Leading in crisis 

Alison Kriel, experienced headteacher and CEO, discusses why, despite rising costs, staff wellbeing is an area worth investing in 

There’s no hiding from the statistics around the mental health of school staff recently. A 2022 NASUWT survey showed 91% of teachers reporting that their job had adversely affected their mental health. Furthermore, the Tes Wellbeing Report 2022 revealed that 67% of teachers find their workloads unmanageable, and that this is having a big impact on staff retention. 

At the moment we are facing the dual crises of cost-of-living concerns and low teacher recruitment numbers – workloads are rising, and pastoral duties growing, all whilst school staff are contending with their own worries outside of school. The continued path of marketisation, and focus on meeting increasingly demanding metrics of success, breeds competition with ourselves, with other schools, and within the staff community.

Teachers are now reporting that COVID, poverty and broader societal challenges have impacted on pupils, and that behaviour has become more challenging as a result; this then has a further impact on morale. Speaking with other leaders I know, this picture has been playing out across schools and local authorities, but the wellbeing issues are not new to 2022, or even new to a post-lockdown UK.

As a headteacher tasked with turning around a poorly performing school, one of the first things I noticed was the low morale and self-esteem not only of staff, but also parents and pupils too. With low league table positioning, it became a reinforcing cycle of poor trust and a lack of respect between everyone in the school community. Having unhappy staff led to high SLT turnover, and unhappy parents and wider community meant spaces were left unfilled, impacting our funding. 

Celebration is the key

Regardless of all the more typical measures to reform the school, many of these challenges persisted. It was only when, as part of some coaching I’d been having, I stopped to consider why I had been focusing solely on the challenges, and not celebrating the things that had been going well. That was when I realised there was another way forward. I was burnt out, and my staff were burnt out, so I decided to approach the governors to set a specific wellbeing budget – and it instantly made a difference. 

This doesn’t have to mean tokenistic gestures under the banner of ‘wellness’ but it does involve checking-in with your staff to find ways to help lighten the load. This can start with simple things – such as considering whether we need each and every meeting – all the way to making sure everyone in the school community feels that they are seen, heard and valued. This can include having open door policies, or avenues for genuine and constructive feedback and reflection between senior leadership and staff. 

It’s important that school staff are given space to decompress, and that leaders let them know that we are aware it’s tough, that they’re appreciated, and that they are doing enough. A ‘Thank you, I know you’ve had a tough day’ can go a long way, particularly for staff who live alone. 

What’s really important is making sure that celebration is at the heart of what you do. It’s easy to feel like you’re just jumping through hoops, and hitting one target after the next, without looking back to see all the hard work that has been put in to get there. Despite all the challenges, these are not the only stories coming from our schools. The daily reality is that fantastic education is provided every day, with our staff going the extra mile to make each school great. There’s so much to learn from, empathise with, and show off about every day; we shouldn’t be afraid or embarrassed to talk about the great work that’s going on. 

This focus on wellbeing also allowed me to really look at how we could come together as a community – how could we lift each other up? The community was fractured, and in bringing it back together, we could see a huge lift in wellbeing as a whole. 

Lead by example

However, as most leaders know, good leadership only truly excels when we lead by example. That meant taking the time to prioritise my own wellbeing. It can feel selfish, especially when others are struggling, but it’s essential – to look after others, we need to look after ourselves, and by practising what we preach, we can better convince our staff that they too can make space for their own wellbeing. 

I know that the challenges won’t be fixed by well-being changes alone, and that with ever-tightening budgets the scope for action is restricted, but it’s important we still keep the conversation going around mental health, wellbeing and community-building, and that this is at the front of our minds when making decisions. 

In my experience, prioritising wellbeing not only made us a happier school community, but the other metrics of school success shortly followed. As a result, we now rank as one of the nation’s top 100 schools. It also meant staff attendance jumped from around 64% to 98%. This demonstrates  that wellbeing, whilst sometimes a topic that ranks poorly in budget and strategy decisions, can provide an impressive return on investment.