How and Why to Look After Your Wellbeing as an Education Leader
Education leaders feel immense stress, and it can have serious impacts on headteacher wellbeing. Here's why that matters and what to do to improve your wellbeing.
Achieving a feeling of true wellbeing can sometimes feel like an uphill battle when you work in education. When you're working in a stressful environment, it's sometimes easier to focus on the task at hand rather than how you're feeling.
If it feels as though your wellness has taken a backseat to everything else in your life, then it may help to take a step back. Focusing on the foundations of your own wellbeing acts as an excellent starting point for improving your work environment.
The foundations of wellbeing focuses on looking after yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. The latest teacher wellbeing index suggests that staff wellbeing is on the decline in education. The index's results state that, overall, education staff have a wellbeing score of just 44.01 — the national population score for England is 52.4, while Wales and Scotland score at 48.9 and 48.6 respectively. While getting the foundations of wellbeing right won't remove the stressors associated with teaching, it will certainly give you a stronger basis for tackling them.
The cornerstones of wellbeing are sleep, exercise, nutrition, and a manageable mental load. When you get those right, moving on to more refined strategies becomes easier.
When you're endlessly spending your days modelling good habits for your pupils, it's sometimes easy to forget to take care of yourself. Practising what you preach is the best way to achieve better wellbeing in school.
Creating positive habits ensures you have enough energy to get the best out of each day. This applies to both work and home. Positive habits can also boost staff wellbeing by giving you the mental resilience required to deal with everyday challenges. As a teacher, having that mental fortitude can make all the difference when those challenges arise.
Great teacher wellbeing really does hinge on getting the basics right. So, while some of these may seem obvious, it never hurts to have a refresher and remind yourself of their importance.
One of the main reasons school staff anxiety is so high is that everyone has a lot on their plate. Meeting targets, managing behaviour, and completing duties that often feel as though they're outside of your role can all take their toll.
While exercise may often be the last thing on your mind, it's an essential tool when it comes to improving staff wellbeing. You don't need to strive for athlete-level targets to see the benefits either. If you're not usually active, hitting just 20 minutes per day is enough to boost the neurotransmitters that make life easier, including dopamine and serotonin. Regular movement also helps manage stress hormones such as cortisol, allowing you to feel a positive release.
Try factoring exercise into your morning start, commute, or break times. The phrase "brisk walk" may feel a little overused, but if you take one each day it will genuinely make the world of difference. If necessary, break your walk down into smaller chunks so it becomes more manageable.
While dietary changes alone won't improve mental health in schools, making positive adaptations is important at an individual level. Although it's tempting to grab snacks on the go and refuel purely for the sake of satisfying hunger, doing so means you're denying yourself an opportunity to thrive.
Rather than focusing on a complete dietary overhaul, target a couple of areas and build from there. Omega-3s and antioxidant-rich fruits are excellent starting points. Omega-3 fatty acids are excellent for teacher wellbeing as scientific evidence shows they reduce the risk of depression. Similarly, antioxidants can reduce anxiety by removing free radicals from your body.
Education staff anxiety can soon start to rocket when you're not getting enough sleep. Not sleeping enough increases your cortisol levels, which then induces or worsens anxiety. On a long-term basis, sleep problems may harm your immune system.
When you're working in a busy role, it's easy to spend most of your time away from school resting. Although rest is crucial, you can achieve better wellbeing in school by making some time for your hobbies too.
Engaging in the activities you love can generate a much-needed mood boost. Not only does focusing on your hobbies improve your mood, but it also improves your perception of your physical function and lowers your resting blood pressure.
Try to set time aside each week to focus on things you enjoy so you can take a step away from work. Knowing that you have something separate from your career gives you an escape to look forward to. It also makes stress feel less all-encompassing and makes it easier to manage.
Creating the building blocks for better teacher wellbeing may sometimes feel daunting. Rather than seeing it as a challenge, try to frame it as an opportunity. When you take small steps towards improving your exercise, nutrition, sleep, and personal fulfilment, striving for greater wellness goals becomes easier.
At Welbee, we offer a free toolkit that makes improving staff wellbeing easier. Once you sign up, you'll find lots of free tips and resources that can elevate your personal wellbeing. Using our guidance, you can improve your mental health and reduce your stress levels, step by step.Education leaders feel immense stress, and it can have serious impacts on headteacher wellbeing. Here's why that matters and what to do to improve your wellbeing.
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