Well Together | About us

Well Together is a collective of three organisations who share one common aim – to put wellbeing at the heart of education. As individual wellbeing specialists within the education sector our paths began to cross and the synergy between the organisations became clear. In 2020 we joined forces to create an accessible service to primary schools by providing whole-school strategies for wellbeing through our three core expertise – measurement, training, and award.

Well Together may be at the beginning of its journey as a collective, but as individuals our histories are well established, and our expertise proven in the field of wellbeing in education.

Launched in 2019, Bounce Together provides schools with a game-changing survey platform for measuring and monitoring physical and mental wellbeing and the attitudes of pupils, staff, and parents. Their aim is to use their platform not simply to collect data, but to use that data to make a difference for every individual.

The idea arose during a fateful project with Liverpool John Moores University, who were conducting a paper-based survey on student’s physical activity traits in over 90,000 students. The University faced huge challenges with collating complex data as well as the logistics of processing such large numbers of surveys. The first version of Bounce Together’s software was quickly born and has been developing and growing alongside the needs of education settings ever since. To date, Bounce Together have powered hundreds of thousands of surveys and worked with over 200 UK schools including state primary, secondary, all-through, special and independent. In 2020 Bounce Together were short-listed for a Teach Primary and Teach Secondary Award.

Teachappy was founded in 2017 by Adrian Bethune, a practicing primary teacher with over 10 years of classroom experience. It exists to give schools and students the tools to put wellbeing at the centre of everyday practices. Adrian’s teaching practice has always focused on helping young people and educators lead healthier and happier lives. This passion follows his own experience with poor mental health in his early twenties and the realisation that nothing is more important than emotional and mental wellbeing. During this time, he discovered the science of happiness, which, based on thousands of empirical studies shows the simple, evidence-based activities, we can do to look after our physical and mental health. It is this science that is the driving force behind the unique training delivered by Teachappy.

Adrian also wears a few other hats including author of 2 best-selling books, lead curriculum designer for Oxford University Press; International Wellbeing Curriculum, Education Policy Co-Lead at the Mindfulness Initiative and Advisor for Cambridge University's research projects into mental health in schools. He is also Chair of the Mindfulness In Schools Project's BAME Inclusion and Support Group and Deputy Chair of the strategic board of the Well Schools Movement.

In 2019 Adrian won a Teach Primary Award for his first publication, Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom. Watch the short animation; "Can school make you happier?" to find out more about Teachappy’s philosophy

Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools Launched in 2017, the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools partnered with Minds Ahead to create the UK’s first university Centre dedicated to strengthening mental health in schools. Situated within the Carnegie Centre for Education at Leeds Beckett University, the Centre was designed to build upon the already outstanding provision of teacher education by under-pinning practical classroom skills with in-depth understanding and knowledge of student and teacher wellbeing best practice.

Key to the Centre’s work is the School Mental Health Award, an accreditation which helps schools to strengthen their wellbeing practices and to recognise the effectiveness and impact of their mental health strategies and outcomes. To date over 2,000 schools have been awarded a bronze, silver or gold through the scheme.

Hey Siri, who are Well Together?