Lizzie Varley, chair of Cognita’s student-wellbeing board, is in Malawi. When she starts to talk about the work the international schools group is doing there with charity the Sparkle Foundation, she wells up. Being involved in charitable work that helps others brings with it “big emotions”, she says.
“Giving” is one of the six factors Cognita has identified as integral to good mental health, and it is often woven into the fabric of schools, seen in everything from charity bake sales, sponsored events and foodbank collections.
But in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Cognita has eight schools, charitable giving can be complicated, and schools often veer away from it for fear of getting into trouble: you need a permit to fundraise, says Varley, and can only donate to licensed charities; get it wrong and you can incur a fine.
So Cognita settled upon forging deep links with one charity, the Sparkle Foundation, which provides education to vulnerable children. This partnership, which started two years ago, has now “spiralled” beyond fundraising and the donation of resources, to CPD run by Cognita teachers. In Malawi, for example, a Cognita teacher is on secondment for a year to write a curriculum for local schools.
Seeing life outside pupils’ ‘bubble’
The benefit for pupils, says Varley, is that such links reveal “what life is like outside of their little bubble”. They also see “the tangible impact” their fundraising is having on children who attend the charity’s early-learning centre.
“Agency has such a positive influence on your mental health, giving the pupils the ability to know that they can make a difference, that they have the power to make a difference - that anyone can do that,” says Varley.
And boosting young people’s mental health may be a more pressing concern now than it has been for a long time.
A recent article in The Lancet suggested mental health had entered “a dangerous phase” after “declining steadily” over two decades” in “many countries”, including a “major surge of mental ill health driven by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
There is much debate about the causes, with blame often ascribed to technology, whether “doom scrolling” on TikTok or playing video games at all hours.
But there are also concerns that young people are growing up in a world where things are perceived to be getting worse - anxiety about climate change is often cited.
Therefore, as Varley points out, demonstrating that they are not powerless could be the perfect antidote.
Six-step formula for lifelong health
As well as “giving”, Cognita’s “six-step formula for lifelong health” - its so-called Be Well Charter - identifies two other “mental contributors” to wellbeing: relationships and friendships, and meaningful work. Then there are three “physical contributors”: sleep, diet and exercise.
In international schools, however, responses to declining mental health must also take into account the “highly diverse, multicultural environment” in which they are working, says Dr Funke Baffour-Awuah, who recently became corporate head of wellbeing at the GEMS Education group.
GEMS schools, she says, host over 170 different nationalities, with varying cultural norms and expectations around mental health and wellbeing.
“This diversity requires us to be particularly culturally sensitive and adaptable in our approach,” says Funke. “Unlike UK schools, we must address a broader spectrum of attitudes towards mental health, creating support systems that reflect this diversity.”
In some cultures, mental health is openly discussed and seeking psychological support is normalised, she says; in others, there may be a stigma around mental health or an expectation to face challenges privately.
GEMS is “focused on creating an environment where seeking help is normalised for all pupils, regardless of their cultural background”, says Funke.
The goal is to “reduce stigma and ensure all pupils feel comfortable accessing the support they need”, with staff and parents included in building “a comprehensive wellbeing culture.” Mental health support, she says, should be “proactive rather than reactive, embedding a preventative approach”.
“In educational contexts especially, it is crucial to intervene early to prevent minor issues from developing into more severe mental health problems,” adds Funke.
Wellbeing’s potential to unite international schools
Varley sees wellbeing as something that can unite international schools across different countries, communities and curricula.
Cognita has 100 schools in 16 countries but all the group’s schools and offices have an annual focus on the importance of wellbeing through its Global Be Well Day. Last year the focus of the day, which takes place in September, was “digital wellness”; this year it was “giving”.
As part of the event, staff and pupils take part in a ‘Be Well Impact Hour’: this year they collectively donated over 500,000 hours through tasks such as litter picking, preparing food and care packages, and collecting charitable donations.
Cognita also finds that - despite its schools being based in different countries and serving myriad communities - pupils who take part in its annual wellbeing survey have much in common. Getting the right amount of sleep is, for example, a recurring challenge, with excessive screen time frequently cited as a factor. That finding led to a year-long global focus on improving sleep across Cognita schools.
But schools are being advised to tread carefully when deciding on interventions to improve wellbeing.
Dr Lucy Foulkes, a Prudence Trust research fellow in experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, recently said that some academics are turning away from universal mental health interventions, such as whole-class mindfulness lessons or workshops rooted in cognitive behavioural therapy, in favour of more targeted support.
In an interview with Tes published in June, she cited evidence that some pupils might “get worse rather than better in school interventions”.
Rather than giving pupils techniques to cope with anxiety and low mood, she suggested thinking about what it is about the system that makes pupils stressed, from exams to the “the social pressures that exist in schools”.
‘What you measure matters’
The happiness of pupils is not typically a measure schools are judged on; attainment still tends to reign supreme.
Yet, there are signs of things changing. Ranju Anand, principal of GEMS Cambridge International Private School in Sharjah, in the UAE, says the all-through school with 2,300 pupils achieves “outstanding results” based on a philosophy of “when pupils thrive emotionally, they thrive academically”.
Meanwhile, Varley says Cognita is considering a progressive curriculum “looking at the progression of agency, adaptability and positive attitudes from early years up to Year 13”.
She adds: “What you measure matters and that has always been the case for schools. So actually, if we can establish a system where we’re measuring wellbeing and we’re asking schools for data on that, then I think it will make it matter more in school.”
How best to do that, though, is a conundrum.
Scotland, for example, has its Curriculum for Excellence, with four equal ambitions for pupils: they should be “successful learners”, “confident individuals”, “effective contributors” and “responsible citizens”.
Yet, it is widely acknowledged that evidence is largely gathered for the “successful learners” part, through traditional exams and national tests. When the government did finally attempt to conduct something different - a “wellbeing census” in 2021-22 - it became mired in controversy because of fears over pupils’ privacy, as well as the explicit nature of some questions.
Nevertheless, there is a growing acknowledgement internationally that happy pupils are more likely to thrive, and that academic excellence and emotional wellbeing are intertwined. Perhaps, the dial is finally shifting on traditional notions of success in school.
Emma Seith is a senior reporter at Tes. She tweets @Emma_Seith
