Stand Together: supporting children’s social and emotional wellbeing in schools

INTERVENTION: KiVa (meaning ‘nice’ in Finnish and, ‘Ki’ and ‘Va’ beginning the Finnish words for ‘against bullying’) is an antibullying programme developed in Finland where it is has now been scaled up extensively. Randomisation of schools will occur after all schools within area and strata have been recruited and they will be informed of their allocation after baseline data have been collected. All schools will be assigned a site ID number, after which an independent CTR statistician, will randomly allocate recruited schools to Intervention or Control using computer generated random number block allocations. The independent CTU statistician will allocate KiVa or Usual practice to ID numbers and inform the designated intervention delivery team member in each area. In intervention schools KiVa will be delivered to KS2 pupils in intervention schools over one academic year. The core KiVa curriculum involves the delivery of class lessons (fortnightly or monthly depending on the school’s timetable) delivered by class teachers who have received KiVa training from the school KiVa coordinator. Lessons cover definition of bullying, understanding and reflecting on emotions, group interactions processes, the mechanisms and consequences of bullying, group pressure, they also describe how bullying is affected by bystander behaviours and how to reduce different types of bullying, including cyberbullying, and support fellow pupils. KiVa lessons map onto over 50% of Welsh Personal Social Education (PSE) and English Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) curriculum. Confirmed incidents of bullying are addressed by the school’s KiVa team using the KiVa scripted strategies and forms. KiVa is also implemented and visible schoolwide through whole school CONDITION: Bullying (Mental Health) ; Mental and Behavioural Disorders ; Bullying PRIMARY OUTCOME: Pupil‐level self‐reported rate of bullying victimisation assessed using the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ) at baseline and 12 months. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Key Stage 2 (KS2) pupils (aged 7‐11 years) SECONDARY OUTCOME: ; 1. The proportion of pupil self‐reported bullying perpetration assessed using the OBVQ at baseline and 12 months; 2. Cost effectiveness ratio. Cost per incidence of bullying avoided using KiVa compared to Usual Practice (UP) will involve fully costing the implementation of the KiVa programme and assessing pupil‐level self‐reported bullying incidence using the OBVQ at baseline and 12 months. Wider cost consequence analysis will involve fully costing the implementation of the KiVa programme and assessing child reported quality of life using the Child Health Utility 9D (CHU‐9D) at baseline and 12 months, and frequency of child and/or parental contacts with the school and/or other services regarding bullying using the bespoke Client Receipt Service Inventory (CRSI) completed by parents at 12 months.; 3. Teacher‐reported pupil behavioural, hyperactive/inattentive, emotional, and peer problems and pro‐social strengths will be assessed using the Teacher Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (TSDQ) at baseline and 12 months; 4. Teacher self‐efficacy in dealing with bullying incidents will be assessed using a modified version of the Challenging Behaviour Self‐Efficacy Scale (CBSES) at baseline and 12 months; 5. Teacher mental wellbeing will be assessed using the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWS) at baseline and 12 months; 6. Teacher burnout will be assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory ‐ Educator Scale (MBI‐ES) at baseline and 12 months; 7. Subjective pupil wellbeing at school will be assessed using the How I Feel About My School (HIFAMS) questionnaire at baseline and 12 months; 8. Pupil empathy will be assessed using the Empathy Toward Victim Scale at baseline and 12 months; 9. Pupil self‐efficacy in defending bullying will be assessed by averaging scores from three items of the Participant Role Questionnaire (PRQ) related to self‐efficacy in defending bullying to give a single measure at baseline and 12 months;