Scottish

How can you support your school staff mental health and wellbeing? This blog looks into some mental health statistics for education staff and ways in which members of the Senior Management Team can support their staff wellbeing.

Teaching and working in education can be extremely rewarding, however, many school environments are considered stressful and demanding. While there is a clear effort for schools to support children’s health and wellbeing, there is still a lot to be done to support and improve the wellbeing of staff.

The Numbers

According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive, school staff and education professionals report the highest rates of work-related stress, depression and anxiety in Britain. The Teacher Wellbeing Index 2020 reports that in the UK, 62% of education professionals have described themselves as stressed, while 32% have experienced high levels of depression. More than half have considered leaving the sector due to pressures on their health and wellbeing, which are caused by long working hours, increased workload, lack of support and staff wellbeing resources. On top of that, more than half (57%) of education professionals do not feel that they can share mental health concerns with their employer. All these factors have a detrimental impact on staff wellbeing, resulting in burn-out and forcing professionals to leave their jobs.

2020 was a challenging year for all of us. The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, a considerable impact on our mental health and wellbeing and education professionals are not exempt from this. As well as trying to balance their personal and work life, they are also trying to meet even higher school demands and expectations. You might think that the pandemic is solely responsible for these high levels of stress and poor mental health, but if we look carefully at the Teacher Wellbeing Index of the year 2019, we notice that the levels were high even before the pandemic. Long before the education system was faced with the challenges of school closures, back in 2019, more than half of education professionals had considered leaving the profession. 72% had described themselves as stressed and 33% had worked more than 51 hours per week. Sadly, half of them thought their organisational culture to have a negative effect on their wellbeing.

What do these statistics show us?

They show us a very simple fact: that school leaders, teachers and other school staff need to be supported, with their mental health and wellbeing prioritised. We must always keep in mind that a significant way to support our children’s wellbeing is by safeguarding our teachers’ mental health.

What Is Wellbeing?

Wellbeing is generally defined as the state of being healthy, calm and happy. The term includes aspects of our physical, emotional and mental health. When our wellbeing is good, we feel better prepared to deal with life’s difficulties; we experience a more positive outlook, feel motivated and our life feels balanced.

Why Is School Staff Wellbeing Important?

Good staff wellbeing means that teachers and those who work in an educational setting feel good in their day-to-day work. A school that shows high levels of staff wellbeing is a mentally healthy school. Staff feel motivated, productive and inspired. They show improved performance and job satisfaction and have fewer absences. Last but not least, good staff wellbeing is responsible for motivated and mentally healthy pupils with higher attainment, enhanced wellbeing and better coping mechanisms.

How Can Schools Support Staff Wellbeing?

There are a variety of ways schools and education settings can support staff wellbeing, and the following list is not exhaustive. School leaders are responsible for major changes for their schools, but in order to lead well, they too must get the support they need.

School Ethos and Culture

The main questions that school leaders should ask themselves are ‘What is our school culture?’ and ‘How do we want to be perceived by people in and out of school?’ School ethos and culture contribute to how a school functions and what is significant in the day-to-day life of the staff and pupils. To support those who work for the school, the Senior Leadership Team may reflect on the following questions:

How does our school look after staff?
What’s the environment like in our school? Is it a supportive, welcoming and inclusive environment? How can we make our school more healthy? Even having a bowl with fresh fruit in the staffroom for staff to help themselves to shows that someone cares.
Do we promote an environment of trust where staff feel open and encouraged to speak about their health and wellbeing and share concerns? Are we open to discuss mental health and wellbeing issues? How approachable are we?
Do staff feel appreciated and respected? How do we know? How can we show that we appreciate all that they do for the school and their pupils? There are a number of ways to show appreciation, and these Teacher Wellbeing Postcards are brilliant for saying a wee thank you and brightening someone’s day.
Do we encourage staff to take breaks, finish on time and ask for support? Is there a culture of expect them to work harder and longer?
What do we do to ensure that staff are listened to? Even providing them with space where they can go and take time out if they need to will show that the school respects their feelings and needs. Why not create a time-out room and place these Mind Your Mind Mindfulness Colouring Pages there? This will encourage staff to take some time out and relax their mind.
How do we promote human connections? Are there any social events we could run to facilitate team building and help our staff to get to know each other at a more personal level? It’s important to keep in mind that school staff are human beings first and foremost.
Last but not least, do we, as the school leaders, model good behaviour and look after our own wellbeing? How do we model good mental health and behaviour in practice?

Policies

When reflecting on policies, it is a good idea to think about the following:

What’s our school wellbeing strategy? Has it been created taking all stakeholders into account? Is it shared with everyone in and out of the school?
What are our school policies and procedures for staff wellbeing specifically?

How does our school support staff wellbeing in practice? Consider whether your school can invest in mindfulness, relaxation, managing stress and resilience workshops for its staff. These will give staff important knowledge, will teach them techniques to manage their emotions and will help them feel valued. Less workload and more teacher appraisal would be a very good way of supporting wellbeing in practice. Why not use these Scots Staff Shout Outs and these Fun End of Year Staff Award Certifications to praise staff? Another good wellbeing strategy would be to give staff the opportunity to have discussions with the Senior Leadership Team for whatever reason. All these strategies will promote a sense of belonging in the school community, resulting in happier and appreciative staff.

Help and Support

When we’re talking about help and support, we’re talking about appreciating that staff are not machines but people with lives, challenges and dreams. Consider the following:

Are the Senior Leadership Team knowledgeable about how they can support their staff?
Do staff know how to access support if they need it? Is there clear information about this?
Does the school offer strategies to prevent the escalation of mental health issues?

A very useful guide you could share with your staff is this amazing Teacher Wellbeing Toolkit created by Twinkl, which aims to support school staff to look after their wellbeing in a number of ways.

The above information sets out only some of the many ways that schools can reflect on how to support the mental health and wellbeing of their staff. It’s important to keep in mind that education staff are humans too, and that teachers who feel valued and appreciated can care for their pupils better than those who don’t.