What gets you excited about going to school? Is it seeing the pupils? The thrill of sharing knowledge about something that you’re really passionate about? Or is it band practice at lunchtime?

Yes, you read that right - starting a rock band with fellow teachers and practising at lunchtime can keep you enthusiastic, happy and invigorated as a teacher, according to head of department Gavin Simpson.

But if you’re more Mary Berry than Madonna, you could try baking, knitting or learning a new language - anything that pushes you out of your comfort zone. Hobbies are valuable to give overworked teachers a sense of perspective, says Simpson.

He explains that hitting the ”refresh” button every time he has sensed that he has been beginning to coast at work is what has kept him teaching (and happy about it!) for 20 years.

Not only does learning a new skill give you a focus away from the classroom, it also improves your teaching, says Simpson. “This experience in itself is invaluable for a teacher as you get to appreciate what it must be like for students to learn a new topic and how difficult the learning process can be,” he writes. “I know that not everybody will have the opportunity to form a rock band at their school but I’m confident that learning a new skill will improve your wellbeing and have other positive side effects.”

This year Simpson has also started an economics podcast with one of his teaching friends. They’ve learned how to produce a podcast, and have also done lots of additional reading to ensure that it at least sounds like they know what they’re talking about.

“We’ve become better economics teachers as a result and have been able to help out students with an interest in podcasting. We also have a final product that can be shared with our students in order to deepen their learning,” he says.

“It’s a double/triple whammy of improvement - improvement in our wellbeing (we laugh a lot during the recordings), improvement in our teaching and an improvement in our skillsets.”