With the launch of the Scottish Government National Health and Wellbeing Census, all schools will be starting to work with health and wellbeing data.

The SQA Mental Health and Wellbeing Award is being offered as an elective for S6 pupils at Dunblane High School. Dunblane High School is a member of the SHINE Network and so received a health and wellbeing data report (which was collected from the school in the 2017-2018 session as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey).

The S6 pupils mental health elective will look at the Mental Health section of the report to use their community’s own data as a starting point for discussing mental health. A SHINE researcher will work with the group to provide a context for the discussion, asking them to consider which social and environmental factors have the biggest influence on a child’s health and wellbeing as they grow up. To support the discussion, the researcher will share some health research facts with them to help them decide which factors they think are more influential.

This discussion will support pupils to understand how many factors can influence mental health and wellbeing and start to think about which factors should be reduced or increased to support positive mental health and wellbeing.

How to use this exemplar to improve practice?

Schools who are members of the Schools Health and Wellbeing Improvement Research Network (SHINE) have all been issued with a school-level, or regional collaborative level, health and wellbeing data report from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey. All schools in Scotland are eligible to join this free network at Shine at Glasgow University.

The HWB report provides data evidence of strengths and areas of challenge in HWB in the school or local area, allowing this to be shared with the school community in order to prioritize both particular topics for the PSHE curriculum and whole-school or year group interventions required to support pupils and staff. The report would empower pupils, staff and parents to work together on a particular issue and would provide evidence for the senior leadership team when setting the HWB agenda for the school improvement plan.

Pupil Voice and Peer Mentoring are powerful tools within a school to improve the school environment and pupil experience. We know that pupil health is closely intertwined with attainment. Healthier pupils achieve better academic outcomes. Sharing the HWB data report with the S6 mental health (MH) elective group results in pupils having a better understanding of the areas of strength and challenges in health and wellbeing in their own community. In turn, this would allow the S6 pupils to work with staff and pupils in a targeted way to identify areas for improvement and co-produce interventions. As an identified group with a targeted role, they can raise awareness among the wider pupil body and involve younger pupils in a solution-focused whole-school approach to improving mental health and wellbeing.

Reflective questions

• What is the data telling us about mental health and wellbeing in our school?
• Are there differences in the evidence for boys and girls?
• What are the strengths identified and how can we maintain and celebrate these?
• What are the areas of challenge identified?
• Are there simple changes we can make to address the challenge areas?
• How can we involve the wider school community in addressing these challenges?

What was done?

Following a discussion about which social and environmental factors most affect a young person’s wellbeing as they develop with members of the SHINE team, S6 pupils from the SQA Mental Health and Wellbeing award class at Dunblane High School were shown a pupil-friendly version of the health and wellbeing data report for their school, which was collected in the 2017-2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey.

The pupils were asked to use the reflective questions to support their understanding of the data and discuss the findings. They were asked to identify 2- 3 strengths and 2-3 areas of challenge. With this information they can now begin to consider how to celebrate the strengths and plan a solution-focused approach to the challenges which will involve the wider school community.

Two of the pupils from the S6 MH elective group and the member of staff responsible accompanied two SHINE researchers to the Scottish Learning Festival where they were able to confidently discuss their findings and next steps with interested members of the wider educational community.

Why?

Dunblane High School is a member of the SHINE network and received a school-level health and wellbeing data report for the first time this session. Dunblane HS is currently introducing the SQA Mental Health and Wellbeing Award as an S6 elective. By working in partnership with SHINE, Dunblane HS will have access to questionnaires which will provide anonymised data statistics which evidence the mental health and wellbeing of pupils. This preliminary activity with the mental health and wellbeing elective group will support pupils and staff to know how best to use HWB data in their community to support improvements in mental health and wellbeing.

What was the impact?

Shona, a pupil from the S6 Mental Health Elective group wrote:

“We have been discussing the data provided by SHINE in our S6 Mental Health Elective class and using it to create our action plan for the year. Because the data is specific to our school, we feel confident that the changes that we are hoping to implement will actually benefit the young people in our school community. For example, the data highlighted the proportion of young people who feel stressed, low and left out, and we have been discussing plans to help people feel more comfortable communicating their feelings with friends, family or teachers. The data from SHINE has definitely informed our planning so far and has inspired us to do more.”