BrainWaves 2025 Cohort Study: Gain Actionable Wellbeing Insights

Want to understand your students’ wellbeing better? Partner with us in the BrainWaves 2025 Cohort Study and receive a free, personalised report with actionable insights for your school.

We’re inviting state, co-educational schools and colleges to become a BrainWaves Research Partner and participate in our November 2025 Cohort Study. By joining, you’ll earn BrainWaves accreditation through the University of Oxford and gain a personalised report on your 16+ students’ wellbeing trends. This report can help you design more specific and effective support programs.

Students will also benefit directly by earning a certificate showing their participation in a University of Oxford research study—an impressive addition to any UCAS application.

What does the study involve?

The BrainWaves Cohort Study is a straightforward online questionnaire for students aged 16 and over.

Who can participate? Ideally, we’d like your entire 16+ cohort to take part. However, we’re happy to discuss excluding a specific year group or cohort if needed.

What is the time commitment? There are two sessions, which can be completed in a single 60-minute sitting or split up:

• Session 1: A 20-minute introductory session for account registration.
• Session 2: A 40-minute questionnaire completion session.

What devices are needed? Both sessions require students to have a device (computer, smartphone, or tablet) with internet access.

When will the study run? The study takes place from November 3rd to 28th.

Where will students complete it? To ensure a controlled environment where students can be effectively safeguarded, students must complete the questionnaire while at school or college during a staff-supervised session.

Staff Preparation

We’ve made the training process as simple as possible.

For Study Leads: A 45-minute training session is required. We also recommend a member of your Senior Leadership Team attend if possible.

For Staff Facilitators: A 20-30 minute pre-recorded video will be provided to train the staff who will be supervising the questionnaire sessions. This training can be shown during a staff meeting or watched individually.

For IT Teams: A short, 2-minute video and a document with preparatory actions will be provided to ensure your school’s firewalls don’t block access to the questionnaire.

Ready to Get Involved?

To take part, email us at support@brainwaveshub.org by September 26th to request your initial study lead training session.

Please note: A personalised report will only be provided to schools with sufficient student participation (approximately 100+ students) to ensure individual students are not identifiable.

About the author

Abbie Simpkin is a School Research Liaison Manager at BrainWaves, responsible for supporting schools on the BrainWaves Research Programme.  She was previously a music teacher at Key Stage 3-5.

Rethinking Mental Health:

A Week That Transformed a SEND School

How do you teach mental health when students communicate through movement, sound, and sensation, rather than always using words? This is the challenge at The Cavendish High Academy, a specialist school for students with severe learning difficulties (SLD), profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), and complex autism along with many other schools across the nation. In one extraordinary week, they reimagined BrainWaves’ lessons with profound results.

Donna Tofts, BrainWaves Lead for the school, explains their experience below.

BrainWaves: Reimagined for SEND

BrainWaves is a neuroscience-informed curriculum designed to build emotional literacy and wellbeing. But for Cavendish’s unique students, it evolved into a trauma-informed, sensory-accessible, and student-led framework. Here, neurobiology became visual, regulation physical, and emotional learning deeply human. Students used Widgit symbols for amygdala reactions, co-regulated through movement, and addressed sleep challenges head-on.

Planning a week that changed everything: BrainWaves in Action

Each day of “BrainWaves Week” tackled a vital theme:

• Monday: Brain and Emotions – Students met their “inner Grumpy Monkey,” learning about the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex through visual stories and tactile play.
• Tuesday: Importance of Sleep – Sleep moved center stage. Staff and parents reframed tired behavior as a biological need, not misbehavior, with a focus on calming routines.
• Wednesday: Wellbeing Through the Senses – Gratitude jars, mirror affirmations, and sensory walks helped students explore emotions. Staff co-regulated through music, touch, and dance.
• Thursday: Online Safety, Real Emotions – Students mapped digital lives, explored emoji emotions, and voted for school improvements to boost safety and kindness.
• Friday: Cavfields – The Festival of Me – The week culminated in a celebration of student identity through art, music, and family showcases, revealing music as a universal regulator for safety.

Beyond the Buzz: Real Impact

This innovative approach yielded significant benefits:

• Staff Anchor: Provided a shared, neuroscience-informed language for interpreting behavior.
• Home–School Unity: Workshops helped families reframe behavior and build deeper insight.
• Curriculum Integration: BrainWaves is now embedded across PSHE, SOUL Time, and thematic learning.
• Tackling Diagnostic Overshadowing: Staff are more attuned to signs of anxiety and withdrawal, strengthening referrals and safeguarding.
• A New Kind of Student Voice: Students without spoken language shared their mental health journeys through symbols and narratives.

BrainWaves at Cavendish demonstrates how powerful it could be when neuroscience, trauma-informed care, and sensory integration truly meet. It’s not just inclusion; it’s innovation.

What Comes Next?

Recommendations include embedding BrainWaves into all-staff CPD, continuing to adapt lesson outcomes, co-producing future resources with students and families, and extending community engagement.

When we shift from “What’s wrong with this student?” to “What’s happening in their brain?” – everything changes. 

Cavendish didn’t just deliver BrainWaves; they made it belong to their students.

About the author

Naomi French is a Research Partner Liaison Manager at BrainWaves, responsible for supporting schools and sixth form colleges on the BrainWaves Research Programme.  She was previously a year 6 class teacher and subject leader for PSHE.