Personal Development and Wellbeing: A Guide for Schools

What is Strategic Leadership of Personal Development and Wellbeing?

Strategic leadership of personal development and wellbeing involves the entire school community working together to implement processes and strategies that promote wellbeing for pupils, staff, and stakeholders. This requires active involvement from senior leaders, teachers, staff, parents, carers, and the wider community. When implemented effectively, personal development and wellbeing become central to the school’s culture and ethos.

One of the most powerful ways to support children in improving their wellbeing and preventing mental health challenges is through strategic leadership focused on personal development and wellbeing. This approach creates an environment where both children and staff can thrive and succeed. It is sustainable and has a positive impact on key areas of school life, including behaviour, relationships, attendance, and academic achievement.

Aligning with the Ofsted EIF: Personal Development and Wellbeing

The updated Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF) places a strong emphasis on Personal Development and Wellbeing. Schools are now required to demonstrate how they promote pupils’ emotional, social, and moral development, alongside academic success. This includes fostering resilience, building character, and creating a culture of belonging.

The Wellbeing Club, our programme for School Leaders and Senior Mental Health Leads, provides schools with the tools, training, and resources needed to align with these new requirements. By adopting a whole-school approach, schools can ensure that wellbeing is not just an add-on but a core component of their ethos and daily practices.

Why Promote Wellbeing in Schools?

Research shows that 1 in 6 children and young people in the UK have a diagnosable mental health problem. The Covid-19 pandemic has further amplified the need for schools to support mental health and wellbeing. There is a moral and educational imperative to act: improving wellbeing not only enhances learning and success but also protects the mental health of all children and young people.

The Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted both recognise the critical role of schools in promoting mental health, personal development and wellbeing. The DfE encourages schools to appoint a Senior Mental Health Lead to support with the development of whole school wellbeing. Ofsted, meanwhile, evaluates how schools integrate personal development and wellbeing into their curriculum and culture, making it a key element of school improvement plans.

This is where we can help...

We piloted our approach to whole school personal development, wellbeing and resilience in 2016 by working with the NHS and 20 schools across Leicestershire. This provided key insights which led to the development of our whole school approach to wellbeing this has now been delivered through our Wellbeing Club programme in over 110 schools nationally. This led us to create a simple way to help schools to develop and susiatn personal development and wellbeing.

Personal Development and Wellbeing Strategy for Schools

We know that improving personal development and wellbeing can feel like a big, overwhelming, and potentially expensive task. That is why we created our whole school system framework. A simple way to share with school leaders, school staff, mental health leads and commissioners an effective and practical way of developing whole school personal development and wellbeing.

We hope by finding out about our approach and programmmes will save you time, energy, and stress while bringing clarity and reassurance to develop a sustainable and targeted approach to personal development and wellbeing that fits the needs of your school, pupils and staff.

Our school system for wellbeing offers a step-by-step process, enabling you to audit, plan and take action in developing and embedding your school's approach to personal development and wellbeing.

Key areas to strategically lead personal development and wellbeing for schools

Our system framework helps you figure out your unique starting point and what is already working well in your school. These are your foundations for building your own strategic approach to wellbeing that supports your pupils, staff and community.

There are 10 key areas where wellbeing can be promoted and built. This list provides an overview with some practical personal development and wellbeing activities you can use that lead a stratagy for all.

Culture and Ethos Embedded Through Policy, Process and Place

• The school environment promotes and supports the development wellbeing
• The school's approach to mental health and wellbeing is shared, understood and visible in our school
• The school's policies and procedures support the development of positive mental health and wellbeing for all

Leadership and Management

• School leaders champion and support school wide positive mental health and wellbeing
• Mental health and wellbeing are an integral part and considered as part of school strategy and planning
• Activities that promote mental health and wellbeing are integrated into school improvement plans or strategic action plans

Staff Development and Training

• Staff participate in training in how to look after their own wellbeing and develop wellbeing as a team
• Staff are provided trained to support to pupils with poor mental health and in activities that develop wellbeing
• Staff understand how they can help promote wellbeing in their teaching and learning practice

Staff Wellbeing Initiatives

• Positive relationships underpin all staff wellbeing initiatives
• Staff lead initiatives that they identify as important for their wellbeing
• Staff wellbeing underpins pupil wellbeing, staff encouraged to lead and participate in activities that promote wellbeing

Universal Taught Wellbeing Curriculum

• The teaching of strategies for wellbeing exist for all pupils in the curriculum
• Pupils lead positive mental health and wellbeing approaches amongst their peers
• Activities that promote wellbeing are explicitly taught as part of the curriculum, while school-wide opportunities exist to promote wellbeing for pupils

Day-to-Day Experience of Wellbeing

• An ethos of wellbeing creates a positive environment for learning
• Wellbeing is experienced through our day-to-day interactions at school
• Wellbeing is promoted through rituals and routines that enable the implicit experience of wellbeing
• Positive relationships and interactions promote and support wellbeing

Targeted Support and Prevention Programmes

• A range of targeted prevention programmes are provided to meet a range of pupil needs and support disatvantaged students.
• Support for mental health and wellbeing is accessible and staff know how to help pupils gain targeted support earlier in the onset of any mental health problems or concerns
• The range of targeted early prevention programmes are reviewed and assessed and used as the basis for planning interventions to ensure they meet pupil needs.
• Interventions that prevent persistent absence caused by emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA)
• interventions for students use a coaching approach which builds character, resilience and independance.

Parents and Carers

• Parents understand and make a contribution towards school wellbeing and personal development of pupils.
• Parents are provided with information on ways to promote the wellbeing their children
• The school supports parents and families to promote wellbeing through a range of activities

Agencies and Key Stakeholders

• Work with external agencies are an integral part of support for pupil and staff wellbeing
• Agencies worked with are reviewed to ensure quality and suitability to provide mental health and wellbeing support
• Working with health providers such as school nurses, mental health support teams (MHST), local providers and CAMHS

Pathway to Specialist Provision

• A clear pathway to support for targeted pupils struggling with mental-ill health or specific needs
• Staff and pupils are aware of the mental health and wellbeing referral pathway and to access this pathway.

School Personal Development and Wellbeing Improvement Plan

These 10 areas of a whole school framework help you reflect on the areas to develop as part as your school's peronal devlopent and wellbeing improvement plan, helping you put in place action steps.

Planning a wellbeing stratagy for your school doesn't need you to reinvent the wheel. but...it does require you to reflect on what you are already doing well and do more of those things, as well as take steps to address any gaps.

A simple framework is useful to help you be able to work through this process of improvement and action planning without getting overwhelmed. Breaking your improvements and actions down by each area of the whole school approach makes that feel more straightforward, you can track your progress more easily and feel like you are moving forward.

Members of our wellbeing club are supported through school improvement plans and audit tools to develop their own improvement plans that fit the need of their school community and help them feel clear that the plans they are developing are going to have a real impact on the mental health and wellbeing of everyone in the school.

Strategic Leadership of School Personal Development and Wellbeing

Effective leadership of a school’s personal development and wellbeing strategy requires a clear understanding of the complexities involved. Each element of personal development and wellbeing within a school is interconnected, functioning as part of a larger system. Strategic leaders must identify how these elements interact and influence one another to create a cohesive approach.

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This process is dynamic—changes in one area of wellbeing can have a ripple effect across the school. Over time, these changes can become self-sustaining if the core conditions that support and nurture wellbeing are carefully cultivated and maintained.

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Our strategic framework is designed to help school leaders focus on specific aspects or take a broader whole-school approach to personal development and wellbeing. There is no single starting point, as every school is already on its unique journey. We work closely with school leaders to enhance existing practices, strengthen key areas, and address gaps in provision.

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With our support, including wellbeing resources, CPD for school leaders, and tailored training for mental health leads, schools can adopt a strategic, impactful approach to personal development and wellbeing that drives sustainable, positive change.

Wellbeing and Personal Development Programme for Schools  

Our wellbeing and personal development programme is designed to equip students with the skills they need to thrive both in school and in life beyond the classroom. By using the evidence-based SEARCH pathways to wellbeing framework, developed by Waters and Loton after over a decade of research, we provide schools with a practical and proven approach to embedding wellbeing across their systems, processes and curriculum.  

The SEARCH framework focuses on fostering character strengths, resilience, and emotional regulation, empowering students to manage challenges, build healthy relationships, and prepare for the future. Our programme offers training, tools, and resources to support school leaders, mental health leads, staff, and stakeholders in creating a positive and sustainable culture of wellbeing.  

Through positive education strategies, we help schools implement activities that explicitly teach wellbeing skills, enabling students to develop emotional intelligence, cope with stress, and confidently navigate life's ups and downs. Together, we can build a foundation for student success and resilience that extends far beyond the school gates.

What is Positive Education?

‍Positive education integrates the principles of positive psychology into educational settings to support personal development and wellbeing. Positive psychology, which focuses on the empirical study of meaning, success, and wellbeing, has demonstrated its effectiveness in fostering resilience, reducing mental ill-health risks, and enhancing overall wellbeing.  

Research shows that embedding positive education strategies can significantly improve pupil wellbeing, leading to enhanced emotional resilience, fewer behavioural challenges, and better academic performance. By promoting happiness, positive emotions, and mental health, positive education aligns with evidence-based approaches outlined in wellbeing and personal development frameworks, helping schools create environments that support both academic success and holistic growth.

What are the SEARCH Pathways to School Wellbeing?

SEARCH is a data-driven meta-framework developed by Waters and Loton (2019) 'designed to help school leaders, teachers and practitioners make evidence-based decisions when implementing positive education interventions.'

Waters and Loton developed the SEARCH framework through large-scale literature review of evidence followed by further school-based research studies. They identified six overarching pathways to wellbeing (from which they generated the SEARCH acronym): strengths, emotional management, attention and awareness, relationships, coping, and habits and goals.

It is widely recognised that to successfully build wellbeing in students that an embedded approach to wellbeing is promoted throughout a school or setting is required rather than simply delivering a stand-alone programme, workshop or positive education intervention. We use this framework to help schools coordinate, promote, plan and improve activities for building wellbeing throughout their whole community.

The six pathways for promoting wellbeing identified in the SEARCH framework

1. Strengths – pre-existing character strengths within individuals that arise naturally and are intrinsically motivating to use and energising. We embed a language and lens of strength awareness and development into all our programmes.
2. Emotional management – the ability to identify, understand and manage one’s emotions by understanding how emotions operate through our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Our approach enables children and young people to learn strategies to understand and express all emotions and develop positive emotions: this is particularly useful in stress management.
3. Attention and awareness – attention is our ability to focus, either on inner aspects of self, such as emotions and physical sensations, or on external stimuli. Awareness refers to the ability to pay attention to a stimulus as it occurs.  Mindfulness also plays an important role in this category. In our approach, we promote wellbeing by helping children and young people develop choice and control over where they put their attention, and build self-awareness.
4. Relationships concerns the skills required to build and support supportive social relationships, develop belonging and connection, as well as capitalise on momentary social interactions. Much of our positive education work focuses on skills to develop positive relationships – communication skills – and understanding how we’re coming across to others.
5. Coping and Resilience– defined as constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person. Our approach helps children and young people identify what their personal stressors are and helps them build a broader range of coping strategies to be resilient and manage day to day challenges they face.
6. Habits and goals. Habits are persistent and learned patterns and preferences in decision-making and behaviour that promote wellbeing. Goals are formal milestones, endpoints, achievements, or aspirations, that articulate what people desire, aim for and are willing to invest effort in to.

We have implemented the SEARCH pathways as a strategic framework for leading personal development and wellbeing across the entire school. This approach provides a structured way to audit, plan, and organise initiatives that are seamlessly embedded within a whole school strategy. The pathways guide leaders on ‘what to do’ to enhance wellbeing, while our whole school methodology outlines ‘how to do it’ effectively. Together, they provide a sustainable framework for driving a consistent, evidence-informed personal development programme that supports resilience, wellbeing, and growth throughout the school community.

What are the Benefits of Promoting Wellbeing for Schools?

There are many benefits to developing and promoting whole-school approach to wellbeing. The benefits don't only impact the pupils but create a positive ripple effect that impacts the whole school community and its stakeholders.

Learning Benefits of Whole School Approach to Wellbeing

• Motivation
• Commitment
• Engagement in learning and school

Successful Learning behaviour

• Social-emotional skills
• Attitude to learning
• Cognitive skills development
• Improved focus and attention

Improved Behaviour

• Reduced disruption
• Less incidents, fighting and bullying
• Reduced exclusions and absence

Wellbeing Benefits of a Whole School Approach to Wellbeing

Staff Wellbeing Improved

• Reduced stress and sickness absence
• Improved staff retention
• Improved teaching ability and performance
• Improved staff relationships and morale

Pupil Wellbeing Improved

• Emotional wellbeing
• Happiness and contentment
• Connection and positive relationships
• Satisfaction with life
• Increased resilience and coping
• Reduced stress levels

Mental Health Support

• Prevention of mental health problems
• Earlier access to support for those in need
• Issues identified earlier
• Reduced mental health stigma

Straticgic Approach to Wellbeing Vs Piecemeal

You may still be in the research phase about what the strategic approach to personal development and wellbeing is. If this is the case, sometimes it can be beneficial to compare the whole school approach to the alternative. Some call the alternative 'reactive', but we think that 'piecemeal' captures the essence of a non-whole school approach.

To assist you, we've developed a short comparison:

Stratagic approach to wellbeing

• Joined up strategic approach, wellbeing underpins all aspects of school life
• Wellbeing and personal development are core business at your school
• There is a shared and understood language of personal development and wellbeing
• Wellbeing is present in the policies, processes and place
• Everyone knows their role in developing school wellbeing and supporting personal development
• Strategies for wellbeing and personal development are part of effective teaching practice and embedded into teaching and learning
• Wellbeing is universally taught and embedded into the curriculum and experienced implicitly on a daily basis
• Proactive enabling everyone to build strategies for wellbeing and access to support for disadvantaged students
• Wellbeing is visible, can be seen in displays, the behaviour, and the way the school environment feels
• School personal development and wellbeing is seen as a long-term approach, which becomes embedded and sustained over time
• Staff wellbeing is fundamental to the success of the whole school approach

Piecemeal approach to school wellbeing

• Teaching wellbeing is contained to one personal devlopment workshop for children or a one-off training staff
• Improving wellbeing is seen as a bolt-on, luxury, fad or tick boxy
• Organisational behaviours and processes do not support personal devlopment and wellbeing they may make it worse
• Tokenistic to be seen to be doing things rather than actually doing them
• Seen as the role of certain individuals, e.g. the mental health lead or pastoral support
• Taught in fragmented lessons or one-off workshops
• Dismisses nuances or complexities of emotion or behaviour, over-simplifies
• See as only one or two people’s responsibility who are ‘trained’ in that topic
• Reactive, only supporting those that have been identified to have a need or problem, passing the buck and referring on
• Stigmatised and misunderstood, for example, hiding posters behind toilet doors
• Quick fix, brief or one-off interventions
• Staff not valued as integral to supporting pupil mental health and wellbeing, staff not understanding their role in school mental health
• Staff are burnt out and stressed, the culture between of staff can be resistant or defensive

Why we Created a Whole School System for Wellbeing

At Worth-it we have been working with 100’s of schools for 15 years, supporting them to develop strategies for positive mental health and wellbeing. We have combined our know-how and practical experience with the extensive evidence base underpinning our sustainable approach to personal devlopment and wellbieng. We didn't feel that some of the more popular wellbeing frameworks for schools explained the true nature of change require to promote wellbeing.

Therefore, we have developed our own dynamic ‘system’ for developing and promoting wellbeing in schools covered above. We have chosen to refer to our whole school approach to personal development and wellbeing as a system.

A systems approach considers the school as a complex and bounded unit. Within the school system, wellbeing can be developed as a whole through developing the interactions and interconnections between each element of the system. For example, improving staff wellbeing has a positive impact on pupil wellbeing. While developing pupil resilience, improves behaviour, which in turn reduces staff stress. This is a dynamic process that, once the necessary conditions have been put in place, becomes self-sustaining, highly efficient and low-cost to sustain over time.

Our aim is to support schools to cultivate personal development and wellbeing at key points in their system. Our systems framework offers suggestions about where those key and unique starting points may be for a school. Providing a map or route to effectively plan a strategic whole-school approach to wellbeing. Our school system model can be used with schools, supporting them to reflect on the areas that already work well, identify any gaps in their provision, and plan a school personal development and wellbeing strategy.

How we Apply Wellbeing in Schools

We have developed our wellbeing and positive mental health framework into a programme for school leaders and mental health leads. Our Wellbeing Club membership provides a year of access to training, support and resources that enable schools to promote an evidence-based wellbeing framework in their schools no matter what their starting point is or where they are on their journey to whole-school wellbeing.

We have developed a growing library of wellbeing activities, courses, CPD workshops and peer networking to provide school leaders and mental health leads with everything they need to promote personal development and wellbeing in their school or college.