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Using health and well-being data to support improvements in mental health in schools
Welcome to the SHINE June 2025 Newsletter
- SHINE data report 2024-25
- Emotionally-Based School Non-Attendance (ABSAIL project) - Last chance to contribute to the national survey before it closes
- SHINE member schools - looking ahead to 2025-26 changes to operational processes and change of contact details
- Education Scotland: request for practitioner feedback
- mental health training resource for teachers
- update on the Curriculum Improvement Cycle
Wider Research, resources and events
- Events
- Scottish Guidance Association: Virtual Conference 20th Sept - book now!
- Reports
- New report: Supporting family/carers navigating the post-secondary transition process for young people with developmental disabilities
- Primary schools
- Scottish Attachment Monitor study - register for webinar 17th Sept 2025
- Equal Physical activity in Scottish Primary schools - register to take part
- Young people
- Generation Scotland - last chance to join before 30th June 2025
- Teachers
- Examining knowledge of perfectionism in teachers and trainee teachers study - please get involved
- Professionals' perspectives on menstrual health education in Scotland
Have a wonderful summer holiday!
SHINE mental health data - a short report 2024-25
As we approach the end of the academic year 2024-25, we are pleased to share with you a short report with the results from the 5th consecutive year of data collection using the SHINE mental health survey.
In 2024-25, 45 secondary schools and 84 primary schools collected data using the SHINE mental health survey. In this short report, we have collated all the data collected between November 2024 and March 2025 to provide a snapshot of young people's mental health and wellbeing in 2024-25.
To find out more about the survey, visit the SHINE website at www.gla.ac.uk/shine
Emotionally-Based School Non-Attendance: Last chance to have your say!
Last chance to have your say!
Please contribute to understand the national picture better.
100% of Scottish Local Authorities have attendance as a stretch aim.
7% of schools cross Scotland (170 schools) have completed the ABSAIL survey .
Please help us collect more responses to get a clearer national picture.
https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b4rIIDhCKU5Ob8q
How can you help? :
- 20 - 25 minutes of your time
- one survey response only per school (senior/middle leader with an attendance remit) - please forward this email to that person if required.
When? Before the summer holidays
Why? We want to better understand policy and practice across Scotland related to Emotionally-based school non-attendance in order to support better health outcomes for young people.
How can this help your school? We’ll share our findings with the network and advocate for what works, as well as providing recommendations of best practice, resources & support for young people, families and schools.
Links below to survey information and contacts
ABSAIL participant information sheet_online survey
ABSAIL information sheet and survey link
Website: www.gla.ac.uk/ABSAIL Email: ebsna@glasgow.ac.uk
SHINE school members - looking ahead to 2025-26
Below is some operational information for school members of the SHINE network:
School Contacts: Please remember to update the SHINE Network Manager with any changes to the school contact name and email address linked to your school's SHINE membership so that communications and invitations to events continue to be directed appropriately. To update your school's details, please complete this form: https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0HP8xrVlYm4Zv70
Closure of the Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit : The MRC has now withdrawn all funding for all UK research units. As such, the SPHSU, where SHINE has been located for the past 7 years, will clos on 30th June 2025. SHINE will remain within the School of Health and Wellbeing building hosted by the Mental Health and Wellbeing department. SHINE will use the School of HWB branding going forward.
SHINE mental health survey: for schools wishing to use the survey in 2025-26, the link to register has changed to https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6kRXMrgglpXPQiy for 2025-26.
Schools will be able to use the survey in one of 5 data collection windows. Data will only be cleaned and reports compiled at the end of each data collection window in order to manage the volume of responses efficiently. The first 2 windows in the Autumn term are below:
- 1st window= 8th Sept to 17th Oct
- 2nd window = 20th Oct to 5th Dec
If Local Authorities are interested to use the survey across all schools in 2025-26, please get in touch with the SHINE Network manager, Dawn Haughton at Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk to discuss this.
Education Scotland: Practitioner feedback request
- mental health training resource for teachers
- update and evidence papers from the Curriculum Improvement Cycle
Mental Health in Schools Working Group - Feedback on resources
Children & young people’s mental health & wellbeing : A professional learning resource CYPMH – Professional Learning Resource & Mental health and wellbeing: whole school approach framework Mental health and wellbeing: whole school approach: framework - gov.scot
One of the key points of focus for the national mental health in schools working group https://www.gov.scot/groups/mental-health-in-schools-working-group/ is to gather information as to how these resources have been used since their publication. This includes:
- Understanding how aware schools and local authorities are of the resources.
- Understanding how schools are using the resources, potentially sharing best practice where they are being used effectively.
- Exploring what updates may be required to ensure the resources are current and helpful.
- Deciding how best to raise awareness and promote the resources.
As a first step, we agreed it would be helpful to gather feedback on awareness of the resources, how they are being used, and any barriers to their use.
Please find attached a short MS Teams form to collect this feedback: https://forms.office.com/e/YaVbCa4btY. It should take only a few minutes to complete.
Curriculum Improvement Cycle update : your feedback matters!
Education Scotland is still at an early stage of the planning process and recognise that reviewing and evolving the curriculum takes time. Education Scotland is committed to keeping you updated on the progress being made as well as giving a clear idea of what you can expect.
Education Scotland has published a series of three Curriculum Improvement Cycle discussion papers. The papers talk through the background work around the curriculum improvement cycle and share the evidence that we need, to show we are moving forward in the right direction
Education Scotland would like to ask for your feedback on these discussion papers.
The first discussion paper is called ‘Background and A Case For Change : Findings from the Pilot Curriculum Reviews 2023/24.’ This paper sets out the background for undertaking pilot reviews in session 2023/24, outlines how they were carried out and how the approaches used inform the Curriculum Improvement Cycle. It shares the key findings and makes a case for evolving the technical framework. It aims to stimulate thinking by exploring how the position of knowledge can be strengthened.
The second discussion paper is called ‘Towards an Evolved Technical Framework’. This paper builds on the findings from the first discussion paper – ‘Background and A Case For Change : Findings from the Pilot Curriculum Reviews 2023/24 – and focuses on how the technical framework could be evolved to help clarify the role and position of knowledge and skills. It identifies criteria for the evolution of the technical framework and reflects on the use of a Big Ideas approach. The paper makes the case for evolving to a ‘Know-Do-Understand’ model and explores how an evolved technical framework might help with issues such as cross-curricular expectations and alignment between the broad general education (BGE) and the senior phase.
The third discussion paper is called ‘Working Together to Make Change Happen’. This paper gives an overview of the development of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) to date (March 2025) and shares what is in scope. It outlines the practices, processes and approaches that are being used. The paper considers what is needed to build capacity to support any emerging changes and identifies the interdependencies.
Wider research, resources and events
Events:
The Scottish Guidance Association (SGA) Conference will be online this year in September 2025 in response to membership feedback. Registration is now open for the morning event on Saturday 20th September from 9.30am to 13.15pm.
The SGA is a volunteer organisation which brings together guidance teachers from all over Scotland to share practice and learn together from community partners working in the educational sector.
The programme includes:
- a national update from Education Scotland
- Adoption UK _ Foetal alcohol syndrome
- Hope Virgo - Eating Disorders
- MEd in Health and Wellbeing - University of Aberdeen
- Interactive session on internal non attendance
- YGam - Evidence-led education to help prevent gaming and gambling harm
- From GIRFEC to GIRFEE - a Social Work perspective
Online registration is now open. Tickets cost £12
New report: Supporting family/carers navigating the post-secondary transition process for young people with developmental disabilities
University of Glasgow research suggests that transitioning between secondary school and the adult world can be particularly challenging for children with developmental disabilities and their families, as it involves a considerable change in daily routines and available service provision. Navigating the transition process to gain the necessary information and support for their child’s post-secondary school life has been identified as one of the most stressful aspects of parenting a child with developmental disabilities. There is currently no single resource to support families during this time. This project involved researchers at the University of Glasgow and family members of young people with developmental disabilities working together to create such a resource, to assist families to navigate the transition process and so lessen the stress and improve their wellbeing. Home | Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory
Last Chance to join Generation Scotland, the largest family health study in Scotland
Offering £20 compensation to volunteers aged 12-18!
Generation Scotland, the largest family health study in Scotland, will end their current recruitment on 30th June 2025, to focus on the next round of health research.
Young people are often under-represented in health research, but are needed since so many conditions start developing much younger than 18. We need to include them in order to work towards cures and better understanding of health.
The last few years have been exceptionally challenging for young people following the pandemic and we still do not fully understand the long-term impact of this and other challenging facing young people.
We understand it can be especially hard for young people to make the time to volunteer, due to commitments such as school. As young people are currently less than 2% of our volunteers, we wish to support them to be part of our study and help us better understand the unique challenges faced by this generation.
The £20 compensation scheme for young people aged 12-18 years old, followed feedback received from young advisory group members and this £20 e-voucher will be claimable once the young person has completed our signup process.
Once young people are signed up they can choose to take part in other studies, including Loneliness in the Digital World, which is a 2 week app based study for 12-15 year olds which also offers an additional £20 compensation.
For more information please visit www.gen.scot or email sarah.robertson@ed.ac.uk
Examining knowledge of perfectionism in teachers and trainee teachers.
Researchers at the University of Glasgow would like to invite you to take part in a two-part study
Perfectionism is a personality trait associated with various mental health outcomes. Higher levels of perfectionism may make teachers vulnerable to the negative effects of high workloads and job stress. The findings of the study will help to determine current knowledge of perfectionism among teachers, as well as identifying effective ways of educating teachers on perfectionism, with the aim to enhance wellbeing of both staff and students.
Part 1: complete a questionnaire and then watching a short video (10 minutes)
Part 2: complete a questionnaire one week later (10 minutes)
If you are happy to participate, click on the link: https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0MuAXy9saHSWuCq
The link includes more information on the project, the questionnaire, and the video.
Thank you for considering taking part in the study!
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
