Return to site

Come and see me - Andrew Cowley

And understand what wellbeing actually looks like ...

broken image

Have you actually considered what wellbeing looks like in school?

Or at the very least what it should look like?

Is it a seat of the pants /papering over the cracks exercise or is it built into the very fabric of the school?

How can wellbeing develop where there is no budget for it?

In leading wellbeing in my own school, in blogging for Healthy Toolkit and particularly in researching my book, to be published by Bloomsbury Education in May 2019, I believe that wellbeing needs to be embedded in the culture of the school and the rights to wellbeing have to be equally available; nobody, regardless of their role, part-time or full-time, support staff or class teacher, classroom cleaner or senior leader, is entitled to any more or any less wellbeing than anyone else. Wellbeing ultimately is about the building of and strength of relationships in the school, because our wellbeing feeds and determines the wellbeing of our pupils.

We may not have the money to spend, but we do have principles. I will be using my presentation to share the principles which I believe need to be at the core of wellbeing and which may in the long run help determine issues of retention and recruitment.

I am going to share the early findings from the research I have embarked upon. Do you think the issue is all about workload? Is the core problem on of toxic leadership and SLT led bullying? Are teachers leaving the profession because of pupil behaviour? The results may surprise you, or on the other hand be very familiar?

I am delighted to contribute to Teach Well Fest and must convey my thanks to Georgia for her sterling work in organising the event, and to Vic for hosting. Have a great day everyone.