WSA Identifying Need & Monitoring Impact
Key question: How does the school or college assess the needs of students and the impact of interventions to improve wellbeing?
The school monitors the needs of students and monitors impact of wellbeing interventions by
- using appropriate validated tools (e.g. Boxall Profile, SHEU, WMF, PASS, Motional etc.)
- using tools like 'I wish my teacher knew...'
Six Litmus Tests (Pooky Knightsmith)
(4) We Recognise and Support Our Most Vulnerable Learners
Learners can be vulnerable for a whole range of reasons, I invite you to think about how you can recognise and support vulnerable learners in every shape and form. Sometimes it’s the students you least expect who most need some additional support.
Litmus Test quick self-reflection tool
Prompts and Resources
My Wellbeing Profile pdf - a quick getting to know you activity for C&YP - great for transitions, new child joining a class etc.
Wellbeing Measurement Tools
To support the understanding need and monitoring impact area of the WSA, wellbeing measurement tools can provide a useful insight into the wellbeing of students.
Background reading / resources
Measuring Wellbeing in Schools
An excellent blog from What Works Wellbeing. The blog introduces recent work on children and young people’s subjective wellbeing and marks the publication of a comprehensive bank of measures of children’s wellbeing. It is a massive peice of work and a rather daunting excel spreadsheet! but if you want to check out a specific measure you can look it up. It is accompanied by a very useful user guide. (worth reading to find about more about best practice in undertaking wellbieng measurement).
Using measurement tools to understand pupils’ mental health needs:a guide for schools and colleges Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families (pdf)
Measuring and monitoring children and young people’s mental wellbeing: A toolkit for schools and colleges Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families et al (pdf)
CORC have an excellent online resource with links and details of a huge number of questionnaires / surveys although not all suitable for school / general use.
https://www.corc.uk.net/outcome-experience-measures/
A good example is the Me & My Feelings (M&MF) measure, sometimes referred to as Me & My School, is a brief 16 item school-based measure of child mental health, covering two broad domains: emotional difficulties and behavioural difficulties.
https://www.corc.uk.net/outcome-experience-measures/me-and-my-feelings-mmf/
Tools for gathering the views of children and young people (pdf) Originally written for use by educational psychologist and others supporting C&YP with additional needs. There are some excellent ideas / activities. Well worth a look.
A guide to measuring children’s well-being (PDF) - Action for Children / New Economics Foundation. The guide gives a quick overview of the benefits and the scope of subjective well-being indicators to shape and improve measurement tools for the future.
NEW - DfE’s ‘State of the nation 2022: children and young people’s wellbeing’ report
SomeTools
Wellbeing Questionnaire
a simple too available free to download from the excellent ELSA Support website suitable for primary / secondary.
Good Childhood Index
The Good Childhood Index is the index of subjective well-being for children aged eight and over. It was created by the Children’s Society in 2010. They wanted to develop an index of children’s well-being that is statistically robust and covers the main aspects of children’s lives, including those identified by children themselves.
Paper version. The short version is freely available to schools to use. (and user friendly) Upper KS2 up
We have created a simple online tool using the short version. Contact us for details
Boxhall Profile
The Boxall Profile is an online assessment tool for social emotional and behavioural difficulties for children and young people. Often used as part of Nurture provision in schools.
Online. Cost involved
Motional
Motional is an easy-to-use online tool for identifying, assessing, and improving the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people. It can record ACE and Protective Factor scores where required and gives staff a whole-brain picture of students' mental health and wellbeing. Motional has been widely available in Cornwall as part of the TISUK training funded by HSK.
Online. Cost involved
Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS)
PASS help you to understand the whole pupil by screening for hidden issues of low self-esteem, barriers to learning, mental health and emotional difficulties.
Online. Cost involved
Schools' Health Education Unit (SHEU)
SHEU offer health and wellbeing questionnaires for young people in every phase of education, online or on paper. It covers physical health and mental wellbeing.
In recent years the PH Team in Cornwall / Healthy Schools have used the survey in both secondary / primary schools.
paper / online. Cost involved. Maybe be free fin Cornwall as part of measuring the council's priority - 'making Cornwall a brilliant place to live and grow for C&YP'.Contact us to check
Wellbeing Measurement Framework
In collaboration with colleagues from CORC, the University of Manchester and Common Room, EBPU have developed the Wellbeing Measurement Framework (WMF), a suite of measurement tools for primary school, secondary school and college students.
Each WMF tool contains a set of validated questionnaires (tailored to each age group) that assess constructs such as positive wellbeing, behavioural or emotional difficulties, the presence and strength of protective factors such as perceived support at school, home and in the community, and ability to deal with stress and manage emotions.
The WMF was used as the evaluation tool for Headstart areas across the Country yielding excellent and insightful results.
YP and the Wellbeing Measurement Framework in Cornwall
Online. Cost involved.
Turnaround for Children - Wellbeing Index
Each student has unique strengths and needs that are dynamic and guide how they engage and learn. Educators informally try to assess how students are doing with quick chats in the hall or through the observation of behavior, and this may give educators some information – but it’s challenging to know exactly what’s happening with every student, every day. The Well-Being Index (WBI) is a tool designed to help educators collect holistic student data – physical, social, psychological and emotional well-being – systematically, directly, quickly and in real time.
This is a wellbeing measurement tool created in the USA so the tools are designed for elementary / secondary settings. It is freely available (if you sign up to the site for free) and comes with user guides and scoring tools
Free to download and use
Belonging
Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale
Other
https://www.bouncetogether.co.uk/
An online mental health and wellbeing survey platform designed for schools.
Cost involved
Page last updated: 4 October 2023