Developing resilience and coping skills for school staff

Is your school team struggling to stay resilient in this post-pandemic educational world? Are you wondering the best way to develop their coping skills - and maybe yours too? In this blog post, Sarah Creegan gives you a simple tool you can use to help everyone feel in control, even when things are challenging.

Resilience in challenging situations

Calling all school leaders! Hands up if this term is going as you thought it would. Anyone?

** If you thought it would go well and it is, that’s fantastic news. Permission to leave this blog and never darken its doorstep again.

For everyone else...

Although we knew it would take a while for things to get back to ‘normal’, I don’t think anyone could have foreseen the incredible challenges schools are still wrestling with.

For example:

• Staff absence – especially worrying when this is COVID-related, but also tricky to cover due to the lack (and cost) of supply staff
• An increased number of children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties, who are struggling to self-regulate and need additional support
• Challenging conversations with anxious and/or angry parents, linked to the 2 bullet points above, amongst other things

At Laughology, we’ve had so many messages from school leaders asking us to help. A typical comment is, “We’re on our knees and we don’t know how to get up.” Heads are asking us for support to develop greater coping skills and resilience amongst their teams.

Of course, we want to help and we’re doing our best, donning our capes and legging it around the country. But, unfortunately, there are only so many Laughologists and a lot of schools that are struggling. Now’s the time for compassionate and strong leadership, so staff can help themselves survive and start to thrive once again.

One of our most sought after teacher training sessions is FLIP It Thinking. FLIP stands for:

• Focus
• Language
• Imagination
• Pattern-Breaking

Here are a few ideas from this resilience toolkit, that you can quickly and easily put into place to FLIP the mood in your school.

FOCUS

In October, the Times Educational Supplement (TES) reported that 3 in 4 heads had seen staff in tears this term. It might well be that some school leaders have shed a tear or two, too.

Which prompts the question, what are you focusing on at the moment? How high up your list of priorities is your team’s mental health and wellbeing - and your own? Clearly, lots of activities that maybe haven’t taken place in the same way over the past 18 months need to be happening again, such as teacher assessments.

But perhaps some of the expectations from before e.g. all staff having to take their PPA time on site, can be relaxed a little? And anything that is neither important nor urgent can be forgotten or, at least, put on the back burner for the time being?

Ask your team:

• Is the workload manageable? If not, what would help – longer to meet deadlines, some release time, opportunity to work with someone else on a project?

• Are people able to ‘switch off’ in the evenings and for large chunks of the weekend? What would help them be able to do more of the things they enjoy, e.g. an early knock-off once a week to go for a run, coming in later from time to time, so they can drop their own kids at school?

Ask yourself:

• How much time are you spending in your office and how much time are you spending around school? People need to see you and feel your calming presence. For your own wellbeing, what better way is there to get a quick boost of serotonin (the body’s happiness chemical) than to pop in to see how the Reception kids are doing?

• How are you prioritising tasks and managing your time? Here’s a reminder of Eisenhower’s Principle, which you can download here (135kb), to help you organise your thoughts and to-do list.

LANGUAGE

Leaders need to be aware of the language they’re using and the messages this is giving to others. Whilst it’s good to show vulnerability, teams need realistic positivity, enthusiasm and a boss with a can-do attitude at the moment. Even if, in the confines of your office, you’re thinking, ‘Sh*t!’

Look out for any unhelpful language in others and avoid the temptation to join in. Instead, kindly challenge the person and help them to see and speak about things differently. For example, if a teacher said they’ve had a dreadful day, what would you do?

Depending on what’s happened in your world, you might nod sympathetically and move on or (very occasionally, but we’ve all done it) say, ‘Me too!’ Instead, take time to ask them:

• Which bit of today didn’t go as well as you’d have liked and why?
• What could you do to stop that from happening again?
• Which bits of the day were good and why?

If you’re able to coach your team, you’ll help them put things in perspective and ensure that one incident doesn’t become pervasive, casting a cloud over the whole day. Also, the more you ask them kind questions to help them reflect and problem-solve, the more they’ll get into the habit of doing this for each other and themselves.

IMAGINATION

Our imaginations can be amazing. But they can also run wild and be really unhelpful. I’m sure there are heads out there that are despairing, feeling they’re the only ones who are struggling right now. But, as I said at the outset, you’re definitely not. Honest.

Most heads have support networks, whether that’s through clusters, or the diocese, or folks you came through the ranks with. To get the most from these, make sure that:

• You have a safe and open forum to chat through any challenges you’re having, whilst giving and receiving empathy.
• Once you’ve done that, share ideas and successes together. Use your imaginations for good and to solve problems.

PATTERN-BREAKING

Last, but not least, there’ll be some patterns of behaviour that have crept in over the past couple of years that aren’t helpful and now need to be addressed. Maybe the way certain parents are perceived? Or the constant talking about Ofsted?

Either with the leadership team or the whole staff team, take some time to think about:

• The habits that are helping people’s wellbeing and resilience. What needs to continue?
• Which ones are hindering people’s happiness and need to stop?
• Which new habits could be formed to help people cope even better?

Good luck! And, if you want to know more or have a caped Laughologist lend a hand, contact us - we’d love to help you.