The importance of well-being... #teacher5aday

I have been thinking about writing a post on this for a while but find it a harder post to write than most and there are two reasons for this.  The first is that last year I watched one of the most promising teachers I had seen in a long time experience burnout and decide to leave the profession (a decision that not everyone understood and that some people were disappointingly unsympathetic about).  The second is that I got myself into a bit of a workload pickle last year where I very genuinely could not get my head straight.  Stress is not something that is always tolerated in schools and I felt pretty weak at the thought of having to say out loud that I wasn't coping, but I really wasn't coping.  And it wasn't particularly about the job or the workload or the management or any of it, I was just exhausted and a bit poorly and I was just working and working and working and I lost sight of the other stuff.

I have always been a bit of a workaholic since I started teaching - I enjoy my job and I love my work and I enjoy reading and planning and that is fine when it is a conscious choice but for me it had stopped being a conscious choice.  If I was awake, I was working.  I couldn't read a book because if I had time to read, I had time to plan or to mark.  I stopped swimming and living my newly acquired healthy lifestyle because I couldn't justify stopping for meals and going for a swim.  When I look back on it now, it all feels a bit silly but in that moment I was stuck and I couldn't get out of the cycle.  Until I did.  And I did for two reasons.

Reason number 1: I have exceptionally good friends who have a tendency to read the signs really well and who sat me down and went 'what are you doing? Let's make a list and get rid of some stuff'.  Thank the Lord for them.  Reason number 2: I went to #TLT14 and attended a session on well being with @martynreah and @taniaf77.  And it was a bit of a lightbulb moment.  I sat in a room and listened to people talk about the importance of taking time for yourself and listened to top tips and strategies and how the role of a leader is sometimes to look after the people around you, and to do that you have to look after yourself.  And I realised that I had to take back control of the workload and do something to feel better about the situation.  One of my favourite things about the session was that we decided on one thing we would do when we returned to school to keep well-being at the forefront of our thinking and I committed to something called 'pay it forward'.  I went home and wrote 6 anonymous cards to 6 people at work that I just thought were exceptional and maybe needed to hear it, with the request that if the card had made them happy, they pay the gesture forward.  I don't know if anyone did it but I do know that I felt better for doing something to make other people feel better.  The second thing I did was write a summary of the key points from the session and share it with the rest of LT because we didn't talk about stuff like that.  And we need to.

I know that I can very easily get sucked into the cycle of doing endless schoolwork to the detriment of my health and well-being but worse, I then set that as a model to staff who work alongside me and that's really dangerous.  I don't want colleagues and trainees thinking that the expectation is to burnout, and I want to commit to making it possible to do this job without burning out, so I pledge to support the #teacher5aday in the following ways:

#Connect

Personally this is about connecting with my friends and family regularly.  I have just moved from Stoke to Devon and old Nikki would get so wrapped up in work that she would lose these people.  Not this time. Oh no.  I will be texting and face-booking and visiting people.  Professionally I want to get to know people at my new school and collaborate with different people on different things to extend my understanding. 

#Exercise

Well this one is my downfall but last year I took up swimming and it helped.  Helped with my stress and with my asthma so personally I will try to get back in the pool.  And maybe explore some of this beautiful new county with my camera.  Professionally... just being out and about and around the school getting to know people not sitting behind my desk!

#Notice

I want to notice people and moments.  I want to take those tiny moments that are so normal and yet so good and just take the time to celebrate those moments and people and remember how lucky I am.  I also want to notice the people around me in terms of thanking them for the good they do and supporting them if they need it.  Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes and we don't always know how to ask for it.

#Learn

I am about to start in a new job at a new school (and an amazing school at that).  I want to learn from my new colleagues as well as continuing to learn from twitter and blogs and awesome CPD.  I also desperately want to continue my masters and although it is work related, it would also be something very special and important to me.  I also want to help others learn.

#Volunteer  

This is the trickiest one because I am not sure what I want to do yet but I know that one of the most amazing things you can do is invest time in making other people feel valued.  So hopefully I will actually volunteer my time in a meaningful way in my community but if not I would like to contribute to making people feel important and valued because it is time well spent.

I think that as school leaders we have a moral obligation to make this job do-able.  And we have to be role models in that.  We have to strive to achieve the best in what we do, expecting the best of people and challenging them but we also have to make sure that it is achieved in a healthy and manageable way #teacher5aday is a pretty good way of remembering the people behind the job.