Teacher confidence and student engagement with mental health and wellbeing lessons: Learning from an iterative curriculum intervention in schools

Abstract The mental health and wellbeing of young people has received increasing attention in both research and the wider public discourse. There has been a marked rise in mental health conditions in young people, and the burden of care is increasingly transferred onto schools and teachers. However, evidence on the impact and effectiveness of school‐based mental health and wellbeing interventions remains ambiguous and contested. This paper reports on the initial findings from the longitudinal, iterative implementation of a mental health and wellbeing curriculum in secondary schools and sixth‐form colleges in England. This intervention sits within a broader research project exploring the mental health and wellbeing of young people in England over time. Grounded in the principles of positive psychology, the curriculum aims to provide teachers and students with a broad range of skills and strategies that are positive, proactive and protective. The research adopted an iterative, mixed‐methods approach, drawing on principles of realist evaluation. It combined survey data with interviews, focus groups and lesson observations across 24 schools over 2 years. Analysis focused on how teachers and students engaged with the curriculum in situ and on the contextual features shaping implementation and uptake. The findings highlight two key themes: (1) the value of scaffolded implementation to support teacher engagement and development and (2) the importance of the language used to communicate both with teachers and with students and in particular the use of positive psychology as a theoretical framework. The paper concludes that accessible, well resourced and scientifically rigorous teaching materials, implemented iteratively and in partnership with schools, represent a promising mechanism for engaging and supporting teachers in improving the wellbeing of young people.