No one works at their best flattened under a ton of marking with seven-part lesson plans to write and detentions to chase up. Wellbeing is not the only factor in teacher recruitment and retention, but it is fundamental. Any school would have to be myopic and/or malevolent not to address it.
But what of wellbeing for senior leaders? I have seen many places where the head speaks strongly of staff welfare but is the one in the office at 7am, owns the last vehicle to leave the car park, and sends emails in the small hours of the weekend.
This sends a message out to staff. They think, “Perhaps this is really the way we’re meant to work. Maybe what s/he says is a trick. I’d better copy what the boss does, not what s/he says.”
This can be as every bit as detrimental as a situation where the head counts every minute, barks at everyone that they must spend 70 hours a week doing the job, and then tweets that they’re playing golf at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon.
Leaders should lead everything - including looking after themselves and their work-life balance. We have a duty to model how to get it right, and it can be rather difficult to get it right, especially if you’ve spent the majority of your career slogging your guts out. You may have to plan it - add specific activities to your diary to ensure you fit them in, block out one day a week where you leave school early or have a whole weekend away.
Speaking to so many of my #WomenEd colleagues, I find it ironic that a career that is devoted to children can often prove to be family-unfriendly. This is an issue for dads as well as mums - hours spent in the betterment of other people’s children can leave our own kids wondering when they’ll see mummy or daddy again. Being a parent is the most important thing we ever do, and it is more than possible to be a brilliant leader and a brilliant mum or dad.
Leave school early and take Junior to their swimming/piano/French lesson - you can always catch up on emails while you wait
for them. Dedicate at least one full day each weekend to the family, because on our death beds we will never wish we’d refined that school improvement plan a bit better. Ask colleagues about their children; help to make spending time with the family normal, not something to be tucked away as an interference with the job.
Find something you love and do it every week. It could be running, photography, cooking, writing, football, kickboxing…and there are many communities (such as #Teacher5aday on Twitter), that will cajole and support you in your pursuit.
Me? I make cards by hand, my mind happily going blank as I cut and stick in front of terrible US television shows.
To thine ownself be true: nobody can be well all the time - either physically or mentally. Leaders should be strong enough to be vulnerable and human as well. At a previous school, I know of one teacher who was so scared to reveal human weaknesses to the senior team, he told no one when his mum died and arranged for her funeral to be held on a Saturday. I suffered considerably with postnatal depression and I think I am particularly sensitive to the emotions of new parents now. I’ve shared these experiences with a couple of other mums who were struggling and, although it hardly cured anyone, it brought difficulties out into the open in a way that was not shaming. It became acceptable for that person to pop into my office in the morning and say, “I’ve had a bad night, I feel awful, I may hide a bit today,” - and that’s OK.
Most importantly, look after your staff - properly look after your staff. And let them look after you, too. So if your PA tells you that you look like crap and need to go home, do it.
Keziah Featherstone is headteacher at the Bridge Learning Campus, Bristol. She tweets @BLC_Head34
