In December 2023, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published its most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) findings, comparing numerous educational outcomes across 80 countries.
While much was made of the performance of young people in maths, English and science in the UK, little attention was paid to the fact that life satisfaction scores for our young people were second bottom among the OECD countries.
Specifically, one in four (25 per cent of) 15-year-olds in the UK reported not being satisfied with their lives, well above the OECD average (18 per cent).
Low pupil wellbeing
To anyone interested in young people’s wellbeing, this will have come as little surprise and, sadly, persistently low wellbeing only adds to the array of challenges that young people face.
Alarming rates of absenteeism following the pandemic, and increasingly poor behaviour reported in schools, are likely to be exacerbated by unhappy students, who don’t feel a sense of belonging and don’t feel heard or empowered to do anything about it.
Sadly, the focus on the UK’s attainment scores in the latest Pisa report, with barely a mention of wellbeing, is reflective of a culture that defines the success of schools simply in terms of grades.
Of course, academic success is important, and it’s essential that we continue to place necessary emphasis on attainment.
Yet it needs to be balanced with wellbeing - something that 60 per cent teachers agreed, in a recent Children’s Society survey, should be measured in school at least once a year.
Perhaps, then, just as the Department for Education has responded to the attendance crisis in schools with statutory measures to gather and share data on pupil attendance, wellbeing should be held to the same standard.
Insights into children’s wellbeing
The #BeeWell programme, which I co-founded in 2019, is building a truer picture of young people’s wellbeing so we can better understand how to improve on the worrying Pisa scores and act on what young people tell us.
To this end, #BeeWell last week published data from our third annual #BeeWell survey on the wellbeing of young people.
This is a huge data collection exercise, with responses from nearly 40,000 students this year alone, from over 250 secondary schools in 14 local authorities across Greater Manchester, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton.
The findings are notable.
Positive signs and worrying trends
On the positive side, our data shows that 83 per cent of young people in Greater Manchester have hope and optimism for the future - a clear improvement from a score of just 72 per cent in 2020.
Meanwhile, eight in 10 young people in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton reported that they have good, very good or excellent physical health.
However, entrenched inequalities remain in all geographical areas, particularly in relation to gender and sexual orientation.
More than 40 per cent of young people who identify as lesbian or gay reported a high level of emotional difficulties (for example, worrying a lot, feeling unhappy, having problems sleeping). This is more than triple the prevalence for heterosexual young people.
Furthermore, 22 per cent of cisgender girls reported a high level of emotional difficulties compared with 6 per cent of cisgender boys - nearly four times the level.
Meanwhile, in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton around one in 10 young people reported that they often or always feel lonely - almost double the national average of 5.5 per cent, as per NHS data last year.
Helping schools tackle the challenges
With the location-specific nature of this data and its granular findings, the aim is to give schools and our other partners in the areas surveyed the opportunity to tackle the challenges identified. Our previous #BeeWell surveys have led to action being taken.
For example, schools have done everything from offering improved physical activity opportunities and focusing on more nutritious lunches to expanding creative arts offerings, tweaking school uniform protocols and widening dialogue with young people to amplify their voices. You can read about specific school actions on the #BeeWell website.
All of this shows that schools are ready to act. Ultimately, though, the scale of the issue means this is something that our country as a whole needs to focus on much more.
That is why we are determined that by 2030 this approach will have been implemented on a national scale so schools, and our partners, have the best insights possible to drive their wellbeing work.
In particular, we have to ensure pupil wellbeing is at the heart of what we value in education so the next time Pisa league tables are published pupils’ life satisfaction scores are not languishing at the bottom.
We owe children so much better than that.
David Gregson is co-founder of #BeeWell
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