Wellbeing Wednesday

I feel that I should summarise the statement I made at the beginning of my post last Wednesday before embarking on the second of these themed posts. 

"Wellbeing is for life, not just for Wednesday." 

'Wellbeing Wednesday' it is a nice catchy title, but schools that only think about wellbeing on a Wednesday are fooling themselves when they claim that it is a priority of theirs. I have therefore come up with a catchy slogan (above) of my own, based on the old 'dogs are for life, not just for Christmas' one to counter it!

Last week I described a technique that I recommend for your own wellbeing as a headteacher. This week I am going to focus on something that definitely should be priority one for head teachers in terms of staff wellbeing. 

I believe that my strategies are grounded in common sense; they are focused, achievable and impactful and importantly they don't cost the earth to put into practice. Today's will cost you a little, from both your personal and school budgets, but the return you will get if you invest properly in it will make it more than worth your while.

Become a Feeder

Firstly, please don't google the term 'feeder' as you will end up going down a wormhole you will regret. I have co-opted the term for good within this post, as at its heart it involves getting happiness from the act of feeding another. You did google it though, didn't you? I warned you!

As a head teacher, when you 'feed' your staff you will not only gain personal happiness, but you will also have a much happier workforce who will feel a strong team bond and will give more to the team than if they are not 'fed' by you.

You can of course 'feed' with positive words, and I am not saying for one moment that you shouldn't do that. What I am saying though is that there are plenty of opportunities for actually providing your staff with food and drink and that you should take advantage of all of them. 'Positive strokes' can be well received by some, but you may find that some members of staff won't or can't accept this type of 'feeding'. On the other hand, everyone loves a little treat to brighten their day now and then! Psychologists would say that feeding someone shows them that they are cared for, and builds positive relationships with them.

Free coffee

Let's start with a big one. Many staff rooms have complex arrangements in place for funding coffee, tea and biscuit purchases. They are all deeply problematic and can cause a significant amount of anxiety for staff. Many schools also operate a bring your own option. A survey by Teacher Tapp in 2020 found that 38% of secondary teachers and 31% of primary teachers had to bring in their own tea or coffee.

The answer to this is simple, tea and coffee should be free for everyone, including supply teachers and visitors. The same study quoted above reported that only 46% of secondary teachers and 43% of primary teachers had access to free tea and coffee.

I know that things are tight at the moment budget-wise, but there is something wrong when an organisation has to cut back on tea and coffee to balance the budget.

And biscuits too...

As we know, school culture is something that comes from the top. You might need to start this one, and buy biscuits / cakes more often than most, but if you lead by example you can create a biscuit-based culture, where people will start bringing treats in at random times throughout the year, not just for birthdays. It is important that as head you should allocate random dates for extra special treats (cakes etc.) as the randomness of this is important. The treats should not be seen as a 'reward' for anything specific, they should simply become part of the culture of the school.

Don't forget the support staff,

It is important to remember that some staff will not regularly use the staff room, so they will require a bit of encouragement to partake of any free coffee / snacks. This is particularly pertinent to office staff. It might end up that you bring it to them at their workstations, but if you do this will really help get rid of any 'them & us' feeling that might exist in your school. 

or those with dietary needs

Be aware of any members of staff who require different snacks due to intolerances or lifestyle choices. Buying a punnet of strawberries to supplement any snacks is a good go-to if you are unsure. This thoughtfulness and awareness of your staff's needs will be greatly appreciated by them.

INSET days and staff meetings

These are great opportunities for providing snacks, or even lunch in the case of INSET, for your staff. Doing so will always add 5% to the effectiveness of the day or meeting, so its well worth your while. Other people will start doing the same, but you should always contribute as the head teacher.

The Staff 'Do'

Going out as a staff on special occasions is a really good way to bond as a team. The act of sharing a meal is referred to by anthropologists as 'commensality' and it is argued that doing this helps build relationships and foster a sense of community. Both of these outcomes are also key to a successful organisation. 

Restaurants can be particularly expensive though, especially at Christmas, and it is easy to price some members of staff out of the experience. Therefore, it is important to choose somewhere affordable for all to avoid more of the 'then & us' culture, or even better, why not do an American supper in school? For those of you who are unaware of the term, an 'American supper' is when everyone brings a dish to contribute to a shared meal. Not only is this a more cost effective option for those on tighter budgets, but it also serves as a conversation starter when you find out who brought what.

As well as many staff meals I have been part of, I have a particularly strong memory of bonding through shared food when I was acting headteacher of an Infant school and we hosted a visiting group of teachers from Nigeria. We chose food from our local area to serve to them, and they were both interested and appreciative, although one guest choosing to top a scone with cream and chutney did raise an eyebrow or two!

Christmas Lunch

If it doesn't exist as a tradition already in your organisation, I would strongly recommend that the school offers all staff a free Christmas lunch on the day that the children have theirs. This is a relatively small outlay, but as a great example of 'commensality' it can really help to reinforce positive relationships between staff and between staff and children too.

Get your priorities right

A couple of years ago, following the pandemic, our Local Authority gave each school a small amount of money to spend on 'wellbeing'. Speaking to some of the high-ups, it was really intended to offset some of the cost of a day off for each member of staff. In reality it would only cover about 10% of this, so we canvassed the staff about the best way to use the money. Overwhelmingly it was agreed that a day off, whilst nice, would not have a big impact on people overall, so we decided to buy a really nice coffee machine for the staff room, one of the kind that uses capsules.  

Don't forget the children!

There are a lot of myths around about food in school. As long as you are aware of any allergies and potential religious restrictions, I say use food as much as you can in your teaching. The children will love it!