Author: Maria Boffey

We are delighted to report that over half of our SHRN registered primary schools have completed The School Environment Questionnaire (SEQ). This achievement reflects your commitment to enhancing the health and well-being of your learners.

By completing both The SHRN Student Health and Well-Being Survey and the SEQ, primary schools not only enhance their internal practices,  but also contribute to a broader understanding of health and well-being in education. This dual approach fosters a healthier, more supportive environment for all learners.

Thank you to all the schools for your participation and dedication to creating a positive learning environment. Together, we are making a difference!

For registered primary schools that have not yet completed both the SEQ and The SHRN Student Health and Well-Being Survey, here’s a reminder of some key benefits of you doing so:

1.  A Comprehensive Understanding of Learner Needs

• Holistic Insights: By gathering data from both surveys, your school can gain a well-rounded view of your learners’ health, well-being, and the overall school environment. This helps you  identify specific areas that need attention.

The SHRN team is also able to anonymously analyse the relationship between school policies/practices and learner outcomes and share what we learn on potentially effective approaches with schools to develop knowledge exchange events such as our webinar series.

2. Informed Decision-Making

• Data-Driven Policies: The insights gained from these surveys enables your school to make informed decisions regarding health and well-being initiatives, ensuring that policies are tailored to the actual needs of your learners.

3. Enhanced Learner Engagement

• Empowerment: Involving learners in the survey process can empower them, making them feel valued and heard, leading to increased engagement in your school activities and initiatives.

4. Improved Health Outcomes

• Targeted Interventions: The data can help  your school implement targeted health and well-being programmes that address specific issues, such as mental health, nutrition, and physical activity- ultimately improving learners and well-being.

5. Benchmarking and Comparison

• National Standards: You can compare your school’s results with national data, allowing you to benchmark your performance and identify best practices from other schools.

6. Support for Inspections and Accountability

Evidence for Estyn Inspections: Completing both surveys provides valuable evidence for your school inspection, demonstrating a commitment to learner health and well-being. Further, the SNRN and Public Health Wales partnership enables your  SHRN data  to be embedded as part a health promoting school.

7. Long-Term Planning and Development

• Sustainable Practices: The data collected can inform long-term strategies for improving your school’s  policies and practices, ensuring that health and well-being remain a priority in your school development plans.

In summary, registered primary schools that complete both The SHRN Student Health and Well-Being Survey and the SEQ can unlock a range of benefits that enhance their educational environment and support their learner’s development.

Read more about The School Environment Questionnaire (SEQ). 

In today’s educational landscape, the health and well-being of learners is more crucial than ever. Maria Boffey, SHRN Knowledge Exchange and External Affairs Manager , emphasises how completing both The SHRN Student Health and Well-Being Survey and The SHRN School Environment Questionnaire (SEQ), gives schools invaluable insights that not only enhance their internal practices, but also contributes to a broader understanding of health and well-being across Wales.  In this blog, Maria explores the significant benefits of the SHRN surveys for schools and how they can transform the educational environment for the better.

Unlocking Insights for Health and Well-Being

By participating in both The SHRN Student Health and Well-Being Survey and the SEQ, primary schools not only improve their internal practices but also contributes to a broader understanding of health and well-being in education. This dual approach fosters a healthier, more supportive environment for all learners.

The key benefits for schools taking part in SHRN surveys are:

1.  A Comprehensive Understanding of Learner Needs

• Holistic Insights: By gathering data from both surveys, your school can gain a well-rounded view of your learners’ health, well-being, and the overall school environment. This helps you  identify specific areas that need attention.

Additionally, the SHRN team is also able to anonymously analyse the relationship between school policies/practices and learner outcomes and share what we learn on potentially effective approaches with schools to develop knowledge exchange events such as our webinar series.

2. Informed Decision-Making

• Data-Driven Policies: The insights gained from these surveys enables your school to make informed decisions regarding health and well-being initiatives, ensuring that policies are tailored to the actual needs of your learners.

3. Enhanced Learner Engagement

• Empowerment: Involving learners in the survey process can empower them, making them feel valued and heard, leading to increased engagement in your school activities and initiatives.

4. Improved Health Outcomes

• Targeted Interventions: SHRN data can help  your school implement targeted health and well-being programmes that address specific issues, such as mental health, nutrition, and physical activity- ultimately improving learners and well-being.

5. Benchmarking and Comparison

• National Standards: You can compare your school’s results with national data, allowing you to benchmark your performance and identify best practices from other schools.

6. Support for Inspections and Accountability

Evidence for Estyn Inspections: Completing both surveys provides valuable evidence for your school inspection, demonstrating a commitment to learner health and well-being. Further, the SNRN and Public Health Wales partnership enables your  SHRN data  to be embedded as part a health promoting school.

7. Long-Term Planning and Development

• Sustainable Practices: The data collected can inform long-term strategies for improving your school’s  policies and practices, ensuring that health and well-being remain a priority in your school development plans.

In summary, registered primary schools that complete both The SHRN Student Health and Well-Being Survey and the SEQ can unlock a range of benefits that enhance their educational environment and support their learner’s development.

Read more about The School Environment Questionnaire (SEQ) and join us in making a positive impact on health and well-being in education!

Join the Discussion!

Why should primary schools register to take part in SHRN’s 2024 data collection?

SHRN has become a unique and invaluable part of the education health and well-being infrastructure in Wales. Our strategic partnership with Public Health Wales and integration with The Welsh Network of Health and Well-being Promoting Schools (WNHWPS), along with substantive and ongoing investment from Welsh Government, has enabled SHRN to grow into a national network of research and evaluation.

SHRN is cited in over thirty Welsh Government policies and strategies as providing support for the delivery and evaluation of health and well-being policy agendas and interventions. These include the Whole-School Approach to Emotional and Mental Well-being (2021) and Estyn’s Healthy and Happy Report (2019).

To find out more about the huge benefits of joining SHRN, read our primary school and school success and impact brochures.

Is The SHRN Student Health and Well-being Survey anonymous?

Yes. The Student Health and Well-being survey collects indirect identifies such gender, school year group (as a proxy for learner age), and ethnicity. It would be extremely difficult to use this data to discover the identity of a survey participant from the thousands of children and young people who take part.

Further, all data fed back to schools is done so in an aggregate form through year group and gender breakdown (e.g., the percentage of year 7 learners who eat breakfast every weekday). This prevents deductive disclosure as a set number of learners must provide a response to enable the data to be shared.

Why is SHRN anonymised data so important?

When exploring the health and well-being needs of your school, it is important to take the time to consider the needs of your whole-school community. This approach ensures that both policy and practice supports and nurtures learners, staff, and the wider school community. It will also help to build social capital across the school.

Anonymised SHRN survey data protects privacy, whilst empowering schools to enhance their learner’s health and well-being.

SHRN and its anonymised data, has become a unique and invaluable part of the education health and well-being infrastructure in Wales.

What are the benefits of SHRN anonymised data?

There are many benefits including…

SHRN data can be retained each year and have continuing value for research purposes.

An example of this would be using the data to help understand change over time in children’s and young peoples’ health and well-being through combining with previous and subsequent anonymised SHRN survey data. By analysing trends and patterns, schools can identify areas of concern, tailor support accordingly and evaluate their progress.

SHRN Survey findings can be benchmarked against national findings to provide a wider context and comparison for school-level findings.

Our data plays a key role in national, regional, and local planning, as well as influencing UK-wide and international research and policies.

SHRN School Level data can be shared with teaching staff; learners; school governors; parents and carers; Public Health Wales and Estyn to ensure that everyone can be involved in the discussions about children’s and young peoples’ health and well-being.

It helps to develop a school culture of intervention and change. It also represents an important means by which learners can influence the vision and delivery of services and practice which affect their health, well-being, attainment and future life chances.

It helps to develop a school culture of intervention and change.

Used in conjunction with The School Environment Questionnaire (SEQ), the survey data provides useful evidence for identifying need and setting health and well-being priorities to support school improvement. The SEQ allows relationships between school policies (e.g. school leadership; school ethos; environment; curriculum learning; family and community engagement) and practices and student health outcomes to be investigated. It provides schools with a unique opportunity to assess the health and well-being of learners in the context of their school policies and practices. It also covers a range of emotional and physical health topics to reflect a Whole-School Approach to Health and Well-being and the Curriculum for Wales.

SHRN data anonymity helps schools to evaluate objectively, offering a framework for universal application.

Other non- anonymised surveys select and measure specific well-being measures such as positive emotion whilst at the same time identifying learners. Quantifying such subjective experiences can be challenging, making it difficult to select appropriate response scales and assess whole-school progress accurately. Additionally, the lack of anonymity can sometimes lead to learners avoiding giving honest survey answers or taking part in data collection.

Anonymisation limits data protection risks and enables information to be made available to other organisations, or wider health and education communities across

In general, it is easier to disclose anonymous information rather than personal data as fewer legal restrictions apply. It is also easier to use anonymous information in new and different ways, as the data protection rules do not apply to properly anonymised data. Results from the data can be shared widely in reports to Government, and be published in scientific journals. It can also be used to support programmes of work in school clusters.

Finally… any messages to the primary schools who are thinking about registering to take in the 2024 SHRN data collection?

Registration for the SHRN 2024 data collection in primary schools closes on 19 July 2024, so I would urge those who haven’t yet registered to sign up quickly so that they do not miss out on the unique benefits that SHRN has to offer.

To find out more visit shrn.org.uk