Skip to main content
Navigate back to homepage
Open search bar.
Open main navigation menu

Main navigation

  • Study
    UCL Portico statue
    Study at UCL

    Being a student at UCL is about so much more than just acquiring knowledge. Studying here gives you the opportunity to realise your potential as an individual, and the skills and tools to thrive.

    • Undergraduate courses
    • Graduate courses
    • Short courses
    • Study abroad
    • Centre for Languages & International Education
  • Research
    Tree-of-Life-MehmetDavrandi-UCL-EastmanDentalInstitute-042_2017-18-800x500-withborder (1)
    Research at UCL

    Find out more about what makes UCL research world-leading, how to access UCL expertise, and teams in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement).

    • Engage with us
    • Explore our Research
    • Initiatives and networks
    • Research news
  • Engage
    UCL Print room
    Engage with UCL

    Discover the many ways you can connect with UCL, and how we work with industry, government and not-for-profit organisations to tackle tough challenges.

    • Alumni
    • Business partnerships and collaboration
    • Global engagement
    • News and Media relations
    • Public Policy
    • Schools and priority groups
    • Visit us
  • About
    UCL welcome quad
    About UCL

    Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students from 150 different countries.

    • Who we are
    • Faculties
    • Governance
    • President and Provost
    • Strategy
  • Active parent page: IOE - Faculty of Education and Society
    • Courses
    • Research
    • News
    • Events
    • Open days
    • Departments and centres
    • Active parent page: Work with us
    • About IOE

Supporting Wellbeing, Emotional Resilience and Learning in the Ipswich Opportunity Area

A teenage boy that appears to be upset has an adult hand placed upon his right shoulder (Photo: Rawpixel.com / Adobe Stock)

Breadcrumb trail

  • IOE - Faculty of Education and Society
  • Work with us
  • Case studies

Faculty menu

  • Current page: Latest case studies
  • Building Leadership for Change - a reflective statement

In recent years, the number of children excluded from education at school, either through permanent, fixed-term, internal or self-exclusions, has increased (DfE, 2018). This can lead to a more fragmented experience of school and a deterioration in life chances for children who are already disadvantaged, as a disproportionate number of children at-risk for exclusion include those with special educational needs and mental health difficulties. The enforced period of school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to have exacerbated this problem.

To better support at-risk young people in their community, the Ipswich Opportunity area, funded by the DfE, commissioned the UCL Centre for Inclusive Education (CIE) to support schools in finding ways to reduce exclusions. Participating schools took part in the Supporting Wellbeing, Emotional Resilience and Learning (SWERL) project, a Knowledge Exchange programme carried out in partnership with schools that helps schools identify key areas where they wish to implement change to foster better outcomes for their pupils.

One of these schools, Handford Hall Primary, identified building relationships, developing robust communications systems and improving whole system planning as key areas of focus to support pupils’ wellbeing and learning. The project is a powerful testament to Handford Hall Primary’s dedication to prioritising the wellbeing and mental health of their pupils.

Challenge

To go about identifying areas where they wished to effect change to promote the mental health and wellbeing of pupils, the SWERL team and Handford Hall Primary first conducted a whole school audit. The audit revealed areas of strength that arose from changes put in place during the first period of Covid lockdown, such as the establishment of deeper relationships with families and whole staff buy-in to these relationships. Importantly, the school found that Teaching Assistants (TA) played a central role in engaging with families and working in partnership with the class teacher. 

The audit also clarified areas the school wished to improve on, centred around building on the relationships established during lockdown to make communication more effective, identify impact, and build an aligned communication policy. One key pathway they identified for doing this involved expanding the role of the TA as one of the key members of staff around children at-risk for exclusions, and making them central to the updated communication strategy.

Solution

After the audit, Handford Hall Primary designed an action plan to offer additional support and resources to foster relationships and communication, through maximising TA partnership building potential. They achieved this by raising the profile of the Teacher-TA partnership, providing TAs up to 3 additional weekly hours to support parent partnerships and child and family wellbeing, and providing laptops for TAs. 

This enabled TAs to more easily share good news and communicate messages, more effectively welcome families, and to enhance inclusion by more easily providing prompts and reminders. This led to increased confidence from parents, improved pupil attendance, and better efficiency in signposting to other services.

Impact/results

A case study of four families showed a documented improvement in pupil attendance and engagement during remote learning sessions, as well as increased parent engagement in online consultations. Additionally, having individual, TA-led admission meetings with parents was shown to contribute to a smoother transition for new pupils. 

School staff members reported a range of benefits, from being able to get to know parents better through regular phone calls, creating valuable and lasting relationships with families, feeling more able to communicate with parents and to hear their questions and concerns, to a stronger school community, better outcomes for children, and increased emotional support between staff.

As one staff member shared: “We discovered that although there were challenges through the Covid restrictions, having to rethink some of our ways of communicating with families strengthened the home-school partnership with many families.

“We aim to develop parent champions within the community to support other families to access education, health and wider community resources.”

Image

Rawpixel.com / Adobe Stock

(facebook button)(tweet button)

Key facts

  • Department: Psychology and Human Development
  • Centre: UCL Centre for Inclusive Education
  • Client: Handford Hall Primary
  • Team members: Amelia Roberts, Clare Dorothy, Matthew Parker
  • Project dates: 2020-2021

UCL footer

Visit

  • Bloomsbury Theatre and Studio
  • Library, Museums and Collections
  • UCL Maps
  • UCL Shop
  • Contact UCL

Students

  • Accommodation
  • Current Students
  • Moodle
  • Students' Union

Staff

  • Inside UCL
  • Staff Intranet
  • Work at UCL
  • Human Resources

UCL social media menu

  • Link to Soundcloud
  • Link to Flickr
  • Link to TikTok
  • Link to Youtube
  • Link to Instagram
  • Link to Facebook
  • Link to Twitter

University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7679 2000

© 2025 UCL

Essential

  • Disclaimer
  • Freedom of Information
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • Slavery statement
  • Log in