Teacher wellbeing has been a major professional interest of mine for well over a decade. I have been writing on it and supporting teachers and lecturers through training and personal development, visiting many schools and speaking to hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers over the years. What do I mean by wellbeing? Not necessarily an absence of stress or challenge; these are useful motivators and can be excellent sources of personal development in the right quantities. Wellbeing is more likely to be characterised by resilience and a sense of relatedness to others. We feel it when life is going well and we feel able to deal with any challenges we face.

Wellbeing: why it matters

The extent to which we need to focus on teacher wellbeing never ceases to amaze me. Teachers and other school staff are suffering tremendously if recent surveys are anything to go by. Despite millennia of thought from philosophers, social commentators, theologians, psychologists, academics and researchers among many others producing excellent theses on how to live a good life so that we may achieve our best and thrive, still we persist in our detrimental treatment of teachers. Why would we do that? When I began to look at wellbeing issues in the profession, the view wasn't a good one. Workload pressures and fear around inspection were combining to make life very unpleasant for many. Teacher unions started stepping up their support for teachers suffering from negative stress and the Teacher Support Network continued its excellent work in helping us understand teacher wellbeing, promoting a life in the profession that is more sustainable and, ultimately, more enjoyable. Yet still, time and again, I am contacted by teachers for whom school life has become unbearable. In some schools it seems that utterly unrealistic and unreasonable workload pressures, unsupportive colleagues and leadership teams still prevail, and teachers and other school staff are suffering as a result.

Supporting teacher wellbeing

No one would deny that we all need a certain degree of pressure in order to achieve, but excessive stress is bad for us on many counts. Yet there is one very simple message for school leadership teams to absorb and act upon: people work better when they feel supported, listened to and understood. A couple of major workload and wellbeing surveys this year have painted a grim view of life as a teacher; the Teacher Support Network Education Staff Health Survey makes for a particularly depressing read. While it will take time to transform schools into places where all can thrive, there are some immediate steps we can take to support wellbeing and to make sure all school staff have an understanding of the impact that negative stress can have on their lives. These are best divided into actions for schools and actions for individuals. These ideas may help just for starters:

Go well!