Sir Anthony Seldon calls for Well-being League Table in Schools on a par with Exam League Table

The Government must immediately adopt league table indicators for measuring well-being in our schools – only by doing so will the epidemic of mental health and suicide amongst the young be averted. The Government risks being accused of wilful negligence by parents of affected children, says Sir Anthony Seldon, a leading headteacher for 20 years at Brighton College and Wellington College who now runs Britain’s leading independent university.

Sir Anthony, who as Master of Wellington, oversaw the introduction of well-being lessons a decade ago and who has been pressing government for ten years to take well-being seriously says the failure to listen and take it seriously has resulted in massive and avoidable suffering in young people.

At the Tatler Schools Live conference Sir Anthony, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham, said: “The evidence is totally clear that well-being interventions enhance well-being and allow students and young people to cope best with problems. As long as the only metric on which schools are being assessed is their exam performance, our schools will never have the incentive to take well-being as seriously as they should. “

Sir Anthony suggests a possible motive for the Government’s slowness to respond on well-being: “Could it be because the Government fears that well-being league tables will blast a hole in their beloved exam league tables?

“It is perfectly clear to me after me as a head of schools for 20 years that parents will pay more heed to the well-being tables to the exam league tables. They know, even if the government doesn’t, that schools that prioritise well-being, which includes challenging and stretching students, also builds character and helps them to perform better than those schools which are just exam factories.

“Focus on well-being and character thus improves exam results: a focus on exam results alone diminishes well-being. It doesn’t even prepare students for work because employers want young people with character strengths and personal responsibility not A star junkies who can’t converse.

“We now know much more than we did ten years ago how to teach well-being and character in schools. Running a university now, it has become even clearer to me that by the time students arrive at 18, the damage has been done, and universities are on the back foot. The groundwork needs to be done in schools.”

In the last three years, many state and independent schools have started taking well-being seriously but they face a massive discouragement because of the lack of recognition of their work. Only a change in league tables by the introduction of well-being measures will make the difference.”

Figures from the Office of National Statistics this week revealed that suicides among teenagers had reached a 17-year high. A separate study by The Royal College of Nursing showed that the majority of specialist nurses say mental health care for young people isn’t good enough. Mental health care nurses say they’re worried that the rationing of access to care is so bad that young people risk harming, or even killing themselves. Another report published this week by NHS England reveals that more than one in four women aged 16-24 now have a mental health condition. Three times more young women than men report symptoms of depression.

Sir Anthony, who turned round two schools, Wellington College and Brighton College, is also co-founder of Action for Happiness and has written a book on well-being, Beyond Happiness.