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Updated:
September 2, 2024
Wellbeing Ambassadors is a peer led early intervention programme. It trains young people to become Wellbeing Ambassadors who develop initiatives that support their peers within their school or other educational setting. The goal is to reduce the risk of mental health problems in young people now and in later life.
The Wellbeing Ambassadors programme combines coaching and positive psychology techniques, ensuring that groups of young people are trained in effective ways to provide sustainable strategies for wellbeing, that support early intervention and promote positive mental health and wellbeing.
The programme we have developed uses the Positive Education meta framework SEARCH, developed by Waters and Loton (2019) as a guide to implementing evidence-based practices that foster sustainable flourishing in young people. This framework incorporates five key domains: Strengths, Engagement, Relationships, Coping and Health – each of which are important for promoting positive wellbeing and preventing mental health problems.
One of the main benefits of the Wellbeing Ambassadors programme is that it empowers young people to support their peers in a meaningful and relatable way. Peer-led interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing mental health problems among young people, this approach is crucial in early prevention efforts.
The programme trains students on how to provide peer-to-peer support through active listening, empathy-building techniques and communication skills that enable them to led and develop, these include:
One of the 150 schools that have been using the Wellbeing Ambassadors programme for the last 4 years is The King's School in Chester.
The King's School Chester is a top-performing co-educational day school in the independent sector. In recognition to their mental health initiatives, they have recently been awarded the Gold Level School Mental Health Award from the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools.
This article explores the programmes on the school, the benefits to the students who trained as Ambassadors, the wider school community and Lee Parkes, Deputy Head of 6th Form and Leader of the programme.
Over 4 years ago The King's School identified an increasing need to provide mental health support for students. This led them to realise that much earlier prevention was required to prevent the escalation of issues and the growing need to access support through the school counsellor.
"we've always had pastoral, at the heart of what we do. But I'd say that we noticed, definitely coming out COVID, we noticed that our numbers of students accessing the counsellor that we had at school were a lot higher than they had been before, they were almost double in terms of what we'd seen previously.
And what we were looking at doing was changing our intervention process or tiers of support we had. And what we're finding is a lot of people were going directly to a counsellor and circumnavigating anything else. We wanted to bring a programme in whereby we could be more preventative than reactive, which is where the idea came from."
"There wasn't much preventative [work at school], and we were finding as a school, what we were doing is we were highlighting mental health issues that people might face, rather than thinking about what they could do to prevent those actually becoming an issue in the first place"
Lee conducted extensive research on effective early intervention and identified that peer led early help and positive education are among the most evidence based ways to approach early prevention. He then discovered the and the SEARCH framework and the work we had done at Worth-it combing positive education with coaching for peer-to-peer support.
"I did a bit of independent research in terms of, what is the best practice for preventative mechanisms with pupils. And I stumbled upon the meta analysis, which is the SEARCH framework. So it was it was, it was really key to us doing a programme that it was evidence based. So using that search framework as part of what you did really fitted with what we wanted to do and what we wanted to achieve. And it just aligned exactly what we wanted to do."
The Wellbeing Ambassadors programme has had significant benefits for both the students who were trained as Ambassadors and for the wider school community. One of the key benefits was the development of important life skills such as communication, empathy, leadership and self-awareness.
After completing the online training to deliver the Wellbeing Ambassadors Programme, Lee launched the Mental Fitness Ambassador programme for lower sixth students, which included a formal application process and gradual handover of leadership to the students over 4 years.
"What I've definitely found is, every time a new cohort come in, they're like, we're going to make this even better. Yeah, they really push it and so so what we would do is we would present them in our MFA training day with our what our development plan looks like currently. And they'd always be arriving with ideas of how they could develop different things or what things they'd want to do."
As the project has evolved the programme became known as Mental Fitness Ambassadors (MFAs) involving different cohorts of trained MFA's students working on various projects.
Now, when we talk about what mental fitness is, people are like, Yeah, okay, I know, I've got to work on that as well as my physical fitness.
The MFA's are responsible for developing a strategic action plan that develops wellbeing and fits within the SEARCH Framework
"Our developmental plan started fairly short in the first year. And I didn't include the SEARCH Framework. But then in year two, we decided that we'd include the SEARCH framework as our pillars, and then we built objectives and tactics from that, in terms of what we were going to do. And now we're at a stage whereby we've got like, we've got some things on our development plan that are like huge projects that we'd really like to implement."
Their current cohort is focused on branding and PR, to make everything produced immediately recognisable, creating a shared language and understanding that increases awareness and normalises conversations about mental health and wellbeing.
They have developed a character called Monty who is on badges and materials created by the MFA's. This clear branding helps create a shared language, understanding and acceptance of the work the MFA's do in the school, which in turn increases wellbeing awareness and makes the promotion of strategies for wellbeing more accessible for the whole school community.
A major priority for the school was supporting students with academic pressure especially supporting them through exam stress. One of the key projects developed by the ambassadors focusses on promoting wellbeing and resilience strategies to cope with exam stress.
"Last year, we brought in what we call the 'Working Well Sessions'. So we targeted pupils who we knew were struggling with exams, we're an academically selective school, so there's that kind of intrinsic pressure from the pupils themselves to do well. I think we do quite well in terms of managing the extrinsic pressure. But I think sometimes some pupils get concerned and worried about it. So we developed five different sessions about coping mechanisms, so like not catastrophizing, for example. And talking about the stress container, and how stress containers get full and overflow, and making sure that we've got outlets and all those sorts of healthy coping mechanisms around it. We did five different sessions over five weeks with year over 30, pupils, to try and help them cope as best as they possibly could. And we did that in the build-up to Easter, and then just after Easter."
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The transformative effects of the Wellbeing Ambassadors Programme extend deeply into the entire school environment, creating a ripple effect that enhances the overall student experience. With the emphasis on mental fitness, students are beginning to take ownership of their wellbeing, actively participating in initiatives that promote not just academic success but overall life satisfaction. The involvement of the Mental Fitness Ambassadors has helped cultivate a culture where discussing mental health is both accepted and encouraged. Lee remarked, "Students are feeling more comfortable sharing their thoughts and experiences, leading to more authentic connections and support networks."
One of the major focuses is that of balance and the need for extracurricular activity that supports wellbeing "we're tracking…participation in terms of extracurricular and trying to push people through that as much as possible. It's a big mantra within the school. So I think that's, that's pretty standard. Now, I think most people will do two activities or more"
The impact of the Wellbeing Ambassadors Programme has been felt far beyond the individual students involved. The school community has adopted a more open and proactive approach to mental health, leading to significant cultural shifts. With the MFA's at the forefront, there is now a stronger focus on peer support and shared responsibility for wellbeing among students. Lee noted,
"I think it's far more normal for us to talk about mental health. I think that's a big thing."
Furthermore, the programme has fostered collaboration between students and staff. Creating a united front to address the challenges associated with mental health and wellbeing. This collaborative environment promotes the sense of belonging and community that is essential for students to thrive.
Through regular workshops, events, and peer-led discussions, the school has witnessed a marked increase in student engagement and empowerment. In particular, the initiatives aimed at fostering resilience have resonated with students facing the pressures of academic life. The increased understanding of stress management techniques, such as mindfulness and adaptive coping strategies, has embedded a stronger foundation for emotional resilience throughout the school.
"the major thing is that people are more happy to talk about it, we've changed our policy. So are like MFAs feature in our tiered intervention policy, as part of our safeguarding and mental health we do. So we like to say we put that preventative element in, for example, a student can push a button on the school website, and then depending on their needs it goes to heads of houses and pastoral leads, and then it goes to our mental health nurse, and it goes to the counsellor and then external agencies. So they are they're built into our processes. So I think that's, that's, that's a fairly big shift in terms of how we how we're operating"
Additionally, the collaborative nature of the MFA initiatives has strengthened relationships between younger and older students, fostering mentorship and community spirit that benefits everyone involved. This progressive movement towards a more inclusive and empathetic school culture signifies a pivotal moment for mental health advocacy within the educational setting.
The growth of initiatives such as 'working well sessions and stress-relief events demonstrates the programme's holistic approach to nurturing a supportive educational atmosphere. MFA's are an integral part of raising awareness, increasing access and providing early prevention.
"I talked to them about them being our first line of defence, and our first line of defence is prevention. So that's how we focus it."
To learn more about the Mental Fitness Ambassador Programme visit the Kings School Chester website where they have published the work the MFA's have been doing.
The impact of the Mental Fitness Ambassador Programme at the Kings School Chester has been far-reaching and transformative, not just for individual students but for the entire school community. By promoting a proactive and collaborative approach to wellbeing, the programme has created a supportive and inclusive environment that prioritises mental health and promotes resilience. The involvement of MFA's has helped dismantle stigma around mental health discussions, creating a platform for open conversations and peer support. With continued efforts towards raising awareness and providing early prevention strategies, the MFA initiative is paving the way for schools worldwide to prioritise student mental health.
For more information on how to implement similar programmes in your school or institution, access our Free Wellbeing Ambassadors Cheatsheet, or watch our Introduction to Wellbeing Ambassadors Webinar
References
Waters & Loton, (2019) SEARCH: A Meta-Framework and Review of the Field of Positive Education. International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology
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