Making Wellbeing Visible: Getting Ready for Ofsted

As a senior leader or mental health lead, preparing for Ofsted can feel daunting. You dedicate so much to creating a nurturing, supportive environment—but making all that great work visible and tangible can be a challenge. How do you showcase your school’s true culture of care, resilience, inclusion, and personal growth?

Please, take a deep breath. You’re likely achieving more than you realise, and evidencing your school's wellbeing is not about extra workload, but about confidently telling your school’s unique story. This guide reassures you by offering practical, research-based ideas and real success stories, helping you shine a light on your school’s positive impact.

The Science of Wellbeing and Positive Education

Understanding wellbeing in schools is rooted in both positive psychology and educational science. Positive education combines traditional academic learning with wellbeing science, emphasising that personal and academic flourishing go hand in hand (Seligman et al., 2009; Waters & Loton, 2019). Research has shown that programmes centred on wellbeing improve student engagement, behaviour, and academic outcomes (Durlak et al., 2011).

Our work, and that of many partner schools, is informed by school wellbeing frameworks like SEARCH (Waters & Loton, 2019), which help embed the science of wellbeing into day-to-day school life. This includes developing character strengths, cultivating emotional literacy, promoting positive relationships, teaching coping skills, and setting healthy habits. By applying the science of wellbeing, schools build resilience not just in students—but across the entire school community.

It All Starts with Leadership and a Clear Vision

Inspectors know a thriving school culture begins with leaders who are passionate about wellbeing. Evidence suggests that strategic, school-wide approaches to wellbeing are more effective than isolated interventions (Weare & Nind, 2011). Embedding wellbeing as a priority, and sharing the vision with your community, is key.

Practical Ideas for Strategic Leadership:

• Create a Wellbeing Team: Don’t go it alone! Form a dedicated group of staff and students to champion whole-school wellbeing. Hazlehurst Community Primary’s "Wellbeing Angels" are a lovely model—leaving positive notes and small treats for colleagues, creating a ripple effect of care.
• Weave Wellbeing into Your School Improvement Plan: Positioning wellbeing as a strategic goal—measured and reviewed—shows Ofsted and your community your deep commitment.
• Invest in Your Staff: Trained and confident staff make all the difference. Lutterworth High School’s academic mentors were trained in character strengths-based coaching, boosting the wellbeing of both staff and pupils. As evidence, staff competence and buy-in are linked to greater programme success and sustainability (Durlak et al., 2011).

Anne Marie Knowles, Headteacher at Hazlehurst Primary, sums this up beautifully: "We couldn't get support externally, so as a senior leadership team we equipped ourselves as best we could." This is the kind of proactive, research-based leadership Ofsted values.

Embedding Wellbeing and Positive Education into Your Curriculum

Positive education teaches the science of wellbeing explicitly as part of the school curriculum (Seligman et al., 2009). Ofsted wants to see that skills like resilience, self-awareness, and positive relationships aren’t just spoken about—they’re taught, practised, and celebrated.

Practical Curriculum-Based Ideas:

• Strength of the Week: Bring character strengths into assemblies, learning activities, and even house points—making abstract values real. Hazlehurst Primary's pupils recognise and celebrate each other’s strengths, supporting the school’s ethos. This approach is validated by research demonstrating the benefits of strengths education (Quinlan et al., 2012).
• Use an Evidence-Based Framework: The SEARCH framework (Strengths, Emotional Management, Attention, Relationships, Coping, Habits) provides clear structure, ensuring schools teach and measure all key facets of wellbeing. Odyssey Educational Trust used this to map provision, ensuring their curriculum was holistic, not patchy.
• Wellbeing Monitors: Empower pupils as active agents. Hazlehurst’s "wellbeing monitors" provide real-time peer support, boosting belonging and creating a visible, caring culture.

Bringing Wellbeing to Life Beyond the Classroom

True positive education goes beyond lessons. A positive school climate, supported by science, is seen in everyday interactions, extra-curricular activities, and staff support systems (Roffey, 2016).

Practical Non-Curriculum Ideas:

• Kindness Initiatives: Inspired by research showing that acts of kindness lift wellbeing for both giver and receiver (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005), Hazlehurst ran a "Kindness Week," with pupils performing random acts in the community—an experience children and families are still talking about!
• Rethink Pastoral Support: Lutterworth High’s shift from "Pastoral Support" to "Student Support"—with clear referral, coping tools, and mentoring—increased independence and resilience, and freed staff to focus on higher needs.
• Staff Wellbeing First: Evidence shows teacher wellbeing is critical to student outcomes (Roffey, 2012). Hazlehurst gives every staff member a wellbeing day per year and swaps marking policies for feedback, reducing stress and demonstrating whole-school commitment.

Feeling Confident for Your Inspection

Evidencing wellbeing is about authenticity and clarity, not perfection. Inspectors will observe, ask, and listen—to your pupils, your staff, and your parents. When your whole school speaks the language of strengths, support, and positive relationships, your story will shine through.

“The Wellbeing Club offers things I can do at my own pace, with support elements built in... It provided the logical steps for me to start my work in school.”
—Senior Mental Health Lead, Wellbeing Club Member

Let Us Support You on Your Journey

You are not alone. The Wellbeing Club is a school wellbeing package —bringing together the science of positive psychology and practical strategies to help you evidence and embed wellbeing, or Ofsted and beyond. The programme provides a library of online training and consultancy to help you lead a sustainable wellbeing strategy in your school

Are you ready to make wellbeing science part of your school’s story?
Click here to discover the Wellbeing Club and access our training and consultancy for school leaders today

or learn more by accessing our Free Introduction to School Wellbeing webinar.

References:
Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta‐analysis of school‐based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405-432.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111–131.
Quinlan, D. M., Swain, N., Cameron, C. & Vella-Brodrick, D. (2012). How ‘other people matter’ in a classroom-based strengths intervention: Teaching students to see the good in others. Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(5), 390-399.
Roffey, S. (2012). Pupil wellbeing—Teacher wellbeing: Two sides of the same coin? Educational and Child Psychology, 29(4), 8–17.
Roffey, S. (2016). The ASPIRE principles and pedagogy for the implementation of social and emotional learning and the development of whole school wellbeing. International Journal of Emotional Education, 8(2), 59–73.
Seligman, M. E. P., Ernst, R. M., Gillham, J., Reivich, K., & Linkins, M. (2009). Positive education: Positive psychology and classroom interventions. Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 293–311.
Waters, L., & Loton, D. (2019). SEARCH: A meta-framework and review of the field of positive education. International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 4(1), 1–46.