Targeted Support That Works: Coaching for Disadvantaged Students

More pupils than ever are struggling. Anxiety, low self-esteem, exam stress, disengagement. And behind each of those labels is a young person who needs something more than whole-school provision can offer. I know this because I've spent years not just researching this space, but working directly alongside schools, in classrooms, with pastoral teams, and alongside SENCOs, helping hundreds of schools and settings put the right targeted support in place for disadvantaged young people. The question I hear most often? What actually works?

The answer, backed by my own research and a growing body of evidence, is positive psychology coaching.

In this post, I want to walk you through what targeted support really means in practice, how student coaching (specifically positive psychology coaching) works as an intervention, and why I believe it deserves a central place in your school's support strategy, especially as the new Ofsted EIF comes into force from September 2026.

Key Takeaways

• Student coaching is a recognised form of targeted, early intervention that helps students facing barriers to learning and/or wellbeing, sitting alongside selective and indicated approaches supported by UK evidence.
• Its active ingredients are trust, non-judgement, and accountability and the coaching relationship helps students set goals, build resilience, and take ownership of change.
• Coaching complements rather than replaces counselling, CBT, and clinical support, working best at the pre-clinical stage as early prevention.
• Coaching aligns directly with Ofsted EIF, supporting inclusion, attendance and behaviour, and personal development and wellbeing.
• Targeted support and early prevention is cost-effective, and coaching offers schools an affordable way to reduce barriers for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND.

The Growing Need for Targeted Support in Schools

Schools are being asked to support a wider range of pupil needs than ever before. Rising rates of anxiety, depression, and disengagement mean that universal, whole-school provision alone often isn't enough. Some pupils need something more focused.

The evidence backs this up. A systematic review of reviews by McGovern et al. (2024) found strong support for both selective interventions, delivered to sub-groups at increased risk, and indicated interventions, which target young people already showing pre-clinical symptoms. Targeted support meets pupils where they are, rather than hoping a broad approach will reach everyone.

For school leaders, this matters on two fronts. First, it's the right thing to do for pupils facing barriers to their learning and wellbeing. Second, it's exactly what inspectors will be looking for under the renewed inspection framework. Getting targeted support right is both a moral and a strategic priority.

What Is Targeted Support?

Targeted support refers to early or preventative mental wellbeing support aimed at specific individuals or groups of students who need more than universal, whole-school provision. It sits within the graduated approach, the continuous cycle of assess, plan, do, and review, that helps ensure pupils receive the right level of help.

There are two main types:

• Selective interventions are delivered to sub-groups identified as being at increased risk, even before symptoms appear, for example, disadvantaged pupils or those navigating difficult transitions.
• Indicated interventions target young people already showing early, pre-clinical signs of difficulty, such as mild anxiety, low mood, or emerging disengagement.

And the cost-effectiveness evidence is clear. Le et al. (2021) found that targeted prevention was likely to be more cost-effective than universal prevention, and that screening plus psychological intervention at school was one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent mental disorders in children and young people.

How Does Coaching Work as a Targeted Support Solution?

This is where I want to share something I feel genuinely passionate about. My research with van Nieuwerburgh (2016) explored how positive psychology coaching improves wellbeing for disadvantaged young people facing barriers to learning, and what we found was both clear and compelling.

Coaching is structured, forward-looking, and led by the young person's own desired outcomes. Rather than focusing on diagnosis or treatment, it helps pupils identify their strengths, set goals, and take practical steps to overcome what's holding them back. It works through regular one-to-one or small-group sessions built around a trusting relationship. And what makes it effective isn't just the structure. It's the quality of that relationship.

My research identifies three interrelated mechanisms through which coaching creates real change:

• The coaching process itself: Sessions give young people a safe environment to try out new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Skills are built progressively, from communication and interpersonal skills, through self and emotional awareness, to thinking skills like goal-setting, reframing, and reality-checking.
• The coaching skills used: Coaches draw on an integrative toolkit of positive psychology strategies, including strengths recognition, scaling, solution-focused questioning, and trauma-informed stress management techniques. These aren't abstract exercises. They're practical tools young people can take away and apply in their own lives.
• The way of being in the coaching relationship: Perhaps most importantly, the coach brings warmth, trust, acceptance, and genuine belief in the young person. This relational quality is what allows disadvantaged pupils, often those who have experienced the most barriers and the least consistent support, to feel safe enough to open up and begin to change.

What Makes Coaching Work as Targeted Support?

Three things run through my research and through effective coaching practice more broadly:

• Trust: The coach creates a safe, confidential space where the young person feels genuinely heard.
• Non-judgement: Coaches deliberately reduce the distance between expert and young person. Pupils feel less like a problem to be fixed and more like an equal partner in their own development. For young people who have experienced judgment and low expectations, this shift is significant.
• Accountability: Coaching breaks change into small, manageable steps. The young person is supported to take ownership of their own progress, building growing awareness, responsibility, and eventually real choice and control over their thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.

These ingredients explain something the wider evidence base often leaves unaddressed. Most studies report outcomes, such as reduced anxiety and improved coping, without explaining how an intervention worked. Coaching offers a clear account: a relationship built on trust and non-judgement gives young people the security to set goals and act on them.

Which Barriers to Learning Does Coaching Address?

Because coaching is led by the young person, it can flex to meet very different needs. In my research and practice, I've seen it make a real difference for students experiencing:

• Anxiety, depression, and stress: Coaching helps young people identify and shift the patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that contribute to anxiety. My quantitative analysis demonstrated reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression alongside increased confidence and a greater sense of control.
• Low self-esteem and internalising behaviours: Coaching builds self-belief through strengths recognition and self-discovery, helping pupils move past withdrawal, low motivation, and poor resilience.
• Externalising behaviours: Coaching gives young people the tools to understand their own triggers and responses. Developing personalised coping strategies and building resilience from the inside out means pupils are better equipped to manage frustration, conflict, and impulsivity, reducing disruptive behaviour before it escalates.
• Exam stress: Over half of UK students report experiencing stress or anxiety regularly (HEPI, 2023), and 82% say it has negatively affected their mental health (NUS). Coaching helps pupils plan, prioritise, and stay calm under pressure.
• Disengagement and NEET risk: Around 1 in 7 young people aged 16–24 in the UK are NEET. Coaching helps at-risk pupils explore their options, overcome psychological barriers, and re-engage with learning before disengagement becomes entrenched.

How Does Coaching Fit Within a Targeted Support System?

I want to be clear about this: coaching isn't a replacement for other forms of targeted support. It's a powerful addition to them. Think of it as another tool in your toolkit, one that sits alongside counselling, CBT, and mindfulness rather than competing with them.

Here's how they compare:

• Coaching: Centres on goals, strengths, and taking action. It's firmly present and future-focused, with the young person in the driving seat — they set the direction, you help them move forward.
• Counselling: Creates a safe, confidential space for young people to explore emotional distress. It draws on both past and present experiences to help them process and make sense of their feelings.
• CBT: Takes a clinical, structured approach to unpicking the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours — helping young people recognise and reframe unhelpful patterns.
• Mindfulness: Builds self-awareness and emotional regulation through meditation and sensory practices, anchoring young people in the present moment to reduce stress and anxiety.

Coaching is firmly forward-looking. You're not directing the young person. You're guiding them to reach their own conclusions and take meaningful action.

And I'll be direct about something else: coaching is not a substitute for clinical therapy. If a young person's needs go beyond your remit, your role is to escalate and refer. Coaching works best at the pre-clinical stage, when a pupil is struggling but hasn't yet reached a clinical threshold. That's precisely where early, targeted support can make the biggest difference.

How Does Coaching Align With Ofsted EIF?

Coaching supports several evaluation areas in the Ofsted EIF and Schools Inspection Toolkit for use from September 2026, and for school leaders building a case for coaching, this alignment matters.

Inclusion

The toolkit asks inspectors to consider how leaders reduce barriers to students' learning and wellbeing through a graduated approach. Coaching is a practical way to deliver this cycle of assess, plan, do, and review. It's especially relevant for disadvantaged pupils, where a well-evidenced pupil premium strategy is expected. And because coaching is grounded in the young person's own goals, it naturally supports the pupil voice the toolkit values.

Attendance and Behaviour

Inspectors look for timely, well-chosen, targeted interventions to support those who need additional help. Coaching fits this precisely, helping pupils develop the motivation, self-discipline, and resilience that the toolkit highlights as predictors of attainment.

Personal Development and Wellbeing

The toolkit expects schools to develop pupils' confidence, resilience, and knowledge so they can keep themselves mentally healthy. My positive psychology coaching framework directly develops confidence, self-awareness, coping skills, and resilience. These are outcomes you can see in young people's lives, and the evidence inspectors will be looking for.

Worth-it's Coaching Framework in Practice

My research identifies three skill domains that effective coaching with disadvantaged young people should develop:

• Communication and interpersonal skills: Body language, understanding different types of behaviour, building peer and coach relationships, and learning to share problems constructively.
• Self and emotional awareness: Tools like the wheel of life, identifying comfort zones, recognising personal strengths, and learning stress management and trauma-informed stress management techniques.
• Thinking skills: Reality-checking, reframing unhelpful thoughts, scaling confidence and motivation, setting achievable goals, and using distraction and thought-stopping techniques to manage difficult moments.

This framework and coaching toolkit gives teachers or pastoral practitioners a clear, practical map for sessions. It ensures that coaching with disadvantaged students isn't simply a supportive conversation. It's a progressive, skill-building process with real outcomes. Young people who engaged with this approach reported increased motivation, a more positive outlook on the future, greater confidence, and improved ability to manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.

Where School Leaders Can Start.

You don't need to overhaul everything. Targeted student coaching can be introduced thoughtfully, building on what your school already does well.

Start with early identification. Use a local needs assessment to spot students facing barriers to learning and wellbeing. Look for early indicators — declining attendance, low engagement, emerging anxiety — before challenges escalate.

Invest in your people. The most sustainable model is one where your own staff develop coaching skills. Building internal capacity means your support offer is shaped by your context, your students, and your community.

Measure what matters. Track outcomes like attendance, engagement, and wellbeing. Clear, well-analysed data tells a powerful story — for your team, your governors, and your inspectors.

Too many pupils are simply getting by. Coaching offers a real pathway to help them thrive — building the resilience, confidence, and self-belief they need to overcome barriers and reach their potential. It's targeted, cost-effective, relationship-driven, and it works.

If you're ready to take the first step, my Introduction to Coaching Young People CPD bundle is a practical place to begin. It's designed to help you and your team bring evidence-based coaching into your setting — and feel confident doing it.

And if you want something you can use straight away, download your free How to Explain Resilience to a Young Person workbook — a coaching-based resource to help you open up meaningful conversations with your students.

If you would like to understand how targeted support can fit in with your wider school inclusion stratagy use of Wellbeing and Inclusion Planning Tool.

References

• Department for Education. Developing your school or college targeted mental wellbeing support.
• HEPI (Higher Education Policy Institute) (2023). Student Academic Experience Survey.
• Le, L.K. et al. (2021). Cost-effectiveness evidence of mental health prevention and promotion interventions: A systematic review of economic evaluations. PLoS Medicine.
• McGovern, R. et al. (2024). The effectiveness of preventative interventions to reduce mental health problems in at-risk children and young people: A systematic review of reviews. The Journal of Prevention.
• NUS (National Union of Students). Mental Health Research Briefing.
• Ofsted (2026). State-funded school inspection toolkit: For use from 7 September 2026.
• Robson-Kelly, L. and van Nieuwerburgh, C. (2016). What can coaching do for at-risk teenagers? A systematic review of the literature. International Coaching Psychology Review.
• Robson-Kelly, L. (2016). How could positive psychology coaching be improving wellbeing for young people? Presented at the European Positive Psychology Conference.