View by

The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

HR

Nicola Harvey
20 August 2020

How racism impacts on teacher wellbeing and what we can do about it

The stress and trauma of discrimination takes its toll on mental health. Nicola Harvey explores strategies to build resilience and support wellbeing. Many of us are starting to think about the new school term and the transition to a ‘new normal’. We also have the aftermath of Covid-19, exam results...
Read more...
Kelly Hannaghan
5 August 2020

Let’s move the conversation on: what’s the future you want to create?

All of our recent conversations and thought processes have been centred around Covid-19. What if we could see the pandemic as an opportunity to create the change we want to see? What would that look like and how would it feel for you? For many of us our experiences of the recent months have been a...
Read more...
Liz Worthen
18 June 2020

What’s been keeping you going through lockdown?

Feeling the lockdown fatigue? From kayaking to dancing, dog walking and coffee with an unusual view, the team @OptimusEd share their wellbeing strategies. I’m not the only person to have found themselves pondering ‘lockdown fatigue’ in recent weeks. Try googling it and you’ll find over five million...
Read more...
Kelly Hannaghan
28 May 2020

Education recovery: bridging the gap of opportunity for staff and pupils post pandemic

Kelly Hannaghan shares her own experiences of the repair and reintegration process that schools are currently facing. Are educators and pupils ready for the changes ahead? Who would have thought that the end of the academic year would feel like this? Pre-coronavirus school life would have looked...
Read more...
Amy Lalla
14 May 2020

Lockdown learning: have you considered an apprenticeship?

Guest blogger Amy Lalla highlights the value of ‘educate while you isolate’: could this be your opportunity to embark on a course which will enhance your career? Who would have thought at the start of the academic year that we would be here? Collectively we have never experienced such a change and...
Read more...
Kelly Hannaghan
16 April 2020

The new wellbeing: coping with the phases of lockdown through Covid-19

Kelly Hannaghan highlights the importance of managing the anxieties and monotony of the coronavirus lockdown, with simple strategies to support this new way of wellbeing. Thousands of school children across the world are being taught at home as the Covid-19 pandemic brings life as we knew it to a...
Read more...
Kelly Hannaghan
24 March 2020

How to improve self-care

With a growing number of educators struggling to maintain a work life balance, Kelly Hannaghan shares her ideas around teaching self-care techniques to increase productivity and emotional harmony. I appreciate that educators have one of the most stressful yet rewarding careers, and as such you...
Read more...
John Dabell
11 February 2020

How to deal with negative teachers

Actively cultivating positive emotions is essential in a school environment. But how do you work with staff who don’t look on the bright side of life? John Dabell discusses. Schools can be stressful places that make Frankensteins of us all and breed negative thinking and toxicity. When left...
Read more...
Elizabeth Holmes
5 February 2020

Teacher wellbeing: more than just tackling workload

To address the real problem of poor teacher wellbeing, schools need to be doing more than just reducing workload. It’s also about leadership and management, personal wellbeing and learning to say no. In November 2019 the Education Support Partnership published its latest Teacher Wellbeing Index ...
Read more...
Liz Murray
28 January 2020

Flexible working in action: progress, challenges, resolutions and impact

In the third instalment of her blog series on making a job share work, Liz Murray reflects on progress made so far and resolutions for the year ahead. As readers of the first two blogs in this series will know, I'm a co-SENCO at a large state secondary school. My job share partner and I embarked on...
Read more...
Privacy statement Terms & Conditions