5 Mistakes Not To Make With Wellbeing Next Academic Year

We're at that funny point of the year where we're all straddling the Summer holidays…

One foot in this year, one foot in the next.

Whether you're a class teacher, headteacher or SENDCo, you're likely mentally mapping out September already.

(Side note: that's one of the many things that makes this term that bit harder, too!)

You might even - fingers crossed - be thinking about how to improve staff wellbeing next year…

If that's the case, or if you're just looking for some inspiration, I want to share with you the 5 top mistakes I see schools make when it comes to wellbeing each year.

Hopefully, by shining a light on these pitfalls, I can help you avoid your wellbeing strategy actually making wellbeing worse!

Let's jump right in…

1. Don't avoid the Wellbeing Walrus

The Wellbeing Walrus can feel heavy, it can feel cumbersome - awkward, even…

It's not the prettiest, shiniest thing we can focus on in our SIP/SDP; nothing like the elegant, exciting Teaching & Learning Lynx, or the Pedagogy Panther.

But, like all animals (or areas of education, in this case…) it has its place!

Another reason we avoid wellbeing is because we maybe don't truly understand what it means…

I've worked with leaders before who have admitted they only talk about wellbeing straight after the Summer holidays, as people are "more rested and generally in a better mood". [added missing full stop]

For too many of us, the word wellbeing simply means pressure to reduce workload, vanishing finances as you have to fork out for supply or an awkward stick that we feel staff use to beat us with!

The truth is, wellbeing is the first foundation of our schools.

Not results or parent reviews. Wellbeing.

Avoid awkwardness at your own peril.

2. Don't prioritise the niceties over the necessities

Following on from this, what you focus on with wellbeing is critically important.

As you've heard me say a thousand times: cake in the staffroom, Baylis & Harding handsoap in the bathrooms and an ice-cream truck on the playground on the last day of term are not wellbeing!

These are the surface level niceties that make us feel like we're supporting our staff but can actually quickly backfire…

Think of it this way…

You've just been given another last minute task to do. You get called down to the office for a parent meeting that wasn't in the calendar. When you go to ask about said meeting, the person you're trying to talk to doesn't even look up from their laptop or break their typing stride to give you their attention.

Then you're told that there's an ice-cream truck on the playground because "morale is low"!

That'd feel like a kick in the teeth, right?

And the research very clearly supports this:

One-time interventions and tokenistic gestures do not make a difference!

Yoga sessions, end of year ice-cream and a Christmas shopping day may bring some momentary relief, but they don't tackle the root causes of ill-being in our schools.

Now, I'm certainly not saying don't do nice things for your staff, your team or even the children in your class… Please do!

But if it's in place of addressing the issues that actually impact staff wellbeing?

It's probably not going to help.

3. Don't design wellbeing for your staff

This might sound strange, but bear with me…

This is one of the most common, and most damaging, mistakes I see.

You notice lots of staff are ill, morale in the corridor is low, the staffroom is a ghost town. You want to help!

So you download a wellbeing programme, find a resource pack for a wellbeing wall or jump straight into ordering that ice-cream truck I mentioned earlier!

You pick the initiatives, book the sessions, send the communication, and wait for the impact…

But it never comes.

The intention here is brilliant; but the way it's actioned isn't.

The number one thing staff need is to feel seen, heard and valued. If we're not asking for their honest input, even when it's uncomfortable, then the whole process is flawed from the very beginning!

(This is exactly why I built the Rewriting Wellbeing Diagnostic Dashboard, by the way!)

But, when staff are asked but nothing changes? That's arguably worse…

If staff voice or surveys don't lead to visible action, they damage trust. Staff begin to feel like their voices don't matter, and feedback becomes just another box to tick.

What you need is a "you said, we did" culture; one where staff can see the direct connection between their honesty and the decisions that follow!

The research from the University of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre is equally clear: key recommendations for sustainable wellbeing progress include staff input, leadership support, and genuine system change - not a strategy imposed from above down.

So before you finalise your wellbeing plan for September, ask yourself: who designed this?

4. Don't ignore workload

I know, I know… You're probably already braced for this one!

Workload isn't just on the list of wellbeing challenges, for the vast majority of school staff it is the list - rightly or wrongly…

NASUWT research consistently finds workload to be the single biggest concern of teachers across the UK.

In fact, workload has topped their survey every year since 2011, despite wellbeing research telling us what we really need to focus on goes much deeper.

Staff are hyper-fixated on "give me less to do", but we have thousands upon thousands of studies, research papers and case studies that show wellbeing comes from many more areas than just workload.

So, what do we do?

Well, we address all areas of wellbeing (including workload) using a clear, systematic approach!

You can find such a roadmap in our new Rewriting Wellbeing Whitepaper: Leadership Edition.

5. Don't treat wellbeing as a September sprint

We come back in September full of focus, a rediscovered energy and a drive to make a difference…

The school looks lovely from that spring clean, everyone is a bit more rested and there's an optimism in the air.

We kick off the year with the best intentions around wellbeing.

But, before we know it it's October, everyone's already on their knees and we're all talking about how this is the worst term of the year!

One of the most insidious mistakes schools make with wellbeing is treating it as seasonal.

It gets the biggest airtime at the start of the year but barely gets a mention by mid-way through November.

Maybe it makes a brief cameo in Mental Health Awareness Week and then disappears until the following September when the cycle starts again!

Wellbeing requires consistency, not intensity - just like building a healthy habit.

And yet the dominant model in many schools is still the annual reboot!

For September, then, the question isn't just what will we do for wellbeing this year.

It's how will we make sure we're still doing it come January?

That's the difference between a wellbeing plan and a wellbeing culture.

If you'd like some support in implementing the 6Cs of the Rewriting Wellbeing Framework into your school, just drop me an email and I'll be happy to chat about how I might be able to help!

References

CooperGibson Research (2020) School and college staff wellbeing: evidence from England, the UK and comparable sectors. London: Department for Education. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fbbe98d8fa8f559da0f168e/Wellbeing-literature-review_final18052020_ap.pdf

Department for Education (2021) Education staff wellbeing charter. London: Department for Education. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6194eb37d3bf7f0551f2d1a5/DfE_Education_Workforce_Welbeing_Charter_Nov21.pdf

Education Support (2024) Teacher wellbeing index 2024. London: Education Support. Available at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/resources/for-organisations/research/teacher-wellbeing-index/

Fleming, W.J. (2024) 'Employee well-being outcomes from individual-level mental health interventions: cross-sectional evidence from the United Kingdom', Industrial Relations Journal. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12418

Huebner, L.-A. and Zacher, H. (2021) 'Following up on employee surveys: a conceptual framework and systematic review', Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 801073. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.801073

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C.H.M., Potts, H.W.W. and Wardle, J. (2010) 'How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world', European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), pp. 998–1009. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Maslach, C. and Leiter, M.P. (2022) The burnout challenge: managing people's relationships with their jobs. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

NASUWT (2019) Teachers' mental health in the UK: evidence from the NASUWT's Big Question survey 2019. Birmingham: NASUWT. Available at: https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/static/uploaded/30c31a30-b070-44f1-8e9f009b650bb350.pdf

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2022) Mental wellbeing at work (NICE guideline NG212). London: NICE. Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng212/chapter/Recommendations

Ofsted and Department for Education (2019) Teacher well-being at work in schools and further education providers. Manchester: Ofsted. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fb41122e90e07208d0d5df1/Teacher_well-being_report_110719F.pdf