Neart Wellbeing Award 2025/26
Neart Wellbeing Award 2025/26
Tuesday, 02 September 2025
What is the Neart Wellbeing Award?
Neart has developed a Wellbeing Award to acknowledge the commitment of participating schools to mental health and wellbeing. Schools that sign up to participate in Neart, and meet the criteria required for the 2025/26 Wellbeing Award, will receive the Award to display on their digital and print materials. The Neart Wellbeing Award is endorsed by the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD).
Benefits of the Neart Wellbeing Award for your school
- Help your school to stand out from the crowd as one that actively prioritises the mental health of students, staff and parents across the whole school community.
- Clearly demonstrate to students as well as parents/guardians that your school prioritises wellbeing and mental health.
- Appeal to motivated, innovative and creative teachers who have an interest in supporting mental health across the school community.
- Facilitate your school’s active investment in continuous staff professional development and learning.
- Provide access to a range of classroom-based programmes and workshops that align with and complement the SPHE curriculum at junior and senior cycle.
- Provide your school with user-friendly, evidence-informed materials that help staff engage in wellbeing promotion review and development cycles using the School Self-Evaluation process, with a focus on wellbeing.
- Provide unique opportunities for your Student Support Team to avail of high quality, evidence-informed strategies and approaches to elevate their work in line with best practice.
How does your school apply for the Neart Wellbeing Award 2025/26
If your school is interested in participating in this exciting and unique national initiative, simply consider the criteria required and seek agreement from the leadership team to submit an
Expressions of Interest form.
A number of the criteria have been identified to align with other commitments your school already meets (e.g. having a Student Support Team in place, regular review of your Student Support Team, engagement in the School Self-Evaluation process with wellbeing as a focus).
Once your Expression of Interest is submitted and your school agrees to meet the criteria outlined, you will then become a member of Neart’s Wellbeing Award active participants. The Neart Team looks forward to working with your school throughout the coming year and to awarding your Wellbeing Award at the end of the academic year.
Criteria for schools to achieve a Neart Wellbeing Award
School Leadership Team
- Have an active Student Support Team (SST) in place who have participated in NEPS SST training and/or reviewed their SST in the last 2 years
- Actively engage in the School Self-Evaluation (SSE) process, with wellbeing as a focus
- Ensure that at least one member of your leadership team attends two x 1-hour long leadership webinars during the academic year (Sept 2025 & Jan 2026)
- Nominate a member of your SST as your Neart Wellbeing Champion for 2025/26 (i.e. link
person with Neart School Team) - Actively promote Neart to parents/guardians through your Parent’s Association or via your school’s WhatsApp or social media channels and encourage them to sign up here
School Staff
- At least 70% of all school staff register with Neart to receive monthly newsletter updates sign up here
- At least 50% of all school staff complete at least one x 1-hour Neart eLearning course (out of 5 available for 2025/26)
- At least 50% of school staff attend at least one x 1-hour live webinar for school staff
Teacher-led Programmes
- Implement at least one of the Neart teacher-led workshop series (i.e. Let’s Talk, Sure Why Not; Managing Exam Stress; One Good Friend)
- Implement at least one of the student voice transition year programmes (i.e. Peer Education for Wellbeing; Innovate for Wellbeing; Take Action!)
Student Support Team
- At least 2 members of the SST: Attend 3 live masterclass webinars online (1 – 1.5 hours in duration) OR Attend one day-long in-person Regional Conference
(following completion of 2 x eLearning courses and 1 x masterclass)
Student Wellbeing Ambassadors
- Identify school’s Student Wellbeing Ambassadors (at least two students) in preparation for the Wellbeing Ambassador programme implementation in 2026/27. (Ambassadors will be selected from their participation in one of the above TY programmes in 2025/26 – they will hold this role during their 5th year and be expected to allocate a maximum of 3 hours per month to the role in 2026/27)
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