Using health and well-being data to support improvements in mental health in schools 

Welcome to the SHINE August 2024 Newsletter

• Welcome back!
• Looking forward to 2024-25
  • SHINE Mental Health Survey 2.0 relaunch
  • Chief Scientist Office Emotionally-based School Non-attendance study
  • Pilot a new secondary school resource with Generation Scotland and SHINE
• Invitation to participate in SHINE affiliated research projects 
  • A new Android health app - test it now in your school
  • AMBIENT Sleep Study - final call for participants 8-18 yrs: by 13th Sept
  • Neurodiversity in Scottish Schools: Calling all teachers: have your say!
  • National evaluation of the Equally Safe at School programme
• Other events and research opportunities for school communities:
  • Scottish Guidance Association Conference 21st Sept 2024: registration
  • SOCITS webinar series starting 1st Oct 2024: registration
  • Wolfson Webinar: Youth Voices on Social Media 19th Sept 2024: registration
  • Wolfson Centre for YP mental health: testing CBT for family wellbeing study
  • Managing schoolteachers affected by Long Covid: join our study
  • Publication: the impact of Long COVID on young people's school experiences
  • Guidance, training and access to resources on peer relations and bullying 

Welcome back!

Welcome back! We hope that you have had a restful and enjoyable summer break. We have been busy getting things ready for 2024-25 and are pleased to share with you some of the exciting plans, events, resources and opportunities for the new academic session:

Relaunch of the SHINE mental health survey

 SHINE Mental Health Survey pilot and relaunch

The SHINE mental health survey has now moved to a new platform, Qualtrics. All the documentation and support resources for the survey pack are being updated accordingly

We are planning to run a small-scale pilot of the new system with a handful of schools to ensure that everything is running smoothly in October/November. All being well, the system will then be fully accessible to all schools in November/December. 

Going forward,  survey access and the survey pack will only be accessible to individual member schools who have completed the pre-survey registration form online or via Local Authority data collections which have been agreed in advance with the SHINE team.

A document detailing any new procedures entitled " What's new for the SHINE mental Health Survey in 2024?" can be found in the SHINE members' resources area. A new survey pack will be issued to registered, participating schools, so please delete any former versions from your systems. Any former log-in links will not work and former information sheets are no longer valid.

We will notify all schools in subsequent newsletters of the progress of the pilot and the precise timing of the wider launch of the SHINE mental health survey.

Emotionally-based school non-attendance study

Generation Scotland and SHINE have been collaborating to develop a new teaching resource for secondary schools to increase knowledge of health data research. Scotland’s public health relies on volunteers taking part in research projects to better understand health and well-being in Scotland.

We would like to support young people’s understanding of health research in order to give them more confidence to engage with science. The resource has been designed to be flexible and adaptive to the needs of the class and can be delivered in a range of classes including PSE, Sciences. The ethical debates around health research may be of interest to English classes too. The resource consists of 3 x 40 minute lessons aimed at S1-S3:

• What is health data research?
• What is data linkage?
• What is data ethics and why does it matter?

The free resource will be available on the www.gen.scot website in the Winter term, but if you would like to pre-register your interest or pilot the resources before the October holidays, please email sarah.robertson@ed.ac.uk.

Invitation to participate in SHINE affiliated research projects

Trial a new intervention, evaluate a programme or test a new method of collecting data. Work with researchers in your school to find solutions to YP HWB challenges.

The app can also be used by teachers to set specific class projects around these behaviours and the building blocks of health. This project will give students insights into the political (citizenship) as well as scientific processes.  Through bringing together health and environmental data the app can be used within science, geography, physical education as well as PSHE classes. 

The team from the University of Edinburgh can come out to schools to run workshops related to the app, as well as working with you remotely. 

Look out for the upcoming event featuring the new health app at the Festival of Social Sciences (Saturday 19^th October – Saturday 9^th November 2024). 

 Please contact Andrew (andrew.j.williams@ed.ac.uk) if you are interested to know more.

Final Call for participants in this innovative sleep study

1 primary and 1 secondary school

Why take part?

• support young people to understand more about their individual sleep patterns and how it affects their wellbeing
• young people (8-18yrs) can actively shape the research by contributing as citizen scientists and product reviewers in this real-world experiment
• use a research validated sleep survey with one or more year group in your school - use the aggregated sleep data report as a teaching resource relevant to your young people
• The study team are happy to attend the school to run a session informing adolescents about the importance of sleep

What's involved?

• Individual pupils (ten individuals aged 8-11 and ten individuals aged 16-18) - The study involves 4 weeks of sleep data collection using a novel contactless sleep sensor that is placed in the bedroom of the young people. Each week they can meet with the research team to be shown their own sleep data.
• Year group/class participation - can use the sleep survey to receive a sleep data report from the research team which can be used as a resource to support PSHE lessons on sleep

Take a look at the website to find out more about how young people have been responding to their sleep data in the first half of this study. To participate contact: genscot_sleep@ed.ac.uk by the 13^th of September to start taking part in the study at the beginning of October.

"Calling All Teachers: Join Our Study on Neurodiversity in Scottish Schools!

Are you a teacher in a Scottish school and interested in taking part in a research study about creating inclusive classrooms? The University of Glasgow invites educators of all grades and experience levels to participate in a qualitative study as part of the Neurodiversity in Scottish Schools (NISS) project.

We aim to understand how teachers identify and support neurodivergent children, uncovering both facilitators and barriers to their learning experience. Your insights will shape future strategies for fostering inclusive environments where every child can thrive.

Participation is simple: engage in a 45-minute online interview at a time convenient for you. Your valuable perspective will help drive positive change in educational practices across Scotland.

To sign up or learn more, contact Jason Lang at Jason.Lang@glasgow.ac.uk. Together, let's empower our classrooms to embrace neurodiversity and unlock the full potential of every student."

Many Scottish schools are dealing with the fall-out from misogynistic influencers such as Andrew Tate, or are struggling with an increase in disclosures of sexual harassment. ESAS is designed to help schools build a positive culture in which staff and students work together on these issues. Designed by Rape Crisis it takes a whole school approach, strongly complements MVP, and is free to schools. ESAS  involves a self-assessment, staff training, a student-led action group and curriculum and policy review.

The national evaluation is being run by a research team at the University of Glasgow. For more information click here.

If you would like to discuss this opportunity, please contact the Principal Investigator:  kirstin.mitchell@glasgow.ac.uk . Kirstin will be delighted to walk you through what's involved for schools. 

Other events and research opportunities for school communities

An enriching day dedicated to exploring the crucial role of pastoral care in Scottish education. Gain valuable insights from leading experts and practitioners in the field. Hear from Education Scotland, Child Bereavement Scotland. Place2Be. Fast Forward, Really Real resources and Bloody Amazing. Learn from practitioners' insights about raising attendance in a secondary school, supporting young people to develop metaskills and understand more about incel subcultures in order to tackle misogny and reframe masculinity. Click here for the Full brochure. To book a place, click here: registration

The SOCITS project (a Socially Situated Systems approach to adolescent mental health) aims to find out which places, interactions and social situations in school are associated with stress, loneliness, and poor mental health. This information can inform whole school approaches to mental health.

Using novel survey measures, SOCITS will ask questions such as: Which situations in school cause the most loneliness? Do certain groups of students find specific situations more or less stressful? Do peer groups amplify or reduce exam stress?

The new webinar series provides an opportunity to meet the researchers behind the innovative approach, find out more about how these new resources could work in your school. Update your Professional Learning profile while making new connections in the research world.

Join us on Thursday 19 September 2024 for a new event hosted by the Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health to mark Youth Mental Health Day.

Our Youth voices on social media webinar will showcase our dedicated researchers and dynamic Youth Advisory Group members as they lead a discussion on the impact of social media on young people's mental health. Our panel will delve into the latest research happening at the Wolfson Centre, followed by a group discussion led by our Youth Advisors.

This interactive session is designed to foster open dialogue between the researchers and young people, and provide attendees with a deeper understanding of how social media can influence mental health, both positively and negatively. Attendees are encouraged to participate actively by asking questions in advance or during the live Q&A session.

Whether you're a young person navigating the digital world, a parent, educator, or mental health professional, this event will offer valuable insight and a unique opportunity to hear directly from young people about this important topic.

We are a research team from the Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health at Cardiff University.  We are looking for help with promoting and advertising an important new study to young people aged 13-19 years and their parents.

 The Skills for Adolescent Wellbeing (SWELL) Study will test whether a group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) program, that teaches skills for wellbeing, can protect young people against low mood and depression. It also offers extra support for the parents’/carers’ own mental health.

 The study is seeking the support of schools and colleges to get the word out to parents/carers/students who might be eligible and could benefit from this support. This could be via sending letters or texts out to parents/carers or sharing information about the study on a parent information portal.

 Families will receive £160 in vouchers for taking part.  You can visit bit.ly/wcSWELL for more information about the study.  Please contact swell@cardiff.ac.uk if you think your school could help.

Join our study on the impact of Long Covid in teaching and other public service occupations in Scotland.

Researchers from the Universities of Stirling and Glasgow, Robert Gordon University and the Scottish Ambulance Service are carrying out a study about the impacts of Long Covid on people working in public sector teaching, nursing, ambulance, and police services in Scotland.

We’d like to hear from you if you are :

• Responsible for managing school teachers who have been affected by Long Covid or you plan service delivery in public sector education services in Scotland.

What happens if you take part?

• Taking part will involve doing a one-to-one confidential interview with a researcher lasting around 45 mins. These will usually be online or on the phone.
• All the interview questions are optional, so you can choose not to answer any of the questions and are free to stop at any time.

You will be offered a £20 voucher as a thank you for taking part.

Publication: the impact of Long Covid on young people’s school experiences

NIHR have published an evidence summary of the paper in a more user-friendly format for sharing with school staff. Please find links to both publications below:

Full research paper

Evidence summary

All the best,

The SHINE Team

Dawn Haughton
Schools Health and Wellbeing Improvement Research Network (SHINE) Manager

E-mail:  Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk
Web:      www.gla.ac.uk/shine
Twitter: @ScotlandSHINE