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Support pupils to lead wellbeing initiatives across the school

Measuring Impact and Success

To evidence success against this benchmark you will need to show how children and young people’s participation in wellbeing work has helped to improve their own wellbeing. This would include their knowledge and skills around managing their feelings and making healthy choices.    

Some examples might include:  

  • Provide evidence of improvements in knowledge and skills around healthy exercise and nutrition and/or mental and emotional wellbeing as a result of pupils’ involvement in planning and delivering related activities. This could come from case studies or observations of groups of students, pupil voice questionnaires, surveys of participants in student-led activities, feedback from pupil leaders, etc.  
  • Collate pupil or staff accounts (including case studies) of the positive impact of pupils’ active participation in wellbeing planning and events. 
  • Produce evidence of the positive impact on wellbeing of the introduction or development of pupil wellbeing champions across the school. This could come from case studies, surveys, student and/or staff observations, interviews with wellbeing champions, etc. 
  • Give accounts of the positive impact of changes in provision introduced as a result of pupil consultation or participation. These might include improvements resulting from changes to policies or protocols, wellbeing teaching or other provision. As always, remember to show what the benefits were – not just what you did. 
  • Gather student or staff accounts of positive changes following the introduction or embedding of a culture of gratitude across the whole school.  
Overview

Giving pupils the opportunity to participate as fully as possible in planning and delivering wellbeing work ensures that provision is more likely to meet their needs and that messages, skills and understanding are better reinforced. As well as being consulted about what they would like to see, they should be involved at all stages of development. This helps to develop a sense of ownership and ensure that they have a role in guiding the school’s priorities. 

As far as possible, all pupils should have an opportunity to take an active role – not just members of the school council or the oldest or more confident students. Offer a range of opportunities to suit everyone and provide whatever adult support is necessary to encourage their involvement.

 

Intentions

Intentions are actions you intend to take in order to improve your provision in this benchmark. Choose three intentions to focus on.

Involving children and young people as champions helps to confirm your school’s commitment to promoting wellbeing and to embed the work by helping pupils to develop valuable knowledge and skills. 

They can be involved in promoting healthy behaviour and choices and supporting other pupils.  Roles might include: 

  • peer supporters or mediators 
  • play or sports leaders 
  • buddies 
  • mentors  
  • anti-bullying champions.   

Older students might be part of conflict resolution work, etc. 

You should provide suitable training and adult support for the roles champions are assigned, and publicise the names and roles of champions widely around the school. 

Top tips  

  • Champions could be elected or selected depending on what is appropriate in your setting, but try to involve pupils with a range of ages, abilities and backgrounds.   
  • Work with students to develop ‘job descriptions’ for champion roles.  

Further resources 

Pupil voice is a key element in the planning of any wellbeing initiatives. Children’s and young people’s views should be considered at all stages and all pupils should be able to see that the school takes their ideas seriously and acts on their feedback. 

As well as consulting pupils generally on their wellbeing needs, you could create a working party to both develop their ideas for promoting wellbeing and contribute to wider planning and discussions.     

Particularly in secondary schools, the group could take a key role in leading pupil consultations by designing questionnaires, reviewing feedback and making recommendations. Primary school children could be asked for their input to the design of questionnaires and for their thoughts on a wellbeing plan. 

If you have established a school-wide wellbeing group, the working party should form a sub-committee with appropriate representation on the main group. The pupil committee would also have a role in feeding back to the whole school via assemblies, items in newsletters or on the website, etc. Appoint a member of senior staff as a member of the group with responsibility for feeding back to SLT, governors and key staff. 

Top tips 

  • Members of the pupil committee could also be involved in: 

    • planning and leading campaigns to raise awareness and reduce stigma around physical and mental health;

    • representing student views about wellbeing in meetings and discussion with staff and governors

    • sharing information and ideas at meetings for parents. 

Further resources 

Some schools produce ‘child-friendly’ versions of various policies (bullying, behaviour, etc) but few actually involve pupils in writing them in the first place. Children and young people are experts on their own feelings and finding out what these are is key to developing policies that will address their concerns and support them in ways they find most useful. 

Involving pupils in reviewing school policies and protocols will help schools to understand what really matters to young people. Ask them what rewards and sanctions they think would be most effective, how they would like to see bullying addressed or what would work best to support their wellbeing. What would they like to learn in PSHEE lessons? What are their favourite healthy foods or activities? Where do they feel unsafe at school? 

Older students could be directly involved in reviewing existing policies or writing a new one. Start by asking them what they know about the key points of current policies and protocols, correct any misinformation and fill in any blanks. Then ask for their comments and suggestions and/or work together with student representatives on revising the policy. 

Involve children and young people in writing their own charter or ‘Bill of Rights’ that reflects the main points of the policy. Involve them in designing materials (posters, affirmations, videos, etc) that make it accessible to all pupils. 

To ensure the widest participation (particularly with younger children) you could use a range of consultation methods such as: 

  • a wish tree – ask pupils to write their wishes, thoughts or ideas on paper leaves to attach to a tree 
  • graffiti walls 
  • recording or videoing young people answering questions 
  • asking pupils to vote on a range of options, either via a ballot or more publicly with a show of hands 
  • questionnaires – either with ratings (for example, 1–5) or simple yes or no (thumbs up, thumbs down) responses – perhaps with a ‘not sure’ option as well. 

Top tips 

  • The consultation methods you use will partly depend on what you want to ask – for example, open or closed questions. 
  • Other methods such as suggestion boxes can also be useful – particularly where pupils may want to give responses anonymously or spend time over them – but making the consultation into a time-limited ‘event’ may produce a larger response and promote greater discussion. 
  • Try to make activities fun – voting could be done with coloured marbles or by dropping balls into one of a number of containers. 
  • Build these processes into each policy review cycle and always make sure you feedback, highlighting changes or additions that have resulted from your discussions or consultation. 

Further resources 

Another way to underline the importance of pupil wellbeing is to make it a consistent element of pupil council meetings. Promoting regular discussion demonstrates to pupils that it is a priority for your school and that you want to hear their views. 

It also allows you to get specific feedback on particular issues and ensures that pupils have access to a regular forum to which they can bring concerns. Have a standard wellbeing slot on every agenda where students can raise issues in the meeting itself or propose subjects for discussion in advance. 

With younger children, it is probably most effective to focus on a single issue or one area of concern per meeting – perhaps based around a couple of starter questions. Share these with pupils in advance and give them time in class to discuss with others and collect their views. Adults can discuss issues with younger children and feed their ideas back to the main meeting.    

Top tips 

  • School councils or student forums are only effective if they capture a broad range of views from across the whole school and pupils can see that their feedback has an effect on provision: 
  • Ensure that meetings are regular and that pupils are involved in full discussions – that is, not just voting on proposals. 
  • Include all pupils’ views (including those with SEND or who are less confident). Consider how you can use the ideas discussed in other parts of this benchmark to ensure that pupil representatives are able to collect a broad range of opinions. 
  • Provide appropriate training for school council reps. 
  • Ask an SLT member to attend the council or forum to collate and feed back responses as appropriate. The staff lead should report back on progress at each meeting. Where possible, also include pupil reps in discussions with other staff and governors. 
  • Make sure that you share highlights from discussions widely so that all students are aware of the outcomes. 

Further resources 

All pupils should be encouraged and enabled to take an active role in planning and delivering wellbeing initiatives across your school.   

Physical and emotional wellbeing should not be confined to extracurricular activities – ideally, it should feel as integral to the school day as Maths and English. This not only involves providing a range of provision appropriate for all students but also making sure that all pupils have an opportunity to participate in its delivery. 

As well as signalling the school’s commitment, active participation in wellbeing activities is key to helping pupils develop the skills they need to support themselves and others.  

Children and young people can be involved in: 

  • developing and delivering assemblies and lessons  
  • leading activities that promote physical and mental health 
  • making posters, videos and other resources 
  • raising awareness and sharing information 
  • contributing to newsletters or external events or sharing work with other schools.   

Consider how wellbeing can be included in all areas of the curriculum to promote involvement at all levels. 

Top tips 

  • Offer a range of activities including those that are appropriate for less confident children. 
  • Think about how pupils can support younger children around transitions – both within school and between primary and secondary. 
  • Ensure that children with SEND and other vulnerable pupils can be involved in supporting wellbeing initiatives. It is important that all children understand that they can support their own wellbeing and offer help and advice to others.  
  • Encourage all young people to contribute to wellbeing across the school by noticing if others seem unhappy or worried and offering a helping hand.   

Further resources 

Support students wellbeing with practical advice from Every Mind Matters.

Noticing when children and young people behave in ways that help to promote wellbeing is a crucial way of engaging the whole school in valuing positive actions. 

We are usually quick to challenge discriminatory or unkind behaviour in children and young people but do we always pay equal attention to things like compliments or other small kindnesses? As well as modelling things like compassion and empathy, staff can take time to notice and praise such behaviour in pupils. This both helps to remind pupils how much value your school places on wellbeing and crucially, facilitates their understanding of which behaviours help to support it. This may be of particular value for pupils with SEND or those who otherwise struggle to recognise and express appropriate attitudes and behaviours. 

Discuss with staff how best to acknowledge positive behaviours with children of different ages and abilities. Sometimes this may involve open appreciation while other students may prefer a quiet word or a smile – or you could leave a note in their desk or in a workbook. It is important, however, that all staff offer such recognition in order to reinforce understanding of what being kind and supportive looks like and to create a sense across the whole school that positive actions are consistently valued.   

Top tips 

  • Praise is usually most effective when it is specific to the action rather than the person – say ‘that was very kind’ rather than ‘you are very kind.’ If you are praising someone publicly, mention what they did as well so that everyone understands what behaviour is being acknowledged.   
  • As well as helping children to notice and acknowledge kindness, classroom work can include practising gratitude. Encourage children to write down things that they are grateful for on pieces of paper and display them on a board or ‘gratitude tree’ or thread them on a string and hang it across the classroom. They could also post them in a box and you could go through them with the class at the end of the day.   
  • Use circles of gratitude where each person in turn says something they are grateful for or acknowledges a kindness.   
  • Urge pupils to be specific – for example, ‘I am grateful to Vijay for helping me when I fell over’ rather than ‘I am grateful for my family.’   
Reflection
  • How do you ensure that the voices of all children – not just the most confident or those who are members of the school council – inform wellbeing provision? 
  • Do you have a whole-school approach to celebrating kindness and other positive behaviours? Do staff model gratitude?  re non-teaching staff included in related training and support? 
  • Do you make sure that pupil consultations are properly recorded and acted upon? Do you monitor the outcomes of any developments or changes and provide feedback to the whole school? 
  • Do students have meaningful opportunities to influence policy development? How do you ensure that all pupils can be involved, including the youngest? 
  • Does your school offer a range of opportunities for pupils to act as wellbeing champions?   
  • Are there a number of roles enabling pupils to take on different responsibilities as they move up the school? Are these well-supported and is training provided where necessary? Is the programme needs-led? Do you monitor its effectiveness and make changes as necessary? 
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