With pastoral and wellbeing leaders in schools joining scientists and members of the BrainWaves team, there was a lot to share and celebrate at this inaugural networking event. 

BrainWaves held its first Networking Day for its Research Schools and Colleges in late June 2024. A year after BrainWaves launched, there was a lot to catch up on with a range of educational professionals who are all committed to working towards improving mental health outcomes and education for young people.

School Research Liaison Manager Naomi French from BrainWaves shares her insights from the day. 

Building a community

So far, an incredible 42 institutions have signed up to become BrainWaves Research Schools/Colleges – including sixth form colleges, consortiums and specialist schools. Together, we are committed to shaping the future of adolescent mental health research and making a difference in the lives of young people.

Real-life research

At the start of the day Professor Sarah Bauermeister, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and Senior Scientist at BrainWaves, was able to offer a sneak preview of the finding collected during the pilot BrainWaves cohort study in April 2024. Over 7,200 students aged 16-18 years completed a 40-minute questionnaire about their mental health. The full finding will range across the time spent on social media to use of food banks, risk of homelessness and bullying.

The full analysis is still to be completed, but the next Cohort Study data collection is already being planned for November 2024.Mental health interventions: What works

Throughout the day, professionals from our Research Schools and Colleges shared some of the most impactful mental health interventions they have run in their schools.

Kristan O’Flynn, Deputy Head of Post-16 at The Cooper School, described a far-reaching impact of BrainWaves lessons in other areas of the curriculum and outside of the classroom. The biggest impact came from ‘Having a conversation about mental health‘ a lesson for 16-18 year olds. She reported that it “probably had the single biggest impact of a PSHE lesson I have taught in my time at school”. It generated disclosures that would have otherwise gone under the radar, leading the school to put interventions and support in place for students trying to cope with situations on their own.

Cathy Durrant, Head of Pastoral Support and Administration from Eastern Education Group shared her experience of ‘Walking Therapy’ – a mindful walking outdoors intervention aimed at high risk students, who receive counselling whilst walking outdoors, in all weathers. The result was that a majority of participants improved their scores based on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Health Scale and felt more positive and able to engage or re-engage with their academic studies.Gavin English, Deputy Head Pastoral at Alleyn’s School in south west London, spoke about using the PERMA model as a preventative measure to encourage wellbeing. By encouraging students to design and lead activities that they want to see happen – for instance ‘The Swifty society’, podcasts, journaling and even Lego sorting – the intervention encouraged hard-to-reach students agency and connection with what matters to them and their wellbeing.

Further professional developmentThe highlight of the day though was the concluding session led by Stephen Murphy, headteacher at Malvern Wyche Primary School, and his inspirational view on how education, and the National Curriculum in particular, can be viewed as a therapeutic intervention in itself by simply incorporating wellbeing into each subject we teach.

Want to join our research community?

If you are interested in becoming a BrainWaves Research School or College and joining the University of Oxford in conducting mental health research in educational settings, then please contact our School Liaison team at support@brainwaveshub.org to set up a conversation and find out more about our work!