A need for tailored emotional and physical wellbeing support in UK secondary schools has been identified in a new report following a pilot by not-for-profit UK healthcare organisation, Nuffield Health.
With news from the government that an additional £2 billion will be invested to fund specialist mental health teams in schools to offset the growing levels of obesity in children, Nuffield Health has identified ways in which physical and emotional wellbeing provisions can be established for both students and teachers.
The ‘Improving wellbeing in schools’ report shares the findings from a pilot that installed a Head of Wellbeing within a secondary school for two years, which completed last year. An initial assessment of the school—Wood Green School, Witney, Oxfordshire—had highlighted mental health issues and stress management as priorities for intervention. A survey of the staff and students had showed lower then national average levels of wellbeing.
The Head of Wellbeing from Nuffield Health worked closely with students and staff to assess emotional and physical wellbeing priorities and develop a targeted, responsive programme of initiatives and activities for the whole school.
Initiatives included making water more widely available and offering healthy eating options, enhancing existing provision through extra resources or more accessible sessions, and running classes in mental wellbeing techniques, such as mindfulness and resilience.
By embedding these tactics, which also included improving fruit and vegetable consumption, educating students to have better understanding of their bodies, and providing students with the impetus to exercise more regularly, the pilot achieved a marked improvement in healthy eating habits and an increase in the number of staff using gym facilities. By implementing this structure, wellbeing improved for both teachers and pupils within the school.