The aim was to explore the literature for instruments that assess school well-being, identifying their design features and construct appropriateness. A systematic review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020, and the PICO strategy to formulate the research questions. Fifty-two articles on instruments to assess pupils' school well-being were analysed using an interpretive approach. The results showed that school well-being is a topic of global interest, with China standing out, with non-uniform growth since 2007, being most notable in 2018 and 2019. Longitudinal and qualitative studies have appeared more frequently in recent years. The presence of multidimensional instruments stood out, with no consensus on the identification of the items to be assessed from a holistic perspective. This study paves the way for the design of a questionnaire that operationalise school well-being, considering not only the literature, but also the direct perceptions of pupils.