The OxWell School Compass project will strengthen Oxford’s work to improve young people’s mental health and wellbeing by helping schools turn high-quality data into effective action.
The project will build on the work of the OxWell Student Survey, a large, school-based survey developed to understand the wellbeing of children and young people aged 9–18. Set up by Professor Mina Fazel in Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry, OxWell explores and collects data to understand students’ experiences in and out of school, including wellbeing, belonging, bullying, sleep, online experiences, and access to mental health support.
By collecting data in a way that prioritises trust and anonymity, OxWell enables young people to share their experiences honestly. Results are returned directly to participating schools and local authorities, supporting them to understand patterns of need among their students, and informing health and education strategies at local, regional and national levels.
To date, more than 130,000 student responses have been collected over five different waves. The next phase of OxWell focuses on making even better use of these data – supporting schools not only to understand their students’ needs but to translate insights into sustained improvements across school experience, mental health and wellbeing.
This new gift from Bukhman Philanthropies will enable the creation of the OxWell School Compass – a platform designed to guide schools through a set of priority areas based on the student profiles identified through the OxWell Survey. The aim is to harness digital innovation and smart-data tools alongside school-specific insights to provide each educational setting with a personalised selection of evidence-informed strategies and interventions to support students’ mental health, ranging from classroom initiatives to school and community-wide programmes.
Read the full story on the Department of Psychiatry website.