The SHINE team were delighted to see the SHINE online mental health survey included as a resource for additional assessment of pupil health and wellbeing in the recently published Scottish Government Framework document Whole School Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing – gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

This comes after a very successful year in which nearly 50% of SHINE member schools opted to use the mental health survey – a free and flexible resource for members of the network – to track and monitor pupil health and wellbeing with a view to informing school improvement planning for wellbeing.

J Bell, a Depute Head Teacher, from West Lothian commented on the survey, saying that “it is one of the best sources of baseline assessment that we have. The terminology and explanations in the preamble are easy to read and digest. I now have a clear list of areas for development to work through with staff and I am beginning to have a robust picture of our evolving health needs.”

The survey has been reviewed after its first year and further development of the survey, in response to feedback from schools and Local Authorities, is currently underway. The upgraded survey will be relaunched for SHINE schools to use later in September 2021