 Hello everyone Ross here teacher toolkit. Good evening. I hope you're well people watching here in the UK It's world mental health day and having gone through two big dark moments in my teaching career I just wanted to come share take an opportunity to share Some ideas and some resources that might help you and first of all, you know There's a great deal of talk about the staff well-being these days some of which is useful Some of it is maybe rhetorical lip service and some which might be misguided So to cut to this chase I suppose staff well-being should always be a leadership priority in your school And some of the schools I work with they now have not just a well-being policy for staff and a well-being team But the team have a budget in order to drive some important well-being initiatives across the organization In in schools teachers squash the equivalent of a full working year and more often than that in just 39 weeks People outside of education seed long holidays But don't often get to see extended and sometimes grueling hours that teachers work during term time And if you ask a partner of a teacher about evenings and work weekends during term time They'll likely tell you a story a story of continuous work with not enough time for nights out a bit of fun Maybe in the holiday half term until the next one comes along and in recent years a number of schools have been taking the lead on Developing approaches to staff well-being whether you work in one of these schools or not. There's a lot you can do for yourself So on my website, let me just signpost a few things for you here And if you pop over to the five-minute plan, which many people will know of last time I did the statistics over three million people have downloaded it But if you go right to the bottom You're going to find 47 incarnations of the five-minute plan for all other aspects of school life And in here and you can download this as a resource on the website So signpost whether it is but here number 14 is the staff well-being plan So let me just put this full size. I just want to Explain this I suppose in hopefully five minutes. So let me just move this title out of the way and Let's see how we get on so I guess the first line across the top of the screen there You've got the kind of well well-being millionaire approach 50 50 phone a friend ask the audience For teachers, we need to first of all the 50 50 button trying to decide and plan how we'll spend our time each week During hours and what and also working hours outside of school And if you're not careful work can expand to fit every waking hour I know when I was a younger teacher I could work well into the night without really committed myself to seeing friends or going to the gym So the to-do list will never be done in teaching and if you accept this What time will be for school work and what time will be for your own? Kind of well-being or your own social life is important So try to have fixed times each week not just running home on a Friday night Where you choose to close the school bag and think about other things than work where you might give yourself a little more Time or maybe even a treat each week So that's that first stage the photo friend obvious keeping touch for people who are nearest and dearest to you It's easy to keep putting off that phone call You know FaceTime call or a zoom call maybe write an email or a traditional letter you never know What do you want to say to people keeping in touch on a regular basis? Maybe get in touch with people you've not and been in touch with for a we all put those things on the back burner And the asset audience, you know family and friends can be forgotten So in particular your partner can be someone who spends their You know life waiting for the next school holiday just to get some of your attention So why not plan? You know meal out maybe or trip to the theater cinema the break will do you good and you might even enjoy it and Over on the right-hand side. We've got the exercise. So this kind of healthy living approach You know, we know the research and exercise. We've all done it. We've all tried it You know the count count to 5k. It's not only for a good for our bodies, but also good for our mind It makes us feel happier. I know when I get out in a long detailed dog walk up and down Very steep hills where I live once I'm out. I love it. It's that effort to get out That's important. So, you know general muscle tone helping you remain healthy Mindful healthy way, etc. When do you exercise each week something to consider the last one the middle one here? We've got diet now again Researchers all around us five a day There's a danger for teachers always on the go that they don't eat well enough I know that I didn't and rarely did I have an opportunity to sit down and have any kind of proper lunch Always grabbing a sandwich on the go, you know skipping meals, etc. So do you ever find yourself? You know lying awake at night on a maybe a caffeine high repeating it the next day, etc. Feeling tired. It's easy to do and it's very easy to ignore So the risk factors down here and you know, this resource I published with Stephen Tierney back in 2013 so nearly 10 years ago, but it's still tried and tested It's still a great little mind map for talking about well-being and looking after your mental health the risk factors Alcohol over weight stress lack of sleep are all the things that make us unwell. I wear contact lenses and I remember in my last job Probably good three or four months where I was waking up with bloodshot eyes every every day And it wasn't you know stress But also maybe hygiene for the contact lenses and needed to change them and also take a reality check So if we don't deal with these issues when we become unwell, you know, not good for you Not good for your family not good for your students either to be honest with yourself Do you have any of these risk factors and what are you going to do about them? This helping hand button over here and when we move over to this side, you know a lot of research to great charity Education support who offers lots of online counseling. It's an odd thing to think about helping others But actually in your brain in your neurons it makes you feel better. So that's a win-win surely I Guess that putting on your oxygen mass first It's important to look after yourself first before you can look after others So there's many ways to help here, but a few things You know you can think about you know sponsored charity walks swims all those types of things work go to charity events Giving up a day or the weekend to take part in something collective is also going to make you feel good The good to chat, you know, not just with friends and and and family outside of work But colleagues also inside and on this occasion. We want to people to help us solve The problems and other times we just want someone to have a listen someone to listen to us So make sure you got that critical friend in the workplace the last one Putting your worries into a box now. I am I guess in my life now teacher blogger, you know Running a small business, you know the tax man tax lady all after me and all those types of things I often get worried about those things, but it's not the end of the world I can put thick my worries in a box I suppose there'll be times when I need to deal with it other times and I can forget about it So it's about identifying those pinch moments also and then there's the timeouts of the rest of these things are obvious But if I just show you on the site, so you've got the actual template here But it's a simple walkthrough if you pop to the resources here If you're someone that's struggling with your workload your well-being your mental health This resource might give you a little walkthrough methodology that you might not have had before so it's this resource here The five-minute well-being plan. There's many other things in here also and If you type in well-being at the top You're going to see loads of tips and blogs to help you other people talking about it When I first started teaching even just 10 years ago You'd struggle to find much Academic research and practical advice for teachers in terms of managing workload It might have been in a pamphlet or an leaflet through your local council and that'd be it But now we're surrounded by work load of mental health tips and we're also in a period of time where more of us are talking about these things So it's a bit So we have a bit more confidence in terms of being able to identify people going through similar problems as ourselves In order to help our own well-being So I'm going to leave it there a very short video this week under the kind of theme of world mental health day Look after yourself put on your oxygen mask first before you help others Particularly your students. There's tons of well-being resources on the site tons of advice and having been there myself a few Dark moments in my career. You know where I am if you need a little bit help or advice in confidence Or you need some support, but I'm going to leave it that for now I'll be back this time next week with some more ideas and resources. In fact before I go some just general gossip I had a great time in Belfast Last week were colleagues over in Balameena. I'm off the pool later this week to work with the school Few online webinars one tonight one Tomorrow and on Wednesday, and I'm trying to get to the second fifth of my new book guide to questioning That's pretty much it. I mean there's tons of stuff going on But those are the kind of highlights and for me my mental health that I managed to get a dog walk in Take the dog around the local park Hard to get out, but once you're out it absolutely fantastic and enjoyed a little bit of the sunshine And it's getting dark here at for teachers here in the northern hemisphere So make sure that vitamin D sat Sumas a bit of sun if you can or maybe a lampshade To help you slowly wake up in the morning. All these things make a big difference to your well-being. Anyway, bye for now I shall see you next Monday