Wheel of Wellbeing Online Tool

Our Wheel of Wellbeing School Leaders tool is available for you to use for free on our website.
Take a look here.

It's designed to help you look at the balance between a wide range of areas in your life. By improving this balance, you can improve your wellbeing.

This is an opportunity for you to reflect on the state of your wellbeing and identify areas of your life you would like to change.

It's interactive, so you'll need to print out a Wheel of Wellbeing template and follow the instructions.

There are six sections on a whole range of topics. Don't worry! They should only take a few minutes each. We'll also provide useful information and ideas as you complete the exercise.

• Click here to print your Wheel of Wellbeing template before you get started. (It's in PDF format.)
• Click here to start the Wheel of Wellbeing.
  

Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is essentially about choice and flexibility, balancing life and work, balancing the needs of the school and members and creating the best environment for performance and job satisfaction.

The national agreement on raising standards and tackling workload introduced a series of significant changes to teachers' and support staff members' conditions of service.

Phase one of the national agreement states that all teachers, including headteachers, should enjoy a reasonable work/life balance.

It identifies several elements that are key to this, including; working hours and workload but also having a sense of control, personal fulfilment, career development, work flexibility, physical and emotional wellbeing.

Implementing work/life balance initiatives is not only about improving the lives of school staff, it is also a highly effective way to raise school standards. Benefits often include:

· Reduced stress and sickness, and lower supply requirement

· Greater motivation, morale and physical and emotional wellbeing

· Increased job satisfaction and improved recruitment and retention

· Improved teaching and learning, better time management, and greater efficiency

· Open and honest relationships and greater awareness of staff and pupil needs

· Increased quality of leadership and management and more trust between management and other staff

· Greater cohesion and communication between governors, senior management and all school staff, and

· Additional capacity to improve communication between schools and with local communities.

Tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance

• Others will not expect you to know everything or have all the answers - so don't expect this of yourself.
• Prioritise - try to 'work smart, not long'. Set yourself a certain amount of time per task, and try not to get caught up in unproductive activities.
• Take proper breaks. This can sometimes be difficult when you have responsibilities out of the school, but do your best to break for lunch at least, and get out of the office/classroom.
• Draw a line between work and home. If you do need to bring work home, make sure you have a designated working area that you can close the door on.
• Try to ensure that family, friends, exercise and leisure activities don't suffer because of long working hours.
• Assess your work-life balance in collaboration with your peers if you can. The more visible the process, the more likely it is to have an effect.
• 'Work-life balance' is part of the Government's remodelling agenda, and it will be an important consideration for any school's management team. You are entitled to the support you need to do your job effectively.

Your staff

When it comes to work-life balance, it's important to lead by example. If you manage to maintain a good work-life balance this will set the precedent for your staff too.

Being flexible with staff is a great way to do this - it will help to encourage a positive attitude at work and your staff will know that their work-life balance is important to you.

Wheel of Wellbeing Online Tool

Our Wheel of Wellbeing tool is available for your staff to use for free on our website. Take a look here.

It's designed to help users look at the balance between a wide range of areas in their lives. By improving this balance, they can improve their wellbeing.

This is an opportunity for staff to reflect on the state of their wellbeing and identify areas they would like to change.

It's interactive, so they'll need to visit the website and print out a Wheel of Wellbeing template, then follow the instructions.

There are six sections on a whole range of topics but they should only take a few minutes each. We'll also provide useful information and ideas as they work through the exercise.

Here is the link to give to staff who would like to try out the tool: http://teachersupport.info/about/online-support/Wheel-of-Wellbeing.php

Teacher Support Network work-life balance and wellbeing workshop

A healthy workforce is a more effective one, but, in a busy school environment, looking after our own health and wellbeing is sometimes low on the list of priorities, until it visibly impacts on our effectiveness. In this introductory workshop, teachers and support staff will learn new ways to assess and improve their own work-life balance in a quick and simple way so that they are always able to stay on top of challenges.

Participants will:

• Have a clear understanding of what 'wellbeing' means and how this impacts on pupil learning and school effectiveness;

• Examine their own work-life balance using the Work-Life Wizard and identifiy practical ways in which this can be improved;

• Improve their confidence in seeking help and support when needed and knowledge of the free support available from Teacher Support Scotland.

Designed for: Teachers and support staff
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £300 (for min. 8 - max. 15 participants). £20 per additional person for 16+ participants.

All our workshops can be tailored to your needs.