In 2015, Nuffield Health launched a pilot whereby it placed a head of wellbeing into Wood Green School in Witney, England. What has been achieved in the first year?
The first year has been dedicated to raising awareness and establishing my role and position with students and staff. I have to link the role in with the structure of the timetable and curriculum. There isn’t an allocated wellbeing lesson, so it’s important to integrate with other departments instead of working independently.
What interactions take place with the students?
We use tutorial time and assembly time, as well as isolated wellbeing days for entire year groups. In this time, we focus on nutrition, resilience, mental health and emotional wellbeing among other topics.
How have you, personally, found the experience?
The experience has been great so far. I’ve been at Nuffield Health for 18 years, working in gyms and medical centres. In those situations, you’re dealing with adults who are fully developed physically and mentally, capable of abstract thinking, not as susceptible to peer pressure and more engaged in behaviour change.
Approaching a school of teenagers is a very different experience. You must be flexible with your tactics and strategy.
What’s the key difference when addressing this younger audience?
It’s more about addressing the ‘why’ rather than the ‘what’, focusing on the reasons behind their choices and being aware of peer pressures and so on – a lot of their choices are related to image. It’s about asking them not what’s right and wrong, but what sort of person they want to be.
What have you learnt about school wellbeing?
Schools are under pressure to meet academic targets and Ofsted ratings, and there’s a lack of time, resources and funding available to really give wellbeing the attention it deserves and needs.
There are also many variables that can influence behaviour, such as peer pressure, parents and social media. Younger people today face more challenges to their mental and physical health than ever before. Early interventions are imperative to ensure that negative trends don’t continue into their adult lives.
What obstacles have you faced?
Implementing interventions around the school timetable and curriculum can be challenging. The school’s infrastructure is complex and schools are busy places. When considering an intervention, it’s crucial to plan ahead, work around the timetable and appreciate the busyness of staff and their other commitments and priorities.
How have you engaged the school workforce?
It’s important to respect boundaries and other people’s expertise. People sometimes fear change and can be protective of their habits and practices, especially in a school community.
We gave all staff the opportunity to have a personalised lifestyle health assessment to develop their own wellbeing action plan, and this has helped to build relationships.
How could other head teachers start talking about wellbeing?
Every school will have different strengths and weaknesses. It’s crucial to conduct an analysis, establishing what they do well and what needs more attention, as well as gathering evidence to allow any change to be measured.
A framework for a ‘wellbeing audit’ would be helpful for all schools. A committee would also need to be set up, with someone leading the wellbeing focus. For an initiative to succeed, the whole school community must be on-board.
