Parents searching for school places for their children in England are used to scouring league tables for information.<\/p>\n
But even though these might show huge amounts of detail about exams, they will not reveal much about the levels of happiness among pupils.<\/p>\n
Sir Anthony Seldon, a university head, former head teacher and mental health campaigner, says school league tables should include measures of well-being.<\/p>\n
He says this could help to tackle an \u201cepidemic of mental health\u201d problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as the only metric on which schools are being assessed is their exam performance, our schools will never have the incentive to take well-being as seriously as they should,\u201d said Sir Anthony, vice chancellor of the University of Buckingham.<\/p>\n
He says that the Office for National Statistics regularly measures well-being \u2013 and that it would be possible to make school-level comparisons.<\/p>\n
This could include comparing the resources put into pastoral care, such as staffing and support services, and surveying a sample of pupils to see their views on school life.<\/p>\n
Sir Anthony, speaking on World Mental Health Day, has campaigned for well-being to be taken more seriously in schools.<\/p>\n
But he says that despite warnings about rising numbers of young people with mental health problems, schools still are not being encouraged enough to prevent \u201cavoidable suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n
Exam league tables in England are due to be overhauled again to show how much academic progress is made by pupils.<\/p>\n
But Sir Anthony says parents want to know more about a school than its exam results.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is perfectly clear to me, as a head of schools for 20 years, that parents will pay more heed to the well-being tables than to the exam league tables. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey know, even if the government doesn\u2019t, that schools that prioritise well-being, which includes challenging and stretching students, also build character and help them to perform better than those schools which are just exam factories.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says that pupils need help while they are still at school.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time students arrive at 18, the damage has been done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Figures published last month by the Office for National Statistics, showed the highest number of suicides by 15 to 19 year olds since 1998.<\/p>\n
And a succession of reports have highlighted concerns about unhappiness, anxiety and depression among young people.<\/p>\n
A report from the Higher Education Policy Institute warned that universities were struggling to cope with rising demand for mental health services.<\/p>\n
A study published by the Department for Education showed that teenage girls now were more likely to show signs of \u201cpsychological distress\u201d than a decade ago.<\/p>\n
This blamed pressures from social media and the fact that young people felt less control over their lives.<\/p>\n
A report from the Children\u2019s Society showed higher levels of anxiety and unhappiness among teenage girls, compared with five years ago.<\/p>\n
An online tool kit to help schools identify and monitor mental health problems has been launched by Public Health England and the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families.<\/p>\n
The intention is to make staff better informed and better able to evaluate pupils\u2019 problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up in today\u2019s world can be tough. From negative comments on social media to pressures to look a certain way, the well-being of young people is at risk,\u201d said the minister for vulnerable children and families, Edward Timpson<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we want teachers to be able to spot the signs that their pupils are having difficult thoughts or feelings and feel confident about supporting them.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do you want to know about schools or the school system? Sean Coughlan wants to hear from you. Tell us the questions you want answered using the form below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Parents searching for school places for their children in England are used to scouring league tables for information. But even though these might show huge amounts of detail about exams, they will not reveal much about the levels of happiness among pupils. Sir Anthony Seldon, a university head, former head teacher and mental health campaigner, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}