An Investigation of teacher's views and experiences on supporting students' wellbeing within the context of a health promoting school

This study aims to provide an investigation into teacher's views and experiences of supporting students' wellbeing within the context of a Health Promoting School. Wellbeing was introduced into Irish post-primary schools in September 2017. This new area of learning aims to provide students with an opportunity to enhance their physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing (NCCA, 2017). Health Promoting Schools can be defined as a school that is “constantly strengthening its capacity to be a healthy setting for living, learning and working by focusing on all the conditions that affect health” (WHO 1998, p.2). In this study a quantitative research design was adopted. According to Cohen and Manion (1994, p. 94) a questionnaire is an effective way of collecting information and is the “best form of survey in an educational inquiry”. An online survey created on Google Forms was administered to four post primary schools identified as Health Promoting Schools. The main themes that emerged in the findings relate to; Wellbeing, Teacher’s attitudes and experiences supporting students' wellbeing and Health Promoting Schools. The conclusions of this study centre around the fact that Wellbeing and Health Promoting Schools has received a positive up take among teachers in general, but there is still a small number who are not yet fully convinced as to whether or not it is a worthwhile programme. In addition, the study highlights that teachers feel that they have not received enough training in the area of Wellbeing in order to be able to accurately judge its effectiveness among their students. There will be a number of recommendations put forward at end of this study as to how this could be addressed.