotions.

Prof Dr Stephanie Lichtenfeld from Educational Psychology and School Development at the University of Hamburg gave the 3rd keynote speech on the topic of "Changing emotions, but how? Learning and performance emotions and their regulation in the school context". She categorised learning and performance emotions and differentiated between positive emotions, such as the joy of learning, and negative emotions, such as boredom. With regard to emotion regulation, she drew attention to various strategies (Zimmermann & Iwanski, 2014). In an open discussion with the participants, research desiderata regarding emotion regulation in the context of school emerged, such as domain specificity or individual differences in the use of various strategies.