Boston High School is a girls’ grammar school and mixed sixth form based in Boston, Lincolnshire. Founded in 1914, the school converted to a single academy trust in 2013, and currently has 833 students aged 11-18.
Assistant Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead, Abigail Gilton, takes a proactive approach to establishing a positive mental health culture within school and is passionate about initiatives that empower the student voice.
In a scenario likely familiar to many DSLs across the country, Abigail noticed that, post-Covid, the school was experiencing an increase in mental health and wellbeing issues.
This is a topic that Boston High School takes very seriously, and even though there were already a number of strategies in place to tackle such issues, Abigail felt the school would benefit from a wellbeing platform. After exploring a number of options, she settled on Pulse, finding the weekly wellbeing check-ins particularly appealing, and adding: “I like the idea that the students have it at their fingertips.”
After successfully trialling Smoothwall Pulse, the platform is now a key component of the school’s mental health and wellbeing strategy.
It can be difficult to get students to open up about their mental health, but Abigail notes that Pulse has made this much easier: “It’s a conversation starter. That’s why I felt passionate about it.”
Pulse uses a 60-second weekly check-in that students complete via their phone or a school device. Pupils are asked a short set of questions (which change from week to week) on their mental, social and physical wellbeing, and also get the option to ask for support from a trusted member of staff. Abigail finds that this digital approach works really well, because often students “feel more comfortable reaching out via their electric device than they actually do going to talk to their tutor face-to-face.”
Schools can decide when to schedule Pulse check-ins. Boston High School has utilised this as an opportunity to hold weekly mental health sessions: “We created ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ where everyone checks in on Pulse with their form tutors in the morning and the rest of that time is a discussion looking at the group holistically.”
The highs and lows discussed in these sessions are then displayed schoolwide, so that everybody can gain a wider view of the latest wellbeing trends: “We’ve developed a notice board that’s updated every week after Wellbeing Wednesday. So it identifies, for example, ‘Year 7 are feeling positive about learning but they’re feeling negative about health’." The same information is included for every group up to year 13, so that “students can see holistically as a year group where they are.”
Abigail finds that having this information available is appreciated by the whole school community: “It’s received really nice feedback, particularly from parents when they come into the school and see that.”
One of the most exciting aspects of Pulse for Abigail is the breadth of data it provides on the student body: “It’s so data rich, because it’s straight from the people that matter.”
Responses from the weekly check-ins are categorised and stored on the platform, meaning staff have a clear picture of wellbeing levels and trends at their fingertips: “Form groupers and directors of key stages can look at different year groups. I can look at it holistically and in year groups (...) Straight away you can look and see which year group is feeling the most challenged and which group is feeling the most positive, and why. It’s really interesting.”
When short on time, Abigail can get a snapshot of school wellbeing levels from regular reports produced by the platform: “What’s been really helpful is the new weekly Pulse highlight sheet that we get emailed. It saves a lot of data delving.”
Excited by the future potential of what they can achieve with the information from Pulse from a big data perspective, Abigail explained: “We’re still evolving it. There’s a lot more we can do with that data.”
It’s not just the students at Boston High School that can benefit from Pulse: “We believe in role-modelling, and that’s why we introduced staff Pulse as well.” Part of Wellbeing Wednesday involves “staff checking in on their Pulse at the same time as the students.”
As with the students, checking in on Pulse is not mandatory, but Abigail has found that it has been particularly popular with staff members in supporting roles: “What’s been the most valuable, I think, is for support staff. I know that it’s made them feel more valued, that they have a voice.”
Abigail is passionate about supporting the wellbeing of everyone in the school, and having Pulse available for both staff and students helps her to ensure that the measures she implements to achieve this are working: “What’s absolutely brilliant, and we’ve just hit it this week, is that 100% of staff feel supported at work.”
As well as being a check-in tool, Pulse provides access to over 150 evidence-based wellbeing resources for students, staff and parents.
Abigail believes in the importance of making mental health support available for students anywhere, at any time: “What I really like about Pulse is that the resources are available to students outside the classroom as well. I think any opportunity where we can support young people as quickly as we can when they need it the most, I think that’s invaluable.”
At the end of each wellbeing check-in, Pulse prompts users to acknowledge something they’re grateful for and share gratitude with another person. Abigail notes that this is the students’ favourite part of the process: “What the students LOVE is the gratitude, and in terms of wellbeing and that giving back and connecting, that has been absolutely fantastic.”
Students have the option to share their gratitude for a fellow student or a teacher. Abigail finds that this contributes to a positive community spirit at Boston High: “They give staff gratitude. Which is just lovely - it sets the culture and the school climate.”
Reflecting on the impact Pulse has had at Boston High School, Abigail explains: “I do quite a lot of work on the mental health and wellbeing side of things, and something like this I think is really important. Used correctly, it can really open doors (...) I’m absolutely an advocate of how good Pulse is.”