The Wellbeing Rollercoaster when returning to work
I hope that you’ve all managed to find time for a break and time to nourish your own mental health and and manage the ‘wellbeing rollercoaster’ as we approach the beginning of another school year. The ability to create time and space to nourish your own health and wellbeing is a good deal easier over the summer and we know the feeling that leaves us with when we do eventually start back in September. However, this shouldn’t be the “Ying” to balance the “Yang” of the school year.
I found that the demands of the school year mean that during term time, and at weekends, the pace of work and associated stress was relentless. When we got to a school holiday, this stress eased back a bit and I was able to focus a bit more on my wellbeing. However, the combination of the two led to a rollercoaster of stress and pressure over the year which has a direct impact on your health and wellbeing.
My mantra was always, “Just one more job or just this job and I’ll be done!” The bad news is that, after 33 years in the profession, the job was never done. There is always more.
So, now we know that this is the case, we need to be in charge of when we say “Enough.” We often punish ourselves by suggesting that if we don’t get “this last piece of work” done it will somehow affect the life chances of our learners.
Whilst we know that this is not true, we do know that absence caused by stress, or just general ill health and not being the best version of ourselves, WILL impact learners and often our own families.
As we approach another school year, I want you to be the arbiter of when enough is enough. Even better still, build in the things that you’ve done for your wellbeing over the summer, across the school year.
The greatest challenge is to find time through the year, albeit for shorter periods but more regularly, to look after your own mental health and wellbeing. You owe it to yourself but, actually, you’re more efficient and happier if you can build time for yourself into every week. Now is a good time to look back at the summer and think about the things you did that helped your health and wellbeing. Granted, it is impossible to fly to Crete on a Wednesday night to take a swim in warm, crystal clear waters but now is a great time to think of those things you did for yourself and your own health and wellbeing and find time to plan some things into the working week for the year ahead.
There is every indication that this year is going to be at least as challenging as the last, so this is now as important as it has ever been.
Caring for yourself isn’t selfish, in many ways it is self-preservation.
So as we plan for the year ahead for our learners, what plans have we in place for the sustenance of our mental health and wellbeing?
- What can you plan in, 3 to 4 times a week even for as little as half an hour that will give you space to think about something other than work and the daily demands of life?
- Which nights are going to be earlier (longer sleep) nights to help build your resilience for the days ahead? Indeed, what are the evenings that you’re going to leave school earlier to build that time in for extra sleep?
- Is it worth planning meals ahead for the coming week so that you have good healthy meals planned in which help nurture your body and strength for the months ahead rather than something which might be quick but not necessarily healthy?
- Where in the working week can you create some time for exercise, even at a basic level, so that you can clear your head and strengthen your fitness for the year ahead, especially as we move into winter with the bugs and colds that are about? Four 20 minute walks each week help to keep you ticking over and help build your immune system combined with the other strategies to consider in your personal plan.
- Now is also a great time to be discussing hydration as a school. Teachers especially often struggle to drink enough water during the day due to fears of not being able to leave the classroom to nip to the loo. How do we as a school, ensure our staff are properly hydrated but also manage the call of nature.
Inset Days
If you’re a senior manager in school you might even want to use some of your INSET day, maybe half an hour to allow some time, some personal reflection for staff to answer some of these questions in their own context. It needs to be a personal commitment but staff also need to feel that they have permission from SLT to plan and deliver on their own wellbeing. Similarly, SLT need to feel confident that governing boards understand the need for good wellbeing and support SLT in achieving this. At every stage, those with strategic leadership need to model and grant permission for staff to ensure that they support their own mental health and wellbeing.
Whether you are a member of staff, a senior manager or a governor or trust board member, Schools Advisory Service are here to support you and your organisation with services which support and develop as well as strategies to plan for personal and organisational wellbeing.
SAS are a one stop shop where you know that staff absence is covered and taken care of but that there is help there to prevent absence and support staff with their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
If we are entering another year of working together, then please do contact us to make sure you are getting all the support from your Absence Protection policy. We can help to keep staff absence to a minimum and promote great health and wellbeing.
As we approach what is likely to be a really tough year where schools are asked to do more with less, can you afford not to be with SAS?
Give us a call to discuss what we can do for you, your staff and students on: 01773 814 400. Alternatively, check out my Ask Andy page on our website for further resources.