Sarah’s story: none of it feels like we’re just ticking boxes – it has helped to raise the conversation about mental health in our school

I sometimes say teaching is a ‘crash and burn’ profession, it can be very challenging. People have to manage their own workload and emotions and there’s no cut off when you walk out the door. Prior to Covid, of course we had stress and challenges around heavy workloads but Covid annihilated us.

We had an email through from Education Support and at the time we were already looking into school and staff wellbeing. As a management team, we didn’t necessarily know how we could help in a way that would actually make a difference, we certainly didn’t want to make this a tick box exercise. We’d had various speakers and some training - which was good - but it was a one off. I wanted something that gave us an overview and the whole picture. When we got in touch with Education Support this was what they offered.

It was the first time someone came and laid out full suggestions for what we needed as a school. It was brilliant. We were given practical and concrete examples of questionnaires, school wellbeing policies, action plans and a staff charter. We could adapt and use them however suited us best. We hadn’t had anything like this before, where what we needed to as a school was clearly broken down and explained.

We couldn’t do everything that was suggested but all of this gave us a clear way forward. The conversation we had with Education Support was really valuable, they listened to what we needed and what would work for our school. It was brilliant. 

Our conversation with Education Support also showed us how there were things that we were doing already which were making a difference, and supporting staff wellbeing.

We now have a staff wellbeing team who have had time out of class to review the draft policy, action plan and charter and make their own suggestions and improvements. They’ll be feeding back to the whole staff team shortly and a staff survey will go out. We plan to include staff wellbeing as part of our ongoing staff training too.

None of it feels like we are just ticking boxes - all of this has already helped to raise the conversation about mental health in the school. We’ve found that we are becoming more confident in knowing the signs that either we, or colleagues, may be struggling, and feel more able to start a conversation with people if we think they might need some support. 

A few years ago, we wouldn’t necessarily have known how to have that conversation. Guidance and training that Education Support has provided has also given us the vocabulary to support each other better. 

I would definitely recommend this service, which is funded at no cost to staff, and Education Support more broadly. They helped us see the progress we’d already made and have given us a complete structure and the language and confidence we need to build support for staff across the school. They’ve also set up regular opportunities for wellbeing leads from different schools to come together and share and learn from each other. They’ve been great to work with so far, so helpful. 

We are still on this journey and we aren’t there yet. My hope is we’ll all be able to support each other better with wellbeing. This is good for our staff, our children and our school. Staff wellbeing is important - it’s fundamental and it does matter.

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