Why measuring wellbeing is like planting a tree!

Step 1: Intent

Deciding to plant a seed is the start of the journey. Acknowledging you need to gather voice from across the school in order to have a proper understanding of the issues being faced and areas of required intervention to remove learning or growth barriers.

Step 2: Planting the seed

The wellbeing measurement journey can be likened to that of planting a Tree and seeing it flourish over time. Unless you begin and plant, you will never see the tree grow and blossom. The same can be said with starting to measure wellbeing in schools.

Step 3: PNurturing the sapling

In the early stages, you will need to tend to your Tree regularly to check in and make sure you feed it, water it and prune it accordingly. This is the same for wellbeing measurement. You need to have regular termly check-in surveys, supplemented with other measures that allow you to understand other factors that contribute to overall wellbeing such as bullying, attitudes to learning, and attitudes to physical activity/eating. You may find that initially, you identify lots of work to be done and everyone will need to know their role in caring for the tree (or pupils).

Step 4: Caring for the tree

There are many benchmarks we can use as to how tall the tree should grow, how much fruit it should produce and when, but much like schools, although benchmarks can be helpful, your school (or tree) is in its own unique environment. The most helpful benchmark will be your averages gathered over time, which will only be evident by continual surveying at key points throughout the year.  You may have some periods where there is no growth, and you may have periods of regression or trauma. This could be where you’re fighting infection, or environmental factors (pandemic, cost of living crisis etc). Every school is unique and faces different challenges that need addressing. This can be achieved by consistently gathering voice in the long term.

Step 5: Ongoing maintenance

Once your tree (or wellbeing measurement strategy) is established it becomes business as usual and everyone in school will know their role in caring for the tree when issues and trauma events occur/are identified. With a proper strategy, you will be able to track the growth of your school over time.  Wellbeing measurement is a moving target and will grow into a compelling timeline of how pupils evolve, overcome challenges, and contribute to overall wellbeing.

At BounceTogether, we are driven to make it easy and affordable for evry school to get started measuring wellbeing. Our packages are designed to help schools collect regular feedback and insights from their whole school community, using research-based surveys to identify school-based priorities, report on findings using year-group/cohort/class segments, and showcase impact over time from as little as £299 per school. If you are interested to find out more, please do get in touch or book a meeting with one of our friendly team - Click here

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