Priors Wood Primary: creating a stronger culture of care

When James joined Priors Wood Primary, he brought with him a commitment to mental health from previous experience as a Senior Mental Health Lead. On arrival, he was asked to take on the same role at Priors Wood. With a relatively new senior leadership team in place, James recognised the need to strengthen the school’s offering around staff wellbeing.

"We never wanted to assume that there would be someone on the SLT who staff would be able to confide in so we wondered how else we could support people to feel like they are being heard and being listened to. That’s why we looked for an external offering that would provide complete anonymity and confidentiality and there would be no worries about any broken trust.

We wanted to prove that our culture is one of caring about wellbeing and not just saying it. Although we had pulled together a mental health and wellbeing team and made lots of positive steps such as recognising birthdays, time off in lieu, and a reduced number of staff meetings, I knew we hadn’t ticked the box in terms of how we support people if something bigger in someone’s life is happening and they don’t feel like they can talk to us about it. It’s not ok to just say “well, we tried”. We had to find other ways to offer support.

It’s easy to offer cakes on a Friday, and of course culture matters, but when someone is dealing with a serious mental health issue, they need something more than cake! The EAP gives us that ‘more’."

James was already familiar with our work in schools and knows we are a trusted name in education wellbeing. After discovering the Employee Assistance Programme, he saw a valuable opportunity to fill the gap.

"Some of the other programmes we looked at were prohibitively expensive. The EAP gave us access to trained counsellors, confidentiality, and flexibility, all at a manageable cost.

Having an external service with no strings attached makes a huge difference. People can use it without anyone needing to know."

The EAP was introduced to staff during an INSET day, with support from Education Support’s team to explain the programme’s offering and how to access it.

"People didn’t really know what an EAP was before and the launch was received really well. We know we have staff who are dealing with a lot, whether that’s school-based or not, so staff were openly grateful that we were investing in their wellbeing."

The school also makes use of Education Support’s additional wellbeing resources, including the monthly newsletter, webinars and toolkits.

"We don’t put pressure on people to use it. It’s just about saying: ‘We’re here for you and here’s another way we’re showing that.’"

Learn more about how Education Support’s EAP can support your school staff.