Student Voice: Putting Young People at the Heart of Wellbeing, Belonging and Inclusion.

Student voice has long been one of the 8 principles of a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing, and enabling it is a priority learning outcome for senior mental health leads. In 2026, it matters more than ever.

The SEND reforms set out in the Schools White Paper are moving schools towards a mainstream system that is "inclusive by design". Every school must publish an inclusion strategy, Ofsted now grades schools on inclusion and on personal development and well-being, and schools are expected to monitor pupils' sense of belonging by 2029. Mental health runs through all of this.

The common thread is simple: you can't know whether school feels inclusive, safe and supportive without asking the young people who experience it. That is what student voice is for.

What is student voice?

Student voice, or pupil voice, means giving children and young people a genuine say in what happens to them at school or college. Many schools already gather it through student councils or surveys.

But student voice is more than collecting opinions. At its best it becomes student agency: young people influencing decisions, shaping the support they receive and taking active roles in making school better for each other. Asking is the first step; acting on what students say is what makes the difference.

Why student voice matters now: SEND reform, inclusion and mental health

The 2026 Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, and the accompanying SEND reform proposals set out a shift towards inclusive mainstream schools. Several changes connect directly to mental health and student voice:

• Inclusion strategies. Every school must publish an inclusion strategy by 31 December 2026, showing how it removes barriers and embeds inclusive practice. Students are best placed to tell you where those barriers are.
• A new way of describing need. The proposals would replace today's areas of need with five "areas of development", including social and emotional development, alongside early support without waiting for a diagnosis. Legislation would not take effect before September 2029.
• Belonging and engagement. A new Pupil Engagement Framework will help schools monitor pupils' sense of belonging and engagement, expected in every school by 2029.
• Inspection. Ofsted's renewed framework includes separate grades for inclusion and for personal development and wellbeing.

In this picture, mental health is not a separate issue for a few pupils. It is part of whether every pupil can feel safe, included and able to learn. Student voice is how schools find out whether that is happening.

Why is a whole school approach important?

The mental health of our pupils is of paramount importance. A whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, with pupil voice at its heart, is therefore key. As public health England's 8 principles to whole school mental health and wellbeing, pupil voice is an important part of a whole school approach to mental health. By involving pupils in decisions about their own mental health and wellbeing, we can ensure that our pupils feel valued, listened to and supported. peer mentors and wellbeing ambassadors are a great way to give pupils a sense of ownership and responsibility for their own mental health and the mental health of their peers. child led activities, such as mindfulness clubs or peer support groups, also help to promote a sense of community and togetherness amongst pupils. Ultimately, by harnessing the power of pupil voice, we can create a happier, healthier school community for all.

Student voice, belonging and wellbeing

Belonging means pupils feeling accepted, respected, included and supported at school. It is closely linked to mental health: pupils who feel they belong are better protected against anxiety and depression, and stronger belonging is consistently associated with better wellbeing, engagement and learning.

Student voice builds belonging in three ways:

• It shows students they matter. A 2026 international review for the International Baccalaureate (Allen & Dong, 2026) found that real opportunities for student agency and voice are one of three features shared by more effective belonging approaches, alongside relational safety and identity-affirming practice.
• It builds trust when it leads to change. In recent DfE case studies of schools with high belonging, students described feeling valued when their feedback changed things. The same research warns that consultation leading to no change can damage belonging.
• It reaches students on the edges. Students who feel least connected often have the most important insights. Voice routes that reach quieter students, those with SEND and those who rarely engage are where the greatest gains in belonging lie.

Being heard is important; being listened to is inclusion

From a young person's perspective, adults often seem to make all the decisions. Adolescents in particular can resent this and may not buy into new approaches if teachers simply announce how wellbeing will work.

A better way is to involve students in developing and delivering the wellbeing strategies that affect them and their peers. Young people today navigate pressures many adults never faced at their age, from social media to balancing school, family and friendships in a digital world. They know best what their generation is dealing with, and what they will and won't respond to.

As Levin argued, effective change needs participation and buy-in from everyone involved, students as much as teachers, because students bring unique knowledge that can make change more successful. When students help design the solutions, they are more committed to them, and they feel more valued and more part of their school community.

What the research shows: student voice and agency

A study published in 2019 (Halliday et al.) followed a group of 10 students aged 14 to 17 in a state school in Australia who carried out participatory action research into wellbeing in their school. After training in positive education, they interviewed parents, teachers and other students to understand the barriers to wellbeing.

The barriers they found included low belief in their own abilities, not understanding schoolwork, family conflict, too little sleep, bullying, lack of support, workload and poor health. The students then designed strategies to support their peers, which benefited both the student researchers and the wider student body.

"It's very important for students to feel like they have a voice and that they matter in the school." Female participant, aged 17

More recent evidence on voice and agency

Student voice also has a firm place in national guidance. Public Health England's whole-school approach to promoting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing names "enabling student voice to influence decisions" as one of its 8 key principles, alongside leadership, ethos, curriculum, staff development, identifying need, working with parents and targeted support (Public Health England, 2021). The DfE's learning outcomes for senior mental health leads also listed enabling student voice as a priority.

Since then, research on school belonging has strengthened the case for student voice, particularly when it gives students real influence rather than a one-off chance to comment:

• Agency is a common ingredient of what works. The 2026 Science of Belonging review for the International Baccalaureate found that more effective belonging approaches share three features: relational safety and respect, identity-affirming practice, and real opportunities for student agency, voice and strengths-based participation. It reports growing evidence that when students have a voice and see their ideas valued, their commitment to school increases, especially for those who might otherwise disengage.
• Influence matters more than structures. The same review advises schools to check whether student councils, youth advisory boards, class projects and peer mentoring roles are experienced by students as real influence, and to use student co-design and feedback to refine practice, not compliance checklists.
• Participation in decisions, in an English trial setting. The Learning Together intervention in English secondary schools combined student participation in school decision-making with restorative practice and social and emotional learning. It is reported to have improved student outcomes through mechanisms including belonging and reduced conflict (Bonell, 2025), though it is hard to separate the effect of voice from the other components.
• Shared decision-making builds belonging from a young age. A small 2026 action-research study in Turkish primary schools found that pupil representation and shared decision-making strengthened pupils' sense of belonging and engagement (Ayağ & Güneş, 2026).
• Voice without change can backfire. DfE case studies of English schools with high belonging (2026) found students felt valued when their feedback led to visible change, while consultation that changed nothing could undermine belonging.

The overall message: student voice works best as agency. Students need to see that what they say shapes decisions, and to have roles in which they make a difference for their peers. Most of this evidence is still promising rather than proven, so it is worth evaluating your own approach by asking students whether they feel their voice has influence.

Ways to give students a voice, and real agency

• Wellbeing Ambassadors: students trained to promote positive mental health, support peers and lead campaigns on issues they identify.
• Peer mentoring: older students support younger ones with confidence, goal-setting, social skills and transitions.
• Student councils with real influence: regular time with senior leaders and governors, and a role in reviewing wellbeing and inclusion policies.
• Student researchers: small teams who investigate wellbeing or belonging in their school and present findings, as in the Halliday study.
• Belonging and wellbeing check-ins: a short, regular survey including a direct question such as "I feel like I belong at school", broken down by student group and acted on.
• Student-led support planning: students help set the goals in their own support plans and say what helps, including in reviews.
• Coaching conversations: pupil-led, goal-focused conversations in tutor time and support sessions, so students set the agenda.
• "You said, we did": show students what changed, or explain honestly why something couldn't.

Whichever routes you choose, involve students in decisions as much as possible, and make sure every student, not just the most confident, has a way to be heard.

Embedding a voice-led whole-school approach to belonging and wellbeing

Building a whole-school approach to mental health, belonging and inclusion can feel daunting. Worth-it's School Belonging and Wellbeing Framework breaks it into 10 areas a leader can audit, plan and act on. It builds on the 8 principles of the whole-school approach to mental health developed by Public Health England in 2015, with a stronger focus on belonging, inclusion and staff wellbeing, and student voice runs through every area:

• Leadership and management: students' views inform wellbeing priorities, the inclusion strategy and reports to governors.
• Culture and ethos: students help shape the values, language, policies and spaces that make school feel like a place they belong.
• Staff development and training: staff learn to listen well and use coaching approaches that let students set their own goals.
• Staff wellbeing: staff who feel they belong are better placed to help students feel the same.
• Universal wellbeing curriculum: students say what they need to learn, see themselves in the curriculum and lead wellbeing approaches with their peers.
• Day-to-day experience: every student is known by name and listened to, they matter to the school and school matters to them.
• Targeted support and prevention: students shape their own support, from coaching goals to support plans, and trained peers offer early help.
• Pathways to specialist support: students know how to ask for help and what happens next.
• Parents and carers: student and family voice together give a fuller picture of need.
• Agencies and key stakeholders: students' experiences inform how the school works with partners such as Mental Health Support Teams.

Mapping your current student voice work against these 10 areas quickly shows where students already have real influence, and where they don't yet.

Our new Leading School Wellbeing course, launching on 3rd December 2026, helps senior mental health leads and school leaders put the framework into practice. Across six short modules (Lead, Belong, Know, Support, Teach and Sustain), leaders review their school's starting point using student, staff and parent voice, and build a one-page wellbeing and belonging plan that feeds into their inclusion strategy and school development plan.

Train your students to be Wellbeing Ambassadors

Worth-it specialises in positive education and has worked with thousands of students over the past decade. Our Wellbeing Ambassadors programme was developed with young people and uses coaching to train students to support their peers. It gives students a real voice in how their school approaches mental health, wellbeing and belonging.

To find out how to run your own student voice intervention, access our free Peer Support Info Pack, or to find out more about Wellbeing Amabssadors access our free webinar.

Frequently asked questions

What is student voice?

Student voice means giving children and young people a genuine say in what happens to them at school or college, and acting on what they say.

How does student voice support belonging?

When students see their views lead to change, they feel valued and part of their school community. Research finds that opportunities for student voice and agency are a common feature of approaches that strengthen belonging.

How does student voice fit with SEND reform?

The SEND reforms aim for mainstream schools that are inclusive by design. Student voice helps schools find out whether inclusion is experienced in practice and informs the inclusion strategy every school must publish.

References

1. Levin, B. (2000). Putting students at the centre in education reform. Journal of Educational Change, 1(2), 155–172.
2. Halliday, A. J., Kern, M. L., Garrett, D. K., & Turnbull, D. A. (2019). The student voice in well-being: a case study of participatory action research in positive education. Educational Action Research, 27(2), 173–196.
3. Allen, K.-A., & Dong, S. (2026). The science of belonging. Monash University with the International Baccalaureate.
4. Bohling, K., et al. (2026). School belonging case studies. Department for Education (RR1664).
5. Department for Education (2026). Every Child Achieving and Thriving (Schools White Paper) and SEND reform: putting children and young people first (consultation).
6. Public Health England (2021). Promoting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing: a whole school or college approach. London: Public Health England and Department for Education (first published 2015).
7. Department for Education. Learning outcomes for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges.
8. Bonell, C. (2025). The Learning Together intervention: effective school detox in England. Policy Press.
9. Ayağ, C., & Güneş, A. M. (2026). Beyond administration: how school governance practices foster happiness and belonging among primary students. European Journal of Education.