We know that there is a wellbeing challenge in schools, and not just for the students. The barometer that measures wellbeing is more finely tuned of late; it is more sensitive in the Covid-19 world, as people experience relatively long periods of isolation, disruption to habits, uncertainty, and an online existence that can’t quite compensate for in-person communal interaction.
For those in schools this landscape presents some important questions:
- Do young people possess the skills to self-regulate and manage pressure before it becomes ‘stress’?
- Do they have access to the right kind of support in this context?
- Are the systems that were in place prior to the pandemic able to address the needs of the current landscape?
Whilst there is an understandable focus on the wellbeing of children, those in schools (or who work with schools) know the reality – schools are increasingly being stretched to a point where they are struggling to give the best to students in a way that they would want to. Under this strain it is staff that are carrying the weight of the burden, it is staff wellbeing that is key.
School Level Responses:
Supporting teachers to be naturally nurturing
The most effective schools’ arguably focus on building an ethos and culture of pastoral care that goes beyond policies and programmes (important though all these elements are). When there is a heightened and all-encompassing belief that ‘wellbeing is everyone’s responsibility’, the multiplier effect is more likely to be evident.