Parents want wellbeing prioritised in schools

New research commissioned by the Youth Sport Trust, supported by the Gregson Family Foundation and conducted by YouGov has highlighted parents' desire for their children's wellbeing to be measured and tracked. Overall three-quarters (76%) of parents agree that “we need to measure young people’s wellbeing if we are going to improve it”. Furthermore, two in three (67%) parents want to see more information about what schools are doing to support the mental wellbeing of pupils.

In addition to this the pandemic, lockdown and the impacts to schooling has had a profound impact on children and young people with two-thirds (64%) of parents saying that it has resulted in a decline in their child's wellbeing. In fact just 35% of parents with children aged 4-10 and 25% of parents with children aged 11-18 reported that their children were satisfied with life at present. Parents also acknowledged the key role that PE and school sport can play in support children's wellbeing with eight in ten (81%) believing that cuts to PE, sport and break time in schools are likely to have a negative impact on wellbeing.

Furthermore, pupil wellbeing was ranked the most important factor for parents when choosing a secondary school (65%), this is considerably higher than both OFSTED rating (57%) and exam results (48%). Whilst pupil wellbeing was not the most important factor for parents choosing a primary school it is ranked second to location, however, in 2020 it was the top factor.

The full article can be found here.

More information on the impact of Covid-19 on children and young people can be found here.

March 2021