Where and with whom do pupils feel most secure?
Researchers at Centre for Development, Evaluation, Complexity and Implementation in Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), funded by Health and Care Research Wales, have spoken with pupils across Wales around the topic of feeling ‘safe’ in their schools.
Part of the evaluation involves interviews with children, young people, teaching staff and relevant professionals working within education, as well as analysis of School Health Research Network (SHRN) survey data collected nationally within schools between 2002 and 2025.
According to findings from SHRN, nearly a quarter of secondary school learners in Wales reported having very high levels of mental health symptoms in the years following COVID-19.
Schools are increasingly being considered as a site for delivering interventions which promote good emotional wellbeing and prevent the occurrence or escalation of mental health difficulties.
For this project, researchers spoke with primary and secondary school pupils and asked them to create posters related to the following topics:
- Safe people in school
- Safe spaces in school
- What they would do to improve the school if they were Headteacher
The posters are the first in an ongoing series of summary findings collected as part of the evaluation.
Research Assistant Zoe Haslam, who conducted the sessions with the pupils, said: “It was illuminating to discuss these issues with the learners and really gain a sense of what is important to children and young people across Wales in relation to mental and emotional wellbeing at school.
“These summaries highlight the significant role of both people and place in impacting learner wellbeing, and we hope they are a useful tool for schools to continue conversations about supporting learners.
“As this research project is currently ongoing, we expect to be able to produce more of these summaries over the coming year to communicate further findings about both teacher and learner experiences of wellbeing in schools across Wales.”
Zoe pointed out some heartening results from the project, including how primary school pupils were overwhelmingly positive about the people in their school community, while the majority of secondary pupils listed at least one school teacher that they trusted and would go to if they needed support.
However, the majority of both primary and secondary pupils found crowded areas, such as the school lunch hall, stressful. The majority of pupils also considered school toilets problematic, with vaping and vandalism being factors for secondary pupils, and cleanliness for primary pupils.
Visit the DECIPHer website to read the full report.