@techreport{discovery10205397, note = {Copyright {\copyright} 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.}, address = {London, UK}, publisher = {Department for Education}, year = {2025}, month = {February}, title = {Effectiveness of school mental health and wellbeing promotion: Universal approaches in English primary and secondary schools}, number = {RR1490}, author = {Deighton, Jessica and Thompson, Abigail and Humphrey, Neil and Thornton, Emma and Knowles, Christopher and Patalay, Praveetha and Zhang, Kyann and Evans-Lacko, Sarah and Hayes, Daniel and March, Anna and Mansfield, Rosie and Santos, Joao and Deniz, Emre and Stallard, Paul and Ashworth, Emma and Moltrecht, Bettina and Nisbet, Kirsty and Stapley, Emily and Mason, Carla and Stepanous, Jessica and Rasmus Boehnke, Jan}, url = {https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67a34dd7b74b3d9dfe36ca7e/Effectiveness\%5fof\%5fschool\%5fmental\%5fhealth\%5fand\%5fwellbeing\%5fpromotion.pdf}, abstract = {Funded by the Department for Education, Education for Wellbeing was 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. This briefing focuses on the results for the INSPIRE trial which explored three initiatives either based around techniques to support mental wellbeing, or approaches to support and encourage help-seeking and allied strategies. These initiatives were delivered in years 4 and 5 in primary schools and 7 and 8 in secondary schools. These approaches were developed specifically for the study and had not been trialled previously. These were: Mindfulness-Based Exercises; Relaxation Techniques and Strategies for Safety and Wellbeing (an 8-lesson mental health literacy programme). Specifically the trial explored the impact of these interventions in the short and longer term on children and young people's self-reported emotional difficulties and intentions to seek help in future if experiencing mental health problems (intended help-seeking). The trial was conducted with 20,489 pupils across 213 schools.} }