3 fundamentals of staff wellbeing

In England - according to new data published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) this week - 7.2 per cent of fully qualified primary and secondary teachers resigned from the profession in 2024-25, compared with an average of 4.2 per cent across OECD countries.

Estonia, which is often cited as a leading education nation, had a similar rate at 6.6 per cent, while Denmark saw an even higher rate at 8 per cent.

However, in France and Ireland the teacher resignation rates were less than 1 per cent - sitting at 0.3 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.

The data was in the new Education at a Glance 2026 report, which compares national education statistics. Resignation rates are worth analysing, according to the OECD, because high rates lead to instability in schools, with staffing gaps opening up at a time when teachers can be tough to find.

So what can school leaders do to improve staff wellbeing and hopefully reduce resignations and boost retention?

A new Tes webinar looks at the ways three leaders are prioritising staff wellbeing in their schools: Dr Nic Crossley, chief executive of Liberty Academy Trust; Jill Silverthorne, headteacher at Bishop Stopford School in Northamptonshire; and Matt Topliss, principal at Kyoto International School in Japan.

Here, we outline their key messages.

Ways to improve staff wellbeing in schools

1. Build relationships and encourage open dialogue

The schools that get the best outcomes from pupils often talk about the importance of building relationships and creating a sense of belonging in school.

And the same logic applies to staff, argued the leaders taking part in the webinar - it is vital, they said, to make the time to build trust and get to know staff.

To this end, Matt Topliss meets with every member of staff in his 400-pupil school once a fortnight for 30 minutes. The meetings provide an opportunity to air issues, he said - as well as discuss work or simply have a chat.

“Conversations can be about ideas for specific children potentially, or groups, or initiatives within classes. Some people just want to check in or do something like check the wording in a letter.”

The result, Topliss said, is improved transparency all round. “It’s just giving people that reassurance that we all know where we’re going, and there’s no nasty surprises on either side,” he said.

Prioritising time to engage with staff is also key for Crossley. She has recently introduced “Fika Fridays” - an hour-long opportunity to chat with her at the end of the week.

Crossley explained: “Fika is a Swedish term which means completely down-tooling and really just separating yourself from the working day and just chatting and talking about anything. So the instruction is: ‘I’m here. If you want to chat with me, please do.’”

Silverthorne, meanwhile, talked about dividing her school’s nearly 200 employees into “SLT tutor groups”, linking every member of staff to a senior leader who is not their line manager. This gives another “channel in”, she explained.

All three leaders agreed that an alternative route to airing issues and problems is through regular staff surveys.

Crossley stressed that if schools want staff to be honest, they have to work hard to build trust and make people feel “safe”.

This includes providing anonymous routes for feedback, such as through surveys, but the reality is that this means leaders have to be prepared for “uncomfortable things being said”. And you have to then “really evaluate” those responses and “over-communicate” what you will do as a result, Crossley said.

Silverthorne added that having a focus on wellbeing is not just about teaching staff. It is important to include “associate staff” and “create a sense of wholeness across the institution”.

2. Provide opportunities for staff to develop their skills

“If you feel skilled up to do your job, that’s one less pressure,” said Crossley.

To that end, she said her trust has a strong focus on providing and supporting professional development.

Feeling confident in your role could “create a better sense of wellbeing, particularly in complex environments”, she explained.

The trust fully funds the postgraduate certificate, she said, providing there is a focus on improving education around autism and special educational needs and disabilities.

Crossley also said every member of staff receives an accredited piece of training when they join the trust, giving them “an insight into what we expect, as well as key ideas around pedagogy and practice for SEN”.

However, she pointed out that these professional skills can also be built in a more informal way, through the sharing of good practice among colleagues.

Previously staff in the trust’s schools had worked in “silos”, Crossley said, but building networks and communities of practice across schools has “really helped” staff by simply giving them more opportunity to “talk about things.”

CPD is also important to help leaders have wellbeing conversations in order to prevent issues escalating if staff are struggling at work, added Silverthorne.

Her school has recently provided training for middle leaders on how to “open up that conversation”, including choosing “a time that’s appropriate” to broach more personal issues, as well as “having the right language”.

Often the trigger for these conversations is data, she said - attendance data or data that suggests lateness is an issue. After the data flags an issue, it becomes about ensuring that the line manager understands how to intervene and “talk about what’s happening”.

“We always want to prevent things from becoming more formal,” said Silverthorne.

Topliss agreed that using data to “keep a close eye on where colleagues are” is helpful, alongside asking staff to “look out for each other as well”.

3. Address workload and remember: small gestures add up

There was an acknowledgement among the three leaders that financial constraints mean schools cannot always do all that they would like to support staff.

However, with workload a key issue - 83 per cent of respondents to the 2026 Tes teacher wellbeing survey identified workload as the primary driver of work-related stress - Silverthorne said her school does not “load directed time to the full” so that “at a starting point, we are not pushing people to the limit”.

She also said the school has “a curriculum assistant team that supports faculties” and has invested in non-teaching staff “because we know for our staff that wellbeing does depend on those interactions with children day in, day out”.

But equally, Silverthorne said, small gestures can add up. Like responding to an issue raised in a staff survey or giving staff protected access to the school gym after work - a small perk her school has put in place.

Other examples of initiatives shared by the leaders included paying for a Christmas meal for staff or for the Blue Light discount card.

Silverthorne said her school also gives staff some flexibility in their timetables, which allows them to come in late or leave early and therefore better manage their life outside school.

Topliss echoed this, saying that “life goes on outside of school” for staff, and “people do need to go to the bank”.

Crossley, meanwhile, said some of the schools in her trust offer “duvet days”, and every half-term there is an award ceremony to recognise staff who have demonstrated the school’s core values.

“They get some vouchers as well as a certificate of appreciation,” she said.

In Silverthorne’s school, long service is recognised at five years. She acknowledged that five years might not seem like long service to some but highlighted that three to five years is the point at which many teachers are choosing to leave the profession.

“It’s just that culture of ‘what are we valuing?’ We want to say thank you for that service.”

She also flagged the importance of colleagues just having fun together. For instance, staff in her school could nominate colleagues to get a chocolate bar.

“It’s very easy to get stuck in that mode of ‘this is hard’. But let’s enjoy work. We can bring some of that joy.”