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Stapley, E, Mansfield, R, Knowles, C, March, A, Burrell, K, Ashworth, E, Deighton, J and Hayes, D (2025) Pupil perspectives on school mental health literacy interventions: Experiences of three programmes in English primary and secondary schools. Project Report. Department for Education.
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Pupil perspectives on school mental health literacy interventions.pdf - Published Version Available under License Open Government License. Download (331kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Funded by the Department for Education, Education for Wellbeing is one of England's largest research programmes for school-based mental health interventions. The aim of the programme was to evaluate pioneering ways of supporting the mental wellbeing of pupils. The programme was split into two trials: AWARE (Approaches for Wellbeing and Mental Health Literacy: Research in Education), tested in secondary school settings, and INSPIRE (INterventions in Schools for Promoting Wellbeing: Research in Education), tested in both primary and secondary school settings (see AWARE Impact Findings and INSPIRE Impact Findings for more detail). Recruitment was conducted in three waves (2018, 2019, 2022). This briefing reports findings from a qualitative investigation into children and young people’s experiences across the two trials in Wave 1. It focuses on three school-based interventions - Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM), Strategies for Safety and Wellbeing (SSW), and The Guide - all delivered on a universal basis as part of the Education for Wellbeing programme. Other briefings relating to this programme can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-for-wellbeing-programmefindings. From an implementation perspective, SSW, YAM, and The Guide are all curriculumbased interventions, with a focus on education to raise awareness of mental health to improve help-seeking, mental health, and wellbeing, and so are represented together in this briefing. Experiences of Mindfulness-based exercises and Relaxation techniques are disseminated in a companion document entitled, “Pupil perspectives on approaches to school wellbeing promotion: Experiences of Mindfulness-based exercises and Relaxation techniques”. Many children and young people within the qualitative research subsample reported multiple positive outcomes from the three interventions, including increased knowledge and awareness of mental health, new real-world problem-solving skills, and social connectedness. However, issues around the organisation of the lessons, including lack of time, repetitive content, and behaviour management, were referred to as barriers to engagement. The interventions were felt to provide a fun, relaxed, and safe environment for learning, through the use of interactive, creative, or practical exercises, mutual sharing of experiences, and a more informal structure than their usual lessons. However, sometimes participants found the content boring, such as when it was repetitive, or experienced certain topics as upsetting or anxiety-provoking.
| Item Type: | Monograph (Project Report) |
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| Additional Information: | © Department for Education copyright 2025 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3. Where we have identified any third-party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1501 Primary Education L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools |
| Divisions: | Psychology (from Sep 2019) |
| Publisher: | Department for Education |
| SWORD Depositor: | A Symplectic |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Feb 2025 15:11 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Feb 2025 15:11 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25612 |
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