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

Kelly Hannaghan

Kelly Hannaghan is the wellbeing leader at Lessness Heath Primary School and has spent her professional career passionately focusing on enhancing the opportunities and life chances of pupils and families in education.

Through the power of her mental health training and therapeutic skills, she has successfully led on the 'Wellbeing Award for Schools' process, resulting in the school being the first to achieve this. 

Follow Kelly on Twitter.

Latest blog posts

Kelly Hannaghan

How to challenge the imposter within

Imposter syndrome can get in the way of fulfilling our potential and purpose. Kelly Hannaghan looks for ways to silence the bully and be ready for challenge and opportunity. Have you ever felt misplaced? ‘I got lucky’; ‘I don’t belong here’; ‘I’m a fraud, and it’s just a matter of time before...
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Kelly Hannaghan

Supervision for mental health leads: why and how?

Kelly Hannaghan makes the case for pastoral staff supervision for mental health and wellbeing leads, as a means to process the increasing pressures they are carrying. It’s perplexing that wellbeing practitioners such as psychologists and social workers have regular supervision that is mandatory,...
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Kelly Hannaghan

Coping with change and moving forward with hope

Kelly Hannaghan shares her lessons learned during the coronavirus pandemic and explores ways to adjust to the new normal in education and life. Photo by Florian Bernhardt on Unsplash As I sit in my local community library reflecting on 2020, it dawns on me that I haven’t really taken the...
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Kelly Hannaghan

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...
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Kelly Hannaghan

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...
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Kelly Hannaghan

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...
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Kelly Hannaghan

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...
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Kelly Hannaghan

10 new year resolutions wellbeing leaders should actually keep

If you’re someone who always looks out for other people, it’s time to start prioritising your own wellbeing. Kelly Hannaghan shares her top 10 wellbeing goals. Wellbeing leaders need to be emotionally and physically healthy. The role is a non-stop process of inspiring, planning and Implementing,...
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Kelly Hannaghan

Building wellbeing connections across the globe

An opportunity to meet with fellow wellbeing leaders from Zhejiang deepens cultural understanding and confirms the importance of mental health education for children and young people everywhere. Earlier this term I wrote about the power of networking . My wellbeing work has brought me into contact...
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Kelly Hannaghan

How deprivation affects outcomes in education – and what we can do about it

Like many school leaders, Kelly Hannaghan is seeing first-hand the effects of poverty on her school community. What can schools do to empower families and ensure children achieve their academic potential? The Child Poverty Act 2010 set targets for ending child poverty by 2020. However, child...
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Kelly Hannaghan

The power of networking: what are the benefits for leaders in education?

School leaders around the country are trying to juggle the demands of their role alongside finding opportunities to protect their self-care and promote pupil outcomes. Could networking be the key to success? Kelly Hannaghan shares her experiences. It’s one of the biggest buzzwords in education:...
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Kelly Hannaghan

Why self-care is vital for wellbeing leaders

The role of the wellbeing leader in cultivating a healthy environment and organisation is increasingly important. But what challenges do these leaders face in protecting their own wellbeing? Think about all the challenges schools are facing: troubled pupils, Ofsted inspections, attainment concerns...
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Kelly Hannaghan

Why wellbeing in education matters to me

With a growing mental health crisis in our school, Kelly Hannaghan shares her views on why schools need wellbeing leaders. My first memory of starting primary school is scarred by the immense feeling of fear that overcame me. I clearly remember looking through the glass on the classroom door and...
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