And now for something completely different

We spent last week at school doing things that were completely different. We do this every year, using gained time from years 11 & 13, and year 10 being on work experience to suspend the timetable for years 7, 8 & 9 so we can challenge ourselves to work in different ways, try something new, combine knowledge and skills from different areas and hone our skills.

This year we had trips to Germany and France, we put on Macbeth in a day, we fought to survive on Mars like Mark Watney, built a WWI museum to commemorate the Centenary of the battle of the Somme, painted portraits, then designed and made frames for them, sang our hearts out, pitched products to dragons, ran year quizzes entirely composed of student questions, hosted a fantastic art show will all years represented (Y7 Terracotta Army in photo) and held a brilliant sports day, the best one ever (although I tend to say that every year). We may not be able to do it again.

Why not? One reason is that Year 10 work experience looks increasingly untenable. There are now whole fields such as healthcare where you need to be over 16 to get a placement. Work experience at KS4 is based on an idea of leaving education at 16 which is no longer true. Maybe this is a local issue, but it seems to be harder than ever to get quality placements – and we appreciate all the employers who do provide them – and more expensive to complete the process. This year more placements seemed to fall through at the last minute, sometimes because of the employer, sometimes because of the student or their family. We are thinking of moving it to year 12. They would be over 16, more likely to have a career in mind, and we could link it to their A Level / BTEC subjects. This change would make our alternative week more difficult, but we would still have some released time and could probably adapt.

The second problem is workload. Traditionally the people organising the week have to spend the next one lying in a darkened room. We made changes last year to ease the load, and this year to distribute leadership to year teams and clusters of subjects. My colleagues were their usual brilliant, enthusiastic creative selves, but they are also tired. As well as the ‘usual’ of improving standards, we have all worked hard to help disadvantaged pupils make better progress, introduce our new KS3 assessment model, we have had new GCSEs to learn, plan and implement, and the same for post-16 qualifications. Meeting the challenge of these changes will continue over the next few years. It’s a simple fact that something has to give.

The third factor is attendance. Last year our attendance fell dramatically during this week. We took steps to counteract this, flagging it, simplifying the programme, explaining it and, to be blunt removing some elements that were less aligned with the core aims. At the start of the week this seemed to have worked; attendance was 3% on same period the previous year. I looked at the figures for Friday in despair, however. They dragged the week to worse than the year before. We had to close partially because of the strike on Tuesday. We had been expecting Eid on Wednesday & Thursday, we know the proportion of students who will be celebrating. The attendance codes that concern me aren’t ‘Y’ or ‘R’ but ‘I’ and ‘N’. I know the jump in ‘I’ isn’t all illness, and the number of as-yet-unexplained absences on sports day was just dispiriting. It was a joyous event. The triumphs, large and small, the enthusiasm, the encouragement & support, the achievements, the enjoyment, ‘This Girl Can’ ambassadors proudly wearing their pink t-shirts, the camera dearie, the celebration of community – all of it lifted the heart. I’d really like any help readers can give about how to engage those families who think that all that is just pointless and not worth their children coming to school. My point here, however, is we just can’t afford a drop in attendance like this. We’re RI and while our last HMI letter was very positive, attendance remains a key issue.

I know that we created memories last week that will stay with students for the rest of their lives, helping form the ‘what’s left when we’ve forgotten all we learned’, but I wonder for how much longer we can afford to step away from the timetable and do something completely different given the constraints we face.

Values, Democracy and the EU Referendum

Like many educators in the UK, I found myself disconcerted by the demographics of the vote. The first news article I read about the result, pointed out that the single best indicator of voting choice was level of education. It was also apparent that young and old had voted very differently. Roughly three quarters of young voters supported remain, about the same proportion of over-65s voted to leave.

My school has done a lot of work on democracy this year. We encouraged students sixteen and older to register to vote in the spring. The council hosted events on the importance of local and national representation and kindly lent us actual voting booths, ballot boxes and polling station signage for a school mock election. 

I heard more spontaneous political and economic discussion between students on Friday than in the last twenty years put together.

This clearly had an impact on our sixth form students in particular because they were keen to run a school EU referendum. They did this with style and professionalism. Unlike the mock election. There was no campaigning but they hosted a debate (which frankly was better informed that most of actual national campaigns) and ran the election. Tutors also used materials derived from the booklet from the Electoral Commission that was sent to homes. We asked students to think about the following questions surrounding the claims made by the two campaigns:

• What do you know already about the European Union? What do you need to find out? 
• Each side (Leave / Remain) makes claims about the advantages of either leaving the EU or remaining in the EU. What is the evidence for their claims? 
• Many of the claims made by each side (Leave / Remain) have been contested. How could you find out if a claim is reliable?  
• The Remain campaign says the NHS is better protected if we stay in the EU. The Leave campaign says the NHS will be better off if we leave the EU. What sources of evidence could you use to decide which side might be right? 

There was considerable excitement on 23rd June, with voting taking place throughout the day. The results gave a large majority vote to remain in the European Union:

• Remain 73%
  
• Leave 26%

As we all know, this wasn’t how the national vote turned out, but it mirrored how young people voted nationally, and this certainly wasn’t the end of the referendum as far as our students were concerned; Friday 24th June turned out to be an extraordinary day. The first thing the Principal said to me that morning was about a conversation she’d heard two year 7 students having. “52%” said one “you can hardly call that a mandate!” Not the average 12 year old conversation.

This theme continued throughout the day. I heard more spontaneous political and economic discussion between students on Friday than in the last twenty years put together. A year 9 student informed me that the prime minister had resigned. A year 10 student asked me if I had seen the stock exchange figures, then showed me a graph on his phone. Another asked me if I was worried about my pension! (I am: have you looked at the AVC fund?). Break and lunchtime was full of discussion about the consequences of leaving the EU. The most frequent question was much broader, though. As several year 12 students put it “Why have they thrown our future away?” Who are “they”? The students have seen the statistics too. Their view is quite clearly that pensioners have made a decision that the young didn’t want but will have to live with. 

I voted remain. I am very disappointed with the result and extremely concerned about the future, but I know that it’s likely that a deal will be brokered with Europe. The divisions in our nation concern me even more – economic, geographic, educational and age. I believe that however we voted as individuals, we all need to work to overcome these. One thing I am sure of: the quality of discussion I and my colleagues witnessed among students was truly inspiring. Sixteen year olds deserve the vote.

I’m interested in the results of school mock EU referendums. Those I have heard about so far all had at least 70% of students voting remain, but so far these have all been Oxfordshire schools, so from an area that voted remain. I’d appreciate it if teachers could let me know their school results. I always welcome constructive comments, whether you agree with me or not.

Ten tips to avoid exam stress

Exam season is upon us again and it can be a fine balance for teachers between motivating students and causing undue stress or anxiety.

Here are some helpful things students can do to keep motivated and stay healthy too. This list originated several years ago from an A level psychology task I gave my students to do for a unit on stress – use what they had learned to write advice for students who had upcoming exams. I have developed it over the years and this latest version is influenced by advice from our School Health Nurse, Deb Burdett, the NHS,  and the charity Mind.
 

Ten tips to beat exam stress

1. Get Organised. Make sure you know what exams you have, what kind of questions they will have and when they are.
2. Manage your time. Make a revision timetable. Make sure you build in breaks.
3. Stay In control by sticking to your plan.
4. The right Environment. Work somewhere that is light, has enough space and is distraction-free.
5. Boost your confidence. Use a revision journal, recall things that have gone well in the past and visualise your success.
6. Eat Healthily and stay hydrated. Avoid ‘energy’ drinks: they give the illusion of alertness but impair your performance.
7. Sleep. Get enough sleep; a tired brain does not work well.
8. Friends & family. Let them know you have exams and need to revise. Keep in touch during your planned breaks.
9. Avoid life changes: For example starting a new relationship.
10. Nerves: Recognise that signs of exam nerves like ‘butterflies in the stomach’ or a dry mouth are just your body preparing for action. 

We include this in our revision guides we give to students and it has also just gone out as the regular (‘Dear Deb…’) item from our School Health Nurse in our school newsletter.

I hope you find this list useful. Please feel free to use and adapt it as you wish. I’d be interested in which resources other schools use.

Students get more help and advice on student life from these pages on the Mind website and advice directed at parents and carers can be found on this area of the NHS Choices website.

  
April 2017 Update

Our old school nurse Deb Burdett has been promoted on to another area, but we still use the materials we produced together and our current school nurse, covering more than one school, keeps up the good work. We have run special sessions on tackling exam anxiety this year which have proved popular.

This list is made up of simple, but proven advice. The websites cited provide further guidance and signpost additional help for students who need it.

Engaging with parents: making time for what makes a difference

In recent months I’ve been thinking about what really makes a difference at school. Inspired by a post by @leadinglearner, I wrote this post In January on ‘brass tacks’. At the same time I have also been trying to improve my organisation and time management. My recent posts on this include getting to grips with email and achieving a better work-life balance. 

One of my ‘brass tacks’ was about parental engagement. I believe that supportive and engaged parents and carers are key to children being successful and happy. Through tracking the goals that I had completed each day and those which were unresolved (originally as part of a technique to detach from work at the end of the day), I came to realise that the thing most likely to derail my carefully scheduled plans was an interaction with a parent. The meeting about a behaviour issue that overruns, the referral from a Head of Year, or the unexpected phone call or email that reveals an important issue, can all suddenly take precedence. This is, of course quite right, but it got me thinking why I wasn’t building more interaction with parents and carers into my schedule in the first place?

I took a look at my calendar and decided Thursdays would be a good day. We already calendar most parents’ afternoons / evenings on a Thursday. It’s also the day for Governors’ meetings so when there isn’t one the time already feels like a bit of a gift. For me it’s a good day too because I’m not teaching first or last thing and have no regular morning meetings. This means I am likely to be free at the times most parents are too – before and after the school day.

So, I have reserved these times (but clearly not just these times) for parents. Where I can, I am arranging meetings then. So far I’ve scheduled discussions about attendance, a behaviour concern, and a matter referred to be by a colleague. When I’m not doing this, I use the time to contact parents about their children’s achievements, either by phone or email. I use this as an extension to ‘Feelgood Friday’ when each week we encourage each teacher to make at least one positive call home. I contact parents about things I’ve seen that have impressed me. This is also something I can include in our school ‘pupil premium first approach. I edit the newsletter which goes out on a Friday, so I can also alert parents to look out for it when their child gets a mention. For example, this week I called home with news of students who had produced impressive ‘six word stories’ in tutor time for World Book Day. Sometimes these calls lead to wider conversations. It’s good to have a talk with a parent when the initial cause hasn’t been something that has gone wrong.

I have recently read Sir Tim Brighouse’s ‘Five time expenditures’*, the first being ‘sit on the wall, not on the fence’ – heads who make sure they are around at the start and end of the school day to be available to parents. Far fewer parents come into our secondary phase regularly, compared with the primary, but I think I might just try being around in reception at the start of the day when I can.

Comments are always welcome and I’d value any suggestions for working with parents & carers, particularly those who find it more difficult to engage with us.

*In How Successful Head Teachers Survive and Thrive by Professor Tim Brighouse, RM  Education, 2007.

There’s a word for that – a positive celebration of Language

Through the British Psychological Society Research Digest, I recently came across a paper by psychologist Tim Lomas about positive words and phrases in other languages for which there is no direct equivalent in English – Towards a positive cross cultural lexicography. The paper sets out to address Western bias in positive psychology and Lomas is building a database of such words. This got me thinking about positive language at our school. We like using it, of course, but are we restricting our linguistic palette in our diverse school community, and missing an opportunity to celebrate the richness of language in our community? Could our EAL students be teaching us more?

I decided to share some of the words from the paper with my school colleagues. The list I shared included the following:

• Sobremesa – Spanish for when the food has finished but the conversation is still flowing
• Nakama – Japanese for friends who one considers like family
• Gigil – Philippine Tagalog for the irresistible urge to pinch or squeeze someone because you love them so much
• Suaimhneas croi – Gaelic for the happiness that comes from finishing a task
• Firgun – Hebrew for saying nice things to someone simply to make them feel good
• Asabiyyah – Arabic for a sense of community spirit
• Pihentagyu – Hungarian for quick witted people who come up with sophisticated jokes and solutions (literally “with a relaxed brain”)
• Kao pu – Chinese for someone who is reliable and responsible and gets things done without causing problems for others.

You can find a fuller list of words in the link to Lomas’s paper. 

Sharing some of these words produced some lively debate in school students had the opportunity to explain the meaning and usage of words to their peers; a pleasant role-reversal for some. 

We did uncover a couple of interesting points. ‘Firgun’ can also mean joy at the success of another. Our Arabic-speaking students, however, all viewed ‘asabiyyah’ as having negative connotations of exclusion, underlining how careful we have to be with our use of language. 

Lomas’ database is continually updated, so we are seeing what words our multilingual student community can come up with. I’d be interested to hear contributions from readers of useful words you have found that have no direct English translation.

Post finished and I’m starting to feel some suaimhneas croi.
Reference:

Lomas, T. (2016). Towards a positive cross-cultural lexicography: Enriching our emotional landscape through 216 ‘untranslatable’ words pertaining to well-being The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1-13 

 

Creative Arts – Their Place in the Whole School Curriculum

we have had a couple of arts-based school trips this week. Year 11 went to the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford to research for their GCSE Art project work and the music department ran a trip to see ‘Stomp’ at the New Theatre, Oxford, on Friday night. Next week, nearly 200 students will take part in performing arts workshops run by international group Gen Verde. These will culminate in a public concert in a 1,000- seat auditorium.

Why are we doing all this?  It’s not going to have a direct impact on our English & Maths results. It certainly doesn’t make a jot of difference as far as the EBacc is concerned. Nevertheless, we do it because it’s important.

Arts provide a way for pupils to express themselves and fulfill their creative potential. A curriculum missing the arts cannot represent all that pupils are capable of expressing or achieving, nor can it prepare them to take up their role in society. Who would want to live in a society bereft of art, literature, theatre or music? It’s important therefore that we don’t view arts in school as an extra; a ‘desirable’ but not an ‘essential’. We know that children can be mathematicians and musicians, scientists and sculptors, astronomers and actors – they shouldn’t be forced to choose. The arts should not be in competition with maths, science or any other subject. An appreciation of the arts, and opportunities to explore our creativity enable us to be better writers, mathematicians, scientists, historians, etc. In short, the arts enable us to be better people, because artistic creativity is part of what it means to be human.

If we need to be pragmatic, the arts are also a major contributor to the UK economy. In 2013, the Arts Council reported that the Arts and culture industry had an annual turnover of £12.4 billion, bringing nearly £6 billion of gross added value into the UK economy (you can read the report here). Earlier this year, the Department for Culture media & sport estimated that the wider creative arts, media and entertainments industry accounted for 1.7 million jobs and was worth £76.9 billion a year to our economy (read more here).

So arts in education allow students to develop their creativity and reach their full potential as whole individuals, they enrich society and enable us all to lead more fulfilled lives, and they form a key part of our economy. Their absence from the the EBacc makes a mockery of the concept. It’s an omission that schools must address: The Arts may have missed out at the DfE, but we can’t let them be missing from the experience of the children we teach.

I welcome your comments. I’d also like to hear how schools integrate arts into the curriculum.

I’ve also written about the place of practical science in the whole school curriculum here.

Don’t Call It Appraisal – Building Better Performance Development

No, we don’t call it appraisal, and we try not to use ‘performance management’ either. One  of my responsibilities at school is to organise the annual performance reviews for teaching staff. We take he view that the primary purpose of this exercise should be developmental – we aren’t just measuring how well teachers do their job but learning what works best and using objectives to develop our practice as teachers in order to secure better outcomes for children. We also use reviews as a great opportunity to say thank you to colleagues for their hard work and commitment over the past year.

This year I have given a lot of thought to how we can better align school priorities and the requirement to base performance reviews on the Teaching Standards with the objectives for each colleague. We have linked objectives to the standards since 2012 (using a facility within the School Aspect online management package we use), but for 2015-16 we have chosen to link a couple of objectives, which align with school priorities directly to teaching standards. 

We have three objectives for all teachers and a fourth for those with a TLR post or on the Leadership Team.

A. Promote good Progress and Outcomes by Pupils. An objective focussed on elements of this teaching standard and linked to the levels of progress of pupils in a group, the size and nature of which depends on the role of the teacher.

B. Teaching to Meet the Needs of Pupils. An objective focussed on elements of this objective and designed to improve the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils is a school priority. This objective is to close the gap between disadvantaged pupils (i.e. Those who receive the pupil premium) and their non- disadvantaged peers. Again, the size of the group depends on the responsibilities of the teacher.

C. A personalised CPD objective derived from the teachers self review against the teaching standards and reflection on the past school year. This may derive from the review of objectives from the previous year or from an NQT final assessment. In some cases the development area may be proposed by the reviewer.

D. A leadership objective centred on an area of responsibility dependent on the teacher’s role. St Gregory’s is a faith school and this objective aligns to one of four areas:

• Spiritual Capital
• Mission Integrity
• Partnership
• Servant Leadership

For each of these objectives we record the key actions, intended outcomes and timescale. We also agree the success criteria and evidence that will form the basis of the review. CPD requirements for fulfilling objectives are also recorded. There is an interim meeting part way through the year to check progress.

That is what we are planning for this year. I’m interested in how this compares with what other schools do and welcome any constructive comments.

Supporting Refugee Children

I wrote this post in September 2015 because I was struck by how our school experience of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK had been reported across the UK by the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights. I subsequently added an update in July 2016 following publication of the House of Lords European Union Committee report Children in Crisis: Unaccompanied Children in the EU. You can read this report here (the info graphic on p7 usefully summarises key information). Sadly, this report echoed many of the concerns of the earlier report of the Joint Select Committee. 
September 2015

Of all the students starting the new academic year with us, I was perhaps most proud that we were providing an education for some who had recently arrived from Syria. Not having been in school for up to three years because of conflict, they were pleased to be in lessons again. I just hope that they don’t have to go through some of the experiences of many of our previous students seeking refuge from conflict.

Select Committee Report
In March the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights reported some concerns on the way unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were treated by the judicial processes to establish their status. The report can be found here and a Guardian interview with the Chair, Hywel Francis MP here. Both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Children’s Act, 2004 include a commitment to put the interests of children first, without discrimination. The committee had concerns that in several ways this commitment was not being met. These included:

• concerns that the numbers of children and young people receiving special welfare legal aid and asylum & immigration legal aid had fallen by nearly two thirds due to cuts in legal aid funding;
• a tendency for immigration considerations to override the commitment put the rights of the child first; 
• a ‘culture of disbelief’ surrounding age assessments; and 
• a tendency to grant lower forms of leave to remain rather than full asylum, meaning young people could be removed at 17

 

Our School Experience

Our school is a wonderfully diverse community and includes several students who are refugees. In order to support these children to re-engage with education, we have to support them in a number of ways. Unfortunately one of these has to be mitigating the impact of the Home Office judicial processes referred to in the Select Committee report. We have found that (as the committee noted), no move is usually made to remove a young person until they are 17, but judicial processes are carried out beforehand, when they are children, often with little or no English, or family members in the UK. The support we provide includes explaining the process, providing emotional support, and, when necessary, accompanying them to interviews and hearings. This is made harder because these hearings occur at a range of venues. We had one 15 year old student, for example who was required to attend three different meetings and hearings, in Cardiff, Croydon and Birmingham.

 

The committee called for a better support structure “to help children navigate the asylum and immigration processes” and for the government not to “return children to countries such as Afghanistan or Iraq where there are ongoing conflict or humanitarian concerns.” I have to agree. In my experience it is charities and school staff who currently provide the support, and the judicial processes do not demonstrate a commitment to the interests of the child. Children who gain Higher education places, are simultaneously denied the possibility of funding and face moves to remove them to the very conflict zones and countries mentioned in the report.

 

The Future

Supporting these vulnerable students is vital but much of the work we do lies out of the remit of the school, and certainly beyond the job descriptions of teachers. I’m concerned that with tight finances it may be unsustainable. It’s therefore my hope that the recommendations of the select committee are acted on by the new government.
July 2016

A recent report by the House of Lords European Union Committee has called for urgent action to improve the EU response to the refugee crisis and the unaccompanied children are treated by the immigration system within the UK. The report concludes that children face a pervasive climate of suspicion and disbelief, especially about their age, may be detained inappropriately, lack legal advice and support, and are put at risk. The report calls for a consistent approach across the EU member states, reiterates the ‘best interests of the child’ principle of the UNCRC (which, together with the Children’s Act, would apply irrespective of Brexit), and calls for all unaccompanied children to have a guardian.

I find it disturbing that over a year after the original select committee report, so little seems to have changed. It is true that the number of children seeking asylum in the UK increased by 56% in 2015, but so has national, and international, interest in the refugee crisis. As schools receive more UASCs, we may find ourselves acting as advocates in the absence of any formal provision.

I would be really interested to hear of the experiences from other schools who support refugee children, or charities who work with schools.

Evaluating CPD? Forget Trip Advisor

Like many school leaders I have been exploring a better way of monitoring the impact of INSET. I am convinced of the importance of CPD as a crucial investment in staff even in times of financial stricture. Perhaps especially in those times. That belief, however, does not cut the mustard when it comes to proving that the time, money and other resources invested in training has paid dividends in terms of pupil outcomes.
 

Long-term investment in CPD

Over the last few years we have shifted the balance from ‘away day’ courses to long-term training. We support colleagues through academic qualifications such as Masters degrees and professional ones such as the MLDP. This demonstrates commitment to the long-term development of colleagues, provides tangible benefits to the school and sits well within our commitment to being a community of lifelong learners.

This type of professional development is easy to evaluate. The colleague gains a recognised qualification and the action research element is always key area of the SIP, contributing for clear outcomes for pupils.

 

INSET Days

There is still a place for the INSET day. There is training that we all need to renew, such as safeguarding as well as updates on the national and local agenda which affect teachers and pupils. We also use the time for colleagues to share good practice and teaching tools they have developed. I have found it harder to evaluate the impact of this training. For many years I used staff evaluations, having colleagues rate sessions on an evaluation form. The trouble with this kind of customer satisfaction survey is that everyone may have a jolly good time, but will that have a positive impact on the experience of pupils. It also seems to be that the colleagues who are less satisfied always seem to be ones who don’t tend to fill in the ‘Even better if…’ part.

Consequently I, and those in charge of training at other schools within Oxford City Learning (a partnership of secondary schools) have become increasingly sceptical of the ‘Trip Advisor’ approach.

 

No Correlation

In my evaluation of our September INSET, I carried out a correlational analysis of ratings for the helpfulness of different sessions by staff members against their key learning points, and helpfulness vs. intended actions. In neither case did I find much in the way of a correlation:

Helpfulness vs. Learning, r = 0.2576​Helpfulness vs. Intentions, r = -0.1832
Neither result was statistically significant.

 The commentary from staff on learning is more useful that their ratings of helpfulness because it allows me to identify whether the intended impact of the training was achieved. By and large, this seems to have happened. Most staff commented on strategies with the groups of pupils we were focussing on: disadvantaged students, those with particular disabilities and special needs, and those who need to make rapid progress with their literacy. Learning comments also indicate that some staff made links between the separate elements of the INSET: Our school value of ‘Justice’ working through a consideration of developmental needs from ages 2 – 19 (we’re an all-through school with nursery, primary and secondary phases), to differentiating to meet the needs of particular groups of students. On the other hand some staff did not make this connection and a few questioned the relevance of some aspects of the training. This shows me that, while there is always a balance to be struck, perhaps particularly at the start of term, we need to do more to give a holistic overview prior in the introduction to training

 

Evaluation across the year

It’s the follow-through on the intended actions that will be the key to evaluating the impact on pupil outcomes. Further INSET will pick up on strategies to improve progress by the groups of pupils mentioned above. The session that had the highest combined rating for helpfulness, key learning and intended actions (on extended writing across the curriculum) featured a combination of research evidence, contributions from teachers from different curriculum area, demonstrations of improved pupil work and a resource pack for all teachers. This shows that teacher-led examples of successful practice, backed by resources to support their colleagues, are a winning combination. Further INSET during the year will be based on this model with differentiated choice so training is personalised.

It is actual, rather than intended, action that makes the difference, of course. We will use our usual evidence-gathering systems (learning walks, marking drops, student voice, etc) to gauge the impact of teaching actions stemming from INSET. CPD is also picked up in Performance Development (we don’t use that vile term ‘Appraisal’ urgh), with all teachers having an objective around the progress of disadvantaged pupils this year, and being able to shape a personalised CPD objective.

I’ll update this post later in the year when more of our intentions have been implemented as actions.

Helpful comments are always welcome. I’d also like to hear more about evaluation of CPD in other schools.

Workable Wellbeing

Inspired by the @SLTchat discussion about wellbeing on 6/9/15, I have collated some of the easily implementable ideas we use to promote wellbeing at St Gregory the Great Catholic School in Oxford.

Some updates added on 10th October 2015 to mark World Mental Health Day.

1. Free tea & coffee in our staff room. This is essential really, I feel it makes breaks a proper break and its the fuel that keeps staff going in between! I’ve worked in schools where staff pay into a kitty for tea & coffee – it’s a lot of effort for a very small sum in terms of a school budget and usually a nightmare for the colleague who has to get everyone to cough up. Chocolate biscuits also help at high pressure times and several colleagues share cake on their birthdays.

2. Considering the impact of new policies on staff wellbeing. Change seems to be the one contestant in schools. As we plan and implement new policies and procedures it’s important to consider their impact on workload and wellbeing. I have described this in more detail here.

3. Thank yous. It only takes a moment to say thank you, but in a busy day doing so can easily slip, whether acknowledging an email response, on paper or in person. It’s well worth getting into the habit of thanking people in even the routine tasks like a request for photocopying to reprographics. Use key points in the year such as the end of terms to voice appreciation or drop people a note. Performance management reviews are also an opportunity to thank colleagues for their contribution over the past year. At our Performance Development (we don’t call it appraisal) day this year we picked up on idea from Cheney school, Oxford, and started a staff Thank You board where anyone can post thank yous to colleagues.

4. Active steps to make workload manageable. We try to plan for busy times of the year, for example reducing the requirement to attend meetings in the weeks before exam board submission dates. I’ve written more about this here.

5. Staff book swap. We maintain simple book swap in the staff room. Colleagues contribute books they have read and enjoyed and anyone can take them to read themselves. There is only one condition: if you enjoy the book you have to pass it on to someone else you think will like it. We started with about 30 books donated by colleagues a couple of years ago. Since then the book swap has grown and become completely self-sustaining.

6. Mindfulness. We are just starting out with mindfulness as a school after training at the start of the year. We are aiming to use it with pupils, especially to reduce anxiety, but many friends and colleagues have found it extremely useful, so we are also keen to explore the benefits for staff wellbeing.

7. Spirituality. I work at a Catholic school so prayer and worship form part of school life. Our chapel is an oasis of peace and staff are welcome to take part in a short Taize service each week. It’s open most of the time to drop in. Most schools, whatever their character, have staff faith groups. While maybe not what everyone wants, they can be a boon to the wellbeing of their members.

8. Humour. A smile, a laugh, a cartoon or a joke, even if it is a bit lame, can lighten the day sometimes even the workload. It’s important to get the balance right, and to make sure the humour isn’t personal, but used well humour can make a large contribution to wellbeing. We try to have something that will make people smile at staff briefing, in our newsletter, and in the end-of-week email. My colleagues seem to have quite taken to the idea of dressing up 1980s style to mark ‘Back to the Future Day’ on 21st October. People are sending me pictures of their hair crimpers.

9. Cake. Yes cake. It seems to feature quite a bit. It precedes CPD, accompanies meetings and is occasional treat at break time. I noticed a thread in the #SLTchat discussion about the benefits of fruit. I can see the health and nutrition arguments, but I think if we tried to replace cake we might have a mass walkout. As a compromise we sometimes put fruit in the cake. Cocoa beans are a fruit, right?

10. Staying Fresh. Ideas that I was struck by in the @SLTchat included sending cards to team members that arrive home over the summer (from @MrBenWard), ‘Have a break, have a kit kat’ for staff returning after illness (from @TeacherToolkit) and specific coaching for managing time & wellbeing (from @ottleyoconnor). For myself, I’m going to try to make time for lunch as @gazneedle suggested) – something I’m not too good at most weeks.

It would be great to here other suggestions that have worked for you. Thanks to @ASTsupportAAli from Cheney School for the Thank you board idea. @evenbetterif has suggested a wellbeing objective in everyone’s performance development – an idea we will consider for next year.