Digital wellbeing tool shows students struggling

Nearly one in two children need additional support from schools, a new study suggests.

A trial of the Wellbeing for Learning tool by Pivot Professional Learning saw over 9000 school students from 38 schools respond to questions regarding their wellbeing. The trial was conducted over a 10-week trial period across three countries and has shown that 47% of students need help from schools to improve their wellbeing.

“This was a unique study in which we implemented a wellbeing tool, in partnership with schools, that allowed children to let the school know how they were feeling each week for 10 weeks,” said Amanda Bickerstaff, CEO of Pivot Professional Learning.

“Throughout the pilot period the majority of students who indicated they were struggling with wellbeing was unique each week — with only 15% of students reporting this more than once. Schools described it as a key benefit to see this information, which then enabled them to provide the necessary support for students who needed it,” she said.

Overall, students who participated in the trial rated on average their feelings somewhere between “okay” and “good”, with an average general wellbeing, with 11% of students indicating they were “struggling” or “not so good” each week, whilst a total of 47% of children indicated that they did not feel good about their day at school.

In addition to measuring students’ general wellbeing, the tool also monitored several key domains of wellbeing as they relate to learning. The results revealed that resilience was the lowest scoring domain across the dataset, and that students also expressed they did not know who to ask for help if they were struggling at school.

Girls were also seen to be struggling more than boys, whilst those from low socioeconomic regions also struggled more than students from more affluent suburbs.

“There are some key areas that will require more research to determine why some cohorts of students are struggling more than others and what support schools can give and additional resourcing that will be needed to ensure all students who need help get the help they need,” Bickerstaff said.

She said that as the use of the Wellbeing for Learning survey increases through 2022, it will allow for data to be captured over an entire school year. This will provide schools with ongoing insights to help them to provide students who are struggling with the support they need when they need it.

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