An exploration into students’ experiences of a wellbeing service in their school

This thesis is an interpretive research study that explores the experiences of ten participants (aged eleven to fifteen years old) before, during, and after they received specialist wellbeing support on their school premises. Since the release of Every Child Matters policy, by the UK Government in 2003 several policies and initiatives have increasingly recognised the importance of children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing across England. More importantly is the recognition that as mental health statistics continue to rise in England, there is an increasing pressure being put on schools to support children and young people who are suffering with their emotional wellbeing, so that they are then enabled to be academically successful in school and later in life. To promote positive change in children and young people’s wellbeing and mental health, their voices need to be listened to so that their knowledge can prompt changes to both policy and practice in ways that work best for them.

Adopting the narrative inquiry model crafted by Jean Clandinin and Michael Connelly (2000), a methodical journey of gathering and delving into a collection of diverse experiences through a series of semi-structured interviews and storyboards is discussed within this thesis. Participant’ stories were analysed using a multi-layered approach. The analysis revealed the participants’ sageness, offering valuable insights into their lived experiences whilst concluding that children and young people would benefit from having specialist wellbeing support on the school premises, with suggestions that multiple sectors would need to work together, in parity, to make this happen and prompt future policy and practice. Finally, proposing that further research in a wider range of schools is necessary to fully refine this strategy.