New podcast: Quick mental health support wins - without adding to your workload

Yesterday I received two emails from teachers. One was sent at 8.57pm and the other at 9.16pm. It struck me, not for the first time, how hard classroom staff work, especially those that really care about the children they work with. It also reinforced for me the importance of making processes and goals in school as easy and simple as possible so that there is less need for out-of-hours emails. This is especially true of anything relating to mental wellbeing – developing and implementing mental health support in schools should not be stressful or overly time-consuming for staff.

The latest episode of Thrive’s Connected podcast is called Quick mental health support wins - without adding to your workload. It's about how teachers and TAs can provide effective mental support in schools quickly and easily so that they can improve outcomes - without adding to their own workload and stress.

Listen in to learn:

 Practical suggestions for quick and effective ways to embed mental wellbeing support in your school

• How to build networks among colleagues and peers from your training course
• Why governors can make all the difference when it comes to mental wellbeing in schools
• The skills that educators need to equip themselves with before devising and implementing mental wellbeing support – and why this will save time and energy
• Why schools should prioritise mental wellbeing and how this unlocks learning

The idea for the podcast came about from a chat I had with Kay Hamilton, Thrive’s Strategic Lead and Trainer, a couple of months ago. Kay said that the pandemic had really taken its toll on classroom staff and that many of the educators she was speaking to were feeling exhausted, under-appreciated and, more than ever, aware that children’s mental health needed to be prioritised.

Kay is a great believer in not making things more time-consuming or complex than they need to be and, as a former teacher and headteacher with more than 20 years of classroom experience, she knows what she’s talking about.  Kay has some simple suggestions for how classroom staff can use existing resources and communication channels such as the school website, display boards and assemblies to quickly embed a whole school approach to mental health. She also has some great ideas about how to get buy in from senior leaders and colleagues to build an army of allies to help create cultural change.

Anyone who is about to undertake any form of training around mental wellbeing in schools should listen to find out Kay’s suggestions for things to consider before starting your course; how to get the most of training while you’re on it and, most importantly, what you need to have in place before you put the theory into practice.

So, if you want to help children in your school to thrive, grab a cup of coffee and have a listen to find out how you can make a real difference to your pupils without having to work longer and harder.