Staff Well-being
The Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic MAT recognises the essential need to have a motivated, valued and respected workforce. Mental health and well-being of our staff is vital for staff and our pupils. In order for staff to support the ongoing mental health and wellbeing of our pupils, it is essential that the Trust supports its workforce in the same way.
A healthy, happy staff means that we can:
- Improve staff morale and performance
- Retain high-quality staff
- Reduce sickness absence and staff cover
- Ensure good return to work practices
- Attract well-qualified and talented staff through increased reputation
- Ensure a better environment for our pupils to learn and succeed.
We want our staff to:
- Enjoy working in a safe, supportive environment and culture
- Be aware of mental health and well-being issues and how to seek support for themselves and others
- Help us to reduce the stigma around stress and anxiety in the workplace
- Feel supported during times of personal or work stress
- Maintain a healthy life-work balance
- Feel confident to talk to colleagues and/or managers
- Have positive and healthy professional relationships at work.
In order to achieve these outcomes BEBCMAT will be committed to:
- Promoting and disseminating good practice in well-being throughout the academies
- Providing high-quality personal and professional development opportunities for all staff
- Supporting staff who are experiencing mental health problems
- Offer support to each academy to develop their Well-being Strategy.
To ensure the engagement of Health & Well-being throughout the whole of BEBCMAT is consistent, each academy will:
- Allow staff opportunities and time to attend training and courses
- Promote information about and access to supportive services
- Celebrate success
- Share good practice
- Encourage healthy life style choices
- Encourage all staff to have open communication with the Senior Leadership Team
- Encourage all staff to engage in Health & Well-being.
A meaningful and successful Health & Well-being provision involves the engagement of all employees, therefore it is the aim of BEBCMAT that each individual will:
- Be a positive role model
- Promote healthy life style choices during the school day
- Be responsible for actively seeking support if it is needed, professionally or personally
- Participate in personal and professional development opportunities, strategies and training.
Well-being is about our physical, mental and emotional health. The emphasis is on achieving balance – when we feel good across these areas our well-being is good. We can think about this in terms of scales with your well-being at the centre. Good well-being is achieved when there is a balance between the resources you have available and the challenges you face. When your challenges outweigh the resources you have, things can become off balance.
Five ways to well-being – is a set of evidence-based actions to promote well-being. These are simple things that we can do regularly that can help to boost or maintain or well-being.
- Connect: Relationships with other people are important to promote our well-being. Connecting to other people gives us a sense of belonging.
- Be Active: Regular physical activity promotes emotional well-being. Exercise doesn’t need to be intense to be beneficial. Slow paced activities such as walking provide opportunities for social interaction as well as exercise.
- Take Notice: Paying more attention to the present moment helps strengthen our well-being. This mindfulness allows us to notice what’s happening in the present and become more aware of our thoughts, feelings and our body.
- Keep Learning: Research shows that learning new skills can improve our well-being by increasing our confidence and self-esteem and gives us a sense of purpose by working towards goals.
- Give: Acts of giving and kindness can help improve well-being by giving us a sense of reward or positivity and a sense of purpose.
The Trust is currently developing a staff well-being charter to make our values and actions consistent and explicit across our family of schools.
Underlying principles of the charter will include:
We will have the highest behavioural expectations of all students with robust systems in place to ensure that teachers are fully supported to uphold these standards.
We will remember the importance of staff well-being, ensuring external and internal support is available and that teachers are able to attend important family events, and personal appointments, wherever possible.
Regular, optional secondment opportunities will be available, both within individual academies and across the trust, including leadership positions.
Our recruitment process will be open and transparent.
After-school meetings will have a published finish time and will end on time.
A clear communication policy will be in place in each school. There is no expectation that emails will be opened or replied to in the evenings or at weekends or holidays.
Teachers will not be expected to produce data on individual students more than is absolutely necessary.
Performance management targets will be based on a range of different factors and not on external examination/test results where that is inappropriate.
Teachers know their students best and they know how to teach them, so we will let them do what they’ve been employed to do… teach.
Marking expectations will be understanding of the varying demands and contexts within a school.
- Education Support – a UK charity supporting health and well-being in the education sector.
- School staff – mental health and emotional well-being – from Partnership for Children.
- Schools in mind Schools in Mind is a free network for school staff and allied professionals which shares academic and clinical expertise regarding the well-being and mental health issues that affect schools. The network provides a trusted source of up-to-date and accessible information and resources that school leaders, teachers and support staff can use to support the mental health and well-being of the children and young people in their care. As an independent charity they bring together leading clinicians and researchers dedicated to improving the quality, accessibility and effectiveness of support and provision. All their materials are based on rigorous evidence and have been thoroughly evaluated in schools.
- mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk Mentally Healthy Schools brings together quality-assured mental health resources, information & advice for schools and further education settings in England.
- mindfulTeachers.org MindfulTeachers.org is an international community of educators and helping professionals committed to mindfulness and compassion. There is a variety of useful activities and resources for practicing and teaching: mindfulness and meditation,; kindness and compassion,; generosity and gratitude, social responsibility and social-emotional skills.
- education support partnership Supporting teacher and education staff well-being for 145 years · They are the only UK charity dedicated to supporting the mental health and well-being of teachers. Helpline available – 08000 562 561.
- Ten steps towards school staff wellbeing – a guide from the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
- Supporting staff wellbeing – further resources from Anna Freud
- DfE Teacher Blog – Reducing workload – articles written by teaching professionals about different ways to reduce workload
- DfE Teacher Blog – Teacher wellbeing – DfE blogs on teachers’ experiences and well-being
- NHS – five steps to mental wellbeing Guides, tools and activities for mental well-being
