Learning Together for Mental Health – second trial

What is Learning Together for Mental Health?

Learning Together for Mental Health (LTMH) is a whole-school programme that aims to improve academic outcomes, mental health, feelings of school belonging and engagement for students, as well as to reduce bullying, and foster a positive school climate. The programme combines staff training in restorative and relational practice (training on building positive relationships in schools and managing behavioral challenges), students voice and targeted support to strengthen relationships and school culture.

The programme supports students aged 12 – 15 (Years 7 – 10) through a four-year approach that aims to improve behaviour, relationships and students’ social and emotional wellbeing. 

Who is leading this project?

The project is led by Place2Be, an organisation with 30 years’ experience of working with schools to support children and young people’s mental health.

What will this project look like in your setting?

Participating schools will be randomly assigned to either an intervention or control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution.; both will be essential to the success of the trial. Schools allocated to the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. will begin with a 90-minute online training session for all staff on restorative and relational practice. This will be followed by five members of staff attending three days of intensive training. Together, these sessions prepare staff to implement inclusive and effective strategies for managing conflict, addressing challenging behaviour, and building positive relationships within the school. The training will be delivered by L30 Relational Systems.

Intervention schools will be supported by their Place2Be Facilitator to set up Action Groups. Schools will be guided to select a small group of students and staff to work together across the academic year. Action Groups will meet half-termly to plan activities that address needs identified through a Needs Assessment Report. This report will be informed by an online wellbeing and mental health survey completed by all Year 7 students in the 2025/26 academic year.

A manual, which includes a menu of optional free or low-cost evidence-based resources, will be provided to guide Action Group discussions and decision-making. A Place2Be practitioner will facilitate these sessions in person during Year 1, the 2026/27 academic year, and Year 2, the 2027/28 academic year. In Year 3, Place2Be will provide online support to a member of the Senior Leadership Team to lead the Action Groups going forward, ensuring the programme can be sustained.

Intervention schools will be asked to contribute £1,200 towards the programme costs. They will later receive £500 for supporting the evaluation activities, including online student surveys. The support provided through the programme would typically cost approximately £12,000.

Schools allocated to the control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution. will continue with business as usual and will not receive the programme during the trial. Control schools will receive £1,000 for completing the evaluation activities. Full details will be shared upon expression of interest.

Who can take part?

To participate, schools must:

• Be a state-maintained secondary school in England.
• Schools with an ​“inadequate/​poor” rating at their most recent school quality rating by Ofsted are ineligible.
• Nominate a key contact to liaise with the delivery and evaluation teams.
• Not be taking part in any other EEF research trial in the same period which target the cohort of pupils who will start Year 8 in September 2026, through until the end of their Year 11 in 2030. Schools taking part in EEF trials which target other year groups or populations within the school are still eligible to take part in the LTMH trial.
• Not currently be delivering similar interventions that may conflict with the trial: Schools may continue to deliver their usual pastoral, wellbeing, and mental health provisions (e.g., school-based counselling, Mental Health Support Teams, etc.). However, schools will not be eligible if they are currently implementing, or plan to implement during the trial period, a programme that closely resembles the core components of the LTMH intervention (e.g., whole-school structured restorative practice combined with action-group-led needs assessment and system-level change). If you are unsure whether a current/​future programme overlaps with the LTMH intervention, please get in touch.

How can you register your interest?

Complete the short form at the bottom of this page.

An earlier version of this programme was evaluated using data from a large-scale trial. The evaluation found that pupils in schools participating in the programme achieved higher GCSE outcomes than pupils in comparison schools. On average, pupils made the equivalent of:

• two additional months’ progress overall (Attainment 8),
• one additional month’s progress in mathematics, and
• two additional months’ progress in English

The evaluation also reported reductions in bullying and improvements in pupils’ health and wellbeing in participating schools.

Following this evaluation, the programme was revised to strengthen components associated with positive outcomes. The core approach of the programme remains unchanged, but schools now select from an improved, evidence-based menu of interventions tailored to their needs. The updated version of the programme has been piloted in four schools.

The programme will be independently evaluated by Ipsos and the Anna Freud Centre through a randomised controlled trialAn RCT is used evaluate an educational programme by assigning settings to one of two groups: the intervention group, who receive the programme or the control group, who continue with business as usual. This ensures that any differences in outcomes can be confidently attributed to the programme, providing a robust estimate of the impact and contributing to the evidence for what works in improving educational outcomes., testing its impact on GCSE results and wider outcomes. A total of 140 secondary schools will be randomly assigned to either receive the programme (intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. ) or continue with business as usual (control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution.).

The primary outcome measure will be GCSE Attainment 8 for students who complete the wellbeing assessment in Year 7 and start the programme in Year 8. The evaluation will also examine GCSE outcomes in Maths and English, as well as attendance, exclusions, wellbeing, mental health, bullying, and school belonging, with a focus on students eligible for free school meals. National data and surveys will be used to assess impact and programme delivery.