Mr Robinson had never been overweight. He had always gone to the gym, played sports and eaten healthily - and then he became an NQT. By Christmas, the top button on his shirt pinched and the seams of his trousers stretched, as did those on his jumpers. By February, around the same time you are reading this article, he finally admitted defeat and shelled out for new, larger work clothes.
What had happened?
Marking books. Driving to work. Cake Friday. It was that simple.
You see, the NQT year can be heavy going for a multitude of reasons: workload, high expectations of classroom performance, no more help from your training college. Each of these challenges is usually addressed in your typical NQT inset programme.
But something that is also heavy going - but not spoken about - is healthy living.
The marking of books replaces the two-hour weekly basketball training session. The long walks to university are replaced by car journeys to work, with a boot full of marking. The sensible lunch becomes Cake Friday, every Friday - thanks to the articles in newspapers and magazines advocating it as a method to boost office morale.
And there are further issues: Forbes magazine listed the top 10 most sedentary jobs and teaching is up there, at number four.
Looking more closely at the list, we can see shift work is prominent: physicians, police, firefighters. Why? The reversal of night and day, the working through mealtimes, the limited access to decent fresh food…all of these contributing factors can result in unhealthy eating patterns.
This is where teachers take the double hit. Not only do we have the problems listed earlier, but we also have these problems, too. Our breaks are not our own, because lunchtimes are spent organising clubs, or chasing up student issues, or supervising detentions. Our breakfasts are often skipped in the rush to get to work to prep for our “shift” and falling through the door after numerous after-school tasks means dinner is usually something quick and easy, rather than nutritious and sensible.
Forming healthy habits
It isn’t just weight gain that is a problem. Weight loss, or no change in weight at all, doesn’t mean that your lifestyle is any healthier. Increasing inches are only one indicator that you’re not maintaining a healthy lifestyle - the emphasis should always be upon whether you’re feeling physically and mentally fit.
So what can we do to ensure NQTs form healthy habits that will sustain them in this incredibly demanding career?
First, we need to be clear this is not about adhering to a media-constructed body image. It’s about being as healthy as you can be in your natural form.
Second, schools need to act.
The most important step is acknowledging the workload issue. If you have six different classes, with an average of 30 students per class, marking every two weeks for just five minutes per book is 15 hours of marking. Double that if you’re a new teacher. Then double that again if you’re doing assessments that week, too. Sixty hours of marking to be done in a fortnight - this is clearly going to have an impact upon on a teacher’s ability to fit the time in for exercising, prepping food or, well, anything else.
It’s all very well having staff wellbeing weeks, but if all that amounts to is forced sign-ups to various meditation classes, on top of the normal workload, then there isn’t anything very wellbeing about that.
Add all this to some particularly toxic return-to-work policies, draconian rules regarding time off for funerals and the use of occupational health as a threat, rather than the help it should be. It’s a wonder any of us are functioning at all.
What can schools do to help?
1. Fruit boxes instead of Cake Friday
Cake Friday is dead - long live the fruit boxes. And although, yes, fruit does contain a heck of a lot of sugar, you’re not going to consume the same number of calories in an orange as you would in a Danish pastry.
St Martin’s in Brentwood uses a local greengrocer and provides a box of fruit every Monday for all staff to pick from. There is nothing to stop cakes being brought in, but the good habit of eating fruit for a snack kicks off the week with a healthy bang.
2. Making use of school facilities
The sporting equipment in schools can be put to good use by its staff. Starting a regular badminton or football team among staff after school can provide a fun outlet for your exercising needs - while also building links between faculties and promoting genuine staff wellbeing.
Those natural endorphins when you exercise can only be a good thing…until Tim from IT takes it too far with a sliding tackle.
3. Bring in external companies
Staff are frequently too busy to organise classes themselves - so bringing outside expertise means schools can offer exercise classes for their staff without adding to the responsibility of the people taking part.
Colchester Sixth Form College runs a spin class for staff one evening a week - and in the past has offered a range of sports, from yoga to line dancing.
4. Insist on staff lunch
Too often, school lunchtimes are taken for meetings, intervention, or clubs - leaving the window of time to eat too small to even squeeze a baguette through.
Insisting on staff wellbeing means looking at how you’re directing time at lunch and being reasonable. We wouldn’t expect the students to go without food all day, so we shouldn’t expect that of our staff, either.
Of course, it’s not just up to new school initiatives to improve staff fitness - teachers also need to make better choices ourselves.
We need to stop using food as a reward for marking. Chocolate bars between the stacks of books may seem like a great idea, but the sugar rollercoaster will only make you feel more hungry and irritable.
Don’t put off doctor appointments and try and make the most of late evenings at your GP surgery. Prioritise yourself.
Pick a day a week where you try and cycle to work - or run home, if you’re close enough. It isn’t always convenient, but cardio exercise will give you such a boost that the benefits will outweigh the irritants.
Grainne Hallahan has been teaching English in Essex for 10 years
