School league tables should include ‘measure of well-being’

School league tables should include a measure of well-being, according to university head Sir Anthony Seldon.

Seldon, who is also a former head teacher and mental health campaigner, believes that in addition to details such as exam results, parents deserve to see measures of well-being when selecting schools for their children.

The Office for National Statistics regularly measures well-being and Seldon believes it would be possible to make school-level comparisons, which could go some way to tackle the ‘epidemic’ of mental health problems among young people.

He said: "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.”

Seldon added: "It is perfectly clear to me, as a head of schools for 20 years, that parents will pay more heed to the well-being tables than 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 build character and help them to perform better than those schools which are just exam factories."