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The wellbeing of staff in schools has never been more important. With almost a third of new staff leaving the profession after just five years and 26% of teachers saying they are thinking of leaving in the next 12 months (National Foundation for Educational Research), we are facing a teacher retention crisis. The We Lead Well Podcast has been created in response to this crisis, to encourage and support schools to create places where people love to work. We support leaders to enhance the wellbeing of all staff in schools. Each week, leading educationalists share their experience, views and tips on how other school leaders can promote wellbeing in their organisations for the benefit of all staff.
Episodes
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
Helen Kelly is a researcher, writer and consultant in the field of school wellbeing. Between 2006 and 2020 she led international schools in Bangkok, Berlin and Hong Kong. Prior to this Helen was member of the English legal profession, representing workers in the area of health and safety at work.
Helen is most known for her work on school leader stress and wellbeing. She was awarded an Ed.D from the University of Birmingham, UK in 2017 with a thesis entitled “International Schools as Emotional Arenas: Facing the Leadership Challenges in a German Context”. She also holds a Masters in Educational Leadership and a Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology.
Helen is well-known on the conference circuit in Asia. She has consulted with schools and delivered professional development workshops on both school leader and teacher wellbeing across three continents. She also advises a number of UK organisations that support school leaders and governors. Helen writes for several well-known educational publications and is a regular guest blogger and podcaster. Through her work as The Positive Principal, Helen aims to provide practical support to teachers, school leaders and those responsible for running and supporting schools to enhance wellbeing and maximise the potential of the whole school community.
Helen is a qualified yoga teacher and has taught on 200 hour yoga teacher training courses. She has travelled hundreds of thousands of miles in over 50 countries on a motorbike with her husband. Helen retired from her work in schools in June 2020 and is currently based in beautiful North Wales.
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
Dr Jill Berry is the formerHead of Dame Alice Harpur School in Bedford. Since leaving headship in 2010, she has worked as an Associate for the National College for Teaching and Leadership, carried out a range of educational consultancy work and completed a part-time Doctorate in Education, researching the transition from deputy headship to headship.
Jill has been involved in #WomenEd, a network designed to support aspiring and serving women leaders in education, since its inception in 2015. She has conducted academic research on the development of the initiative with Dr Kay Fuller from Nottingham University; spoken at several #WomenEd events, and contributed a chapter to the #WomenEd book:‘10% Braver – Inspiring Women to Lead Education’.
In this episode Jill and I have a great discussion about how we can recognise our unconscious biases as leaders and adapt our working processes to address them and make a commitment to leading more diverse schools and organisations. We also explore how supporting diversity can create better wellbeing.
Jill is an advocate for the opportunities presented by social media for networking and professional development, tweeting @jill berry102 and blogging jillberry102.blog
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Liz is a leading expert in Positive Education in the UK. She has developed several pioneering approaches to early intervention and prevention through her professional practice and research. As a practising Positive and Organisational Psychologist, she has led Worth-it in its work supporting hundreds of schools and organisations and over 3,000 professionals to develop the mental health, wellbeing and resilience of children and young people. Liz is a Teaching Fellow at Loughborough University teaching Applied Positive Psychology and Organisational Psychology. She previously taught at Bucks New University and also sat on the advisory board for the Leeds Becket University, Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools.
Liz was amongst the first people in the world to obtain the dual MSc Qualification in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology (MAPPCP). Her masters project research, exploring how Coaching and Positive Psychology can help vulnerable young people prevent mental health problems was published in 2016. She has since built on this work in developing whole school and organisational approaches to preventing mental health problems in children and young people. Within whole school or organisational approaches, Liz has developed a specialism in staff wellbeing. She is Module Leader on the BPS Accredited, MSc Work Psychology Module in Wellbeing and Work, at Loughborough University. She is also a peer reviewer for the European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology. Liz has over 10 years’ experience applying Coaching Psychology, gaining a PG Certificate in Coaching in 2009. She is also a qualified careers advisor, with a background in training and development, and preventing social disadvantage.
Sunday Nov 29, 2020
Sunday Nov 29, 2020
Suneta has worked in primary schools for over 20 years and has been headteacher in a number of primary schools in different contexts and circumstances. She now works to support wellbeing in school in response to the current retention crisis and the focus on wellbeing. Suneta runs the Cultivate, Coaching and Consulting company along with the Every Teacher Matters project. She is dedicated to teachers' and leaders' happiness. I'm sure you'll be inspired by this conversation in which she says we are people first and professionals second. Suneta is also a mum to three children, one of whom has complex disabilities. She has shown resilience and tenacity to support her son whilst also going back to work as a headteacher. Hearing about how she has coped (and sometimes not coped!) under pressure is awe-inspiring! Suneta also talks in this episode about setting boundaries and knowing yourself better in order to do so. She believes that saying no to others is saying yes to yourself. The mental health of staff in schools has never been more important and Suneta shares her experience of supporting mental health in schools and what you can do to ensure this is at the top of your list of wellbeing priorities.
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Phil Sharrocks joined me for this week's episode. He's an ex-headteacher, consultant and foster carer and he says it like it is! He worked in four schools that he supported to improve rapidly. He took one school from inadequate to good in fifteen months and moved it from the bottom 20% to the top 15% of schools for progress. He's an influencer on Linked in which is where I first encountered him and his message about allowing teachers to teach really resonated with me. Phil really cares about teachers and teaching and is particularly passionate about making learning fun - for teachers and pupils. His aim as a headteacher was always to create happy, engaged teachers and learners. Ofsted described Phil as inspirational. I'm sure you'll find him an inspiration too.
You can find Phil on Linked In and Twitter @philsharrock
www.transformeducationcoach.com
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
This week we have an interview with education and leadership coach and consultant Hannah Wilson. Hannah specialises in a broad range of areas including diversity, inclusion and equality and mental health and wellbeing. Hannah is an ex-headteacher and English teacher and co-founder of #WomenEd. In the interview we focus on leading from your values and how you can become a more resilient leader. Hannah also talks about how she created a wellbeing culture as a founding headteacher and about how all of her decisions as a headteacher were values based, including the recruitment process. Hannah was able to offer flexible and part time working for all of the roles in her school including senior leadership roles. She is a great role model for how leaders in schools can take a fresh approach to leadership and do things differently. Hannah and I discuss the importance of coaching for leadership and for wellbeing and how it can contribute to the ability of leaders to lead with authenticity.
@Ethical_Leader
www.transformeducationcoach.com
Monday Nov 09, 2020
Monday Nov 09, 2020
In this week's episode, Chris Foley has joined us to talk about how he has taken St Monica's RC High School in Prestwich near Manchester out of special measures whilst focusing on the well-being of staff. Chris emphasises the importance of strong structures, systems and processes in creating a culture of well-being in a school, which may not be the first thing you think of when you consider what well-being encompasses. However, Chris provides this perspective and we discuss the certainty and security staff gain from knowing exactly what is expected of them and how they fit into the broader structure of the school. Leading a Catholic school is something else that Chris and I discuss in this episode and how that brings a uniqueness to the school but also brings challenges at the same time. Chris uses the expression 'on the bus' (he also uses it as the title of his blog) to describe the challenge of creating a sense of community and collegiateness in his school. He stresses the importance of having a vision and ensuring staff buy into it so that everyone is heading in the right direction. Chris talks bluntly about his experience as a headteacher. I'm sure you will enjoy listening to his experiences.
www.onthebuseducation.wordpress.com
@HT_StMonicas
@WeLeadWellPodc1
www.transformeducationcoaching.com
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
Sue is the Head of School at John Taylor Free School. She has worked in education for the last 23 years with experience of a wide range of schools and different settings. Her extensive leadership experience spans 2 highly successful Multi Academy Trusts based in the East Midlands. She has established a Teaching School Alliance and School Centre for Initial Teacher Training and understands the importance of professional learning for teachers and leaders. Sue is also a huge supporter of part time and flexible working - every job advert for roles in her school is advertised with the line 'applications are welcome from candidates who want to work flexibly'. Her experiences of being a full time working single mum have ensured she is able to understand that family life has a major impact on working life and she is quite prepared to support her staff by making adjustments that support them and their well-being in work. As a result, she has created a positive culture of well-being in the school; this is supported by a culture of coaching to support staff development and to create autonomy, respect and trust amongst the staff who work for her. Sue is a truly empathetic leader; she clearly cares about her staff and their differing individual needs and she sums this up in the interview when she refers to leading with kindness.
@plant4sue
www.johntaylorfreeschool.co.uk
www.transformeducationcoach.com
Sunday Oct 25, 2020
Sunday Oct 25, 2020
For the latest COVID special edition, I spoke to Sean Trimble, CEO of the Larwood Academy Trust and Headteacher of Larwood School in Stevenage, which is a primary SEMH special school. Sean and I discuss the difficulties he's faced leading such a school in such extraordinarily challenging times and how he has had to draw on all his resilience as a leader to get through it. And get through it he has, by staying positive. Sean's pragmatic and optimistic approach are so inspiring to listen to. He's taken control when necessary and done his utmost to reduce anxiety for his staff and pupils. Sean is emphatic in his advice to take some time out for yourself as a leader. Sean is a triathlete who has competed as an age grouper at many triathlon distances and he's kept this up throughout the COVID crisis. Sean sums up in the interview what leaders need to in challenging circumstances: challenge, adapt, change.
www.transformeducationcoach.com
@leadwellpodca1
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
In this episode, I talk to Julie Norman, an executive headteacher from Somerset who is leading in a different way with brilliant results. Julie took over schools in an area that was well below the national average for performance. All of the schools had been good previously but were now in serious decline and heading for RI judgements from Ofsted.
Out of all the schools in the area, only the ones led and supported by Julie showed any improvement and the improvement in Julie's schools was remarkable.
Julie is responsible for developing the Character Curriculum - listen to the episode and she'll tell you all about it. Workload for teachers is significantly reduced when this curriculum is introduced into a school. Assessment is carried out through careful questioning, listening and observing the children. Teachers don't plan individual lessons so they have time to spend on their passion - helping children to love their learning.
Julie has gone on to set up her own consultancy company SOS so that she can help more schools' transformations.
https://schoolomegasolutions.co.uk/
https://www.transformeducationcoach.com/
https://www.headteacherchat.com
https://www.teachwellalliance.com
@weleadwellpodc1