We understand that priorities, needs and budgets differ. We can work with you to select the most appropriate monitoring and evaluation approach. We can help you to:
- Find out how children and young people in your schools and colleges are feeling with validated pupil surveys that assess the emotional wellbeing, mental health and resilience of pupils
- Understand school staff wellbeing, the effectiveness of support systems and the knowledge and understanding of mental health in school and college settings through using specially designed staff surveys.
- Measure the impact of specific interventions and understand what difference both targeted and universal interventions are really making.
- Show the impact of provision by comparing your data with data from children in schools around the country. Our analysis and reporting can help you to identify successes and challenges.
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Measuring pupil wellbeing
In collaboration with the Evidence Based Practice Unit, we offer Wellbeing Measurement for Schools, an approach that supports primary and secondary schools to understand particular strengths and challenges for their pupils, inform the planning of prevention or help, assesses the impact of support year on year and enables schools to compare this data with other schools across the country.
Find out more about our service offer for schools
You can also contact us at measuringwellbeing@annafreud.org.
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Measuring staff wellbeing
Through our work with schools, we know that the wellbeing of the staff team is a high priority. If we want our school staff to do what is asked of them, then we need to make sure that their mental health and wellbeing is effectively supported too.
When their wellbeing is a priority, staff feel better equipped to support the wellbeing of the children and young people they work with and build trust and motivation, which is crucial for well-functioning school setting. To help schools better understand how staff are feeling, we have developed Wellbeing Measurement for Schools staff survey.
The online staff survey uses validated tools to understand how staff are feeling about the support systems in the school, their own mental wellbeing, about the ability and capacity to support the children and young people in the school and it also explores aspects of school culture which may be affecting staff wellbeing.
You can review the responses in the final staff survey report, which you can share with staff and governors.
The staff survey can be completed alongside the pupil survey or on its own.
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CORC support and resources for schools
In addition to Wellbeing Measurement for Schools, we also offer tailored support to help schools (individually and as clusters) to monitor wellbeing and measure the impact of specific interventions and understand what difference both targeted and universal interventions are really making. This could help with identification and support, as well as evaluation and improvement.
Signing up for CORC for Schools membership gives schools access to advice, tools and a programme of training and learning events. We can also offer support on a consultancy basis. Our rates are subsidised for CORC members.
For further information about how CORC can support you, please contact us at corc@annafreud.org or on 020 7443 2225.
For free resources about measuring the mental wellbeing in schools, please visit our:
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Measuring wellbeing in the early years
Supporting young children and their families can be immensely rewarding but also physically and emotionally draining. If we want our early years staff to do what is asked of them, then we need to make sure that their mental health and wellbeing is effectively supported.
The simplest way to understand what early years staff need to support their mental health is to ask them. However, many early years settings do not regularly survey staff to establish their levels of wellbeing.
Within this video, Dr Abi Miranda, the Head of Early Years and Prevention at the Anna Freud Centre, discusses wellbeing in early years settings with a focus on wellbeing and intersectionality and tips for practitioner and managers.
Our Wellbeing measurement for early years settings resource provides sets of questions to help early years settings better understand their staff and provide them with the support they need. It includes tools that can be used to measure wellbeing robustly and consistently.
You can use these sets of questions to find out:
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How early years staff are feeling
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What is driving good and poor mental health (including asking staff how they feel about work practices, culture, engagement and management)
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How supported staff feel
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Whether staff feel equipped to support children with their mental health
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Any additional support they need for their mental health and wellbeing.
Early years settings may want to use the whole survey or may want to select sections from it, depending on priorities and needs.
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5 Steps to Mental Health and Wellbeing: a framework for schools and colleges
Our colleagues at the Anna Freud Centre created 5 Steps to Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework - a simple, free and interactive tool to help schools and colleges develop a whole setting approach, which is based on 5 key areas: Leading Change, Working Together, Understanding Need, Promoting Wellbeing and Supporting Staff.
Each of the 5 steps includes practical actions that education professionals can take and is supported by evidence based practice, free or low cost resources, and case studies from schools and colleges. Schools and colleges can also create their own bespoke 5 Steps to Mental Health and Wellbeing action planning tool.
To support schools and colleges sufficiently, the framework has been developed by teachers and mental health experts, including the Child Outcomes Research Consortium, who collaborated with the Anna Freud Centre on two of the five steps: 1) Understand Need and 2) Supporting Staff. Thanks to our experience and expertise in measuring children and young people's mental health and wellbeing, we are able to support schools and colleges in better understanding the needs of their pupils and monitor the impact of the support they provide through using specially designed pupil and staff surveys and analysis that can help identify successes and challenges.-
HeadStart Learning Team
We also have experience of evaluating large scale projects including HeadStart, set up by the National Lottery Community Fund, which aims to improve the mental wellbeing of 10 to16 year olds by testing a wide range of interventions in schools and the community at six different pilot areas across the country.
School interventions include whole school, year group and class level support, such as education around what mental health is and what to do when experiencing a mental health problem. Other interventions, such as one-to-one counselling sessions, are for particular groups of young people e.g. those who are at higher risk of developing a mental health problem.
Visit the HeadStart Learning Team Website
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Schools in Mind Network
As part of the learning partnership with the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, CORC are able to mobilise their resources and expertise to effectively deliver the thinking, practice and research to help provide children and young people and families with the right support in a collaborative and innovative way, for example through the Schools in Mind Network.
Schools in Mind is a free network for education professionals which shares practical, academic and clinical expertise about mental health and wellbeing in schools and FE colleges. The network aims to translate research into practice by providing evidence-based, accessible information and resources that can be used to embed good mental health across the whole school community. Join the free Schools in Mind network today.
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