Supporting Wellbeing, Emotional Resilience and Learning (SWERL)

Enhance and support the wellbeing and mental health of staff and pupils in your school.

SWERL is a knowledge-exchange (KE) programme, bringing together research and practitioner expertise to: 

• Develop a systematic whole school approach to wellbeing and mental health through scrutiny of school routines, understanding staff support and training needs and examining effectiveness of interventions, policies and communication systems.
• Implement creative ideas such as new approaches to playtime; build better understanding between staff members in different roles and explore lesson starters to reduce anxiety 
• Use a graduated response to need to support early identification of mental health needs
• Equip professionals with the evidence-base for improving their everyday professional practice and working collaboratively to apply this knowledge to each unique setting

FAQs

Who is SWERL for?

The programme is for a team of three staff members from Primary or Secondary Schools, post-16 and Alternative Provision committed to supporting whole school well-being, consisting of: 

• Headteacher/member of senior leadership team
• School Mental Health Lead, SENCO, Inclusion Manager, Governor, School Counsellor
• Enthusiastic teacher or HLTA

Programme structures and costs

Following an introduction to research, materials, audit, theory of change and an action plan, CIE provides experts to facilitate this programme. In addition to online, live sessions CIE facilitators provide school support in development of their action plans and advise on initiating, managing, sustaining and supporting whole school change.

Cost

1. £25,000 - up to ten schools including full CIE facilitator support
2. £13,500 - up to five schools including full CIE facilitator support
3. £7,500 – up to ten schools with no CIE facilitator support

Contact

For more information email Dr Amelia Roberts: amelia.roberts@ucl.ac.uk

What resources will schools receive?

• An updated handbook covering the evidence-base, based on a published literature review, including a theory of change model and outline of the SWERL programme
• An audit based on 7 domains, derived from the evidence base
• Case-studies from schools involved in the SWERL Pilot project
• Other resources as required, depending on the school’s chosen focus
• Their own case study, written up and co-branded by UCL (depending on programme selected) 

What people say about the programme

From the onset, I knew SWERL was the project we were looking for. We benefited from the high quality audit and review material, current research-informed practice, an extremely knowledgeable and supportive facilitator who coached us and developed our learning throughout. We also had the opportunity to network with other schools. Our SWERL project was a great success and will continue to improve practice in our school. - Assistant Headteacher, Primary School, London

See also: SWERL in Suffolk: when implementation meets wellbeing