As concerns grow over rising absenteeism and student mental health, a new study by Dr Wendee Zhang, a researcher at the ECI, and also the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, investigates how everyday exposure to school green spaces—such as trees, grass, and playgrounds—might improve wellbeing and encourage better attendance. In this blog, Dr Zhang shares insights from her post-pandemic research.
The co-benefit of nature exposure to mental health has been well-justified by the current studies, but we still know relatively little about how these benefits play out in students' everyday school lives. Mental wellbeing and attendance are two of the most pressing issues facing children and adolescents today. For most of the students, their everyday exposure to greenness in the school is their natural dosage as that's where they spend most of their time. But how exactly do green spaces, especially in school affect young people’s mental wellbeing and school attendance? And do these effects differ between different type of green space, trees, woodland, grassland and grey area in the school (playgrounds?).
Nationally across the England, the persistent absence rate stands at 18.6% for state-funded primary, secondary, and special schools in the 2024/2025 school year. In Oxfordshire, the rate is even higher, exceeding 20%. Yet, despite the spike in absence rates, especially following COVID-19, there remains a research gap in the literature to test if the nature exposure made a difference. Our study aims to fill this gap by using post-pandemic data to explore how school greenness might play a role in reducing absence rate.
Our new study seeks to answer these questions by combining large-scale student wellbeing data with high-resolution environmental mapping in schools. Our research explores three core questions: Does the mental health benefit of school greenness differ across socio-economic neighbourhoods? Which types of green features (trees, playgrounds, grasslands, etc) are most beneficial for mental wellbeing? Is greener school outdoor space linked to reduced chronic absenteeism among students?
We're currently analysing data from two major UK cities, with plans to scale up across more OxWell survey sites. Findings will be shared through open-access publications, policy briefings, and public engagement events. The further stage of the study would involve collaborations with National Education Nature Park program to provide more evidence.
This study is part of the project: From Greening to Wellbeing: Multi-scale analysis of green infrastructure and mental health at population level within the UK. The research is supported by the ECI's Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.
Dr Zhang recently presented her research at a recent meeting of the Healthy Ecosystems Restoration in Oxfordshire (HERO) programme where she discussed spatial and social-economic disparities in school outdoor greenness and the impact on mental wellbeing and school attendance in children and adolescents. You can watch the presentation on YouTube.
Her research has also been shared on OSF Registries: Nature for student's life: The impact of outdoor greenness on mental wellbeing and chronic absenteeism
The Open Science Framework (OSF) is an open source infrastructure that allows sharing of research.