Teacher wellbeing support and advice

In this vlog, Dame Alison Peacock is joined by Sinéad McBrearty, CEO at Education Support, and Adrian Bethune, teacher at Broughton Junior school, member of the Chartered College of Teaching and author of ‘Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom: A Practical Guide to Teaching Happiness’, to discuss teacher and student well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak.

They discuss:

• The help Education Support provide, particularly in relation to financial hardship resulting from the COVID-19 crisis and through their helpline (08000 562 561), which is a free, confidential service available to anyone working in education who would like to speak to a qualified and accredited counselor.
• The importance of maintaining mental and physical health by eating and sleeping well, sticking to routines, limiting news consumption, staying physically active to lower stress levels and talking through worries and concerns, either with a professional or a person close to you.
• Balancing professional expectations with family life by prioritising tasks, splitting work into more manageable chunks, creating a separate work space, being available emotionally for family members whenever you are not working and the importance of being kind to oneself while attempting to achieve that difficult balance as lockdown is not a competition.
• Grief for actual loss of life but also a way of life that is no longer possible in current circumstances and how to cope with that.
• Concerns from staff who continue to work on school sites and those supporting learning from home.
• Ways to maintain a sense of belonging to a school community through recorded assemblies, live or recorded readings of the class story/reader, phone calls to families and colleagues or joint project work across school.