Teachers - Five tips to help promote work life balance. Look after yourselves! (Part 1)

We know that teachers can and do make an enormous difference to the lives of countless young people. What is equally clear is that teachers at every level are often feeling stressed or even ‘burned out’ by the pressures they face, sometimes daily.

The ongoing fallout from the covid 19 pandemic, industrial action, crumbling concrete, cost of living crisis has all had an impact of teacher’s lives. In our own field of PSHE and Personal development education, we have been waiting for the RSHE review, updated guidelines around transgender and the management of parent requests for resources. This of course, is all taking place in a climate of political uncertainty leaving many, not just teachers feeling ‘out of control.’

It is very natural for us to feel stressed when we have little control over the situations that affect our lives. This is equally true for children and young people as well as adults. However, the impact of uncertainty varies significantly, with some individuals able to manage it better than others. This is where we can intervene, for ourselves and others with strategies that help manage stress.

We are discussing teacher wellbeing; however, students can also benefit when staff are strong and effective role models for their pupils.

So, we know teacher stress is prevalent and there is a plethora of data providing evidence of this, but what steps can we take to support staff wellbeing and in turn reduce or help manage stress.

 1. Work life balance 

In 2021, just as schools were beginning to open again following various lockdowns, a local authority commissioned us to carry out some research with schools in the authority to find out how staff were feeling and if they felt they would benefit from external mental health support services. Our findings showed that what improved teachers’ sense of wellbeing and reduced stress more than anything else was work-life balance. This is easier said than done and for some it may take time to get into the habit of switching off, but the benefits are likely to be worth it. You could try the following if you don’t do so already.

2. Accept ‘good enough.’ 

Perfection does not have to be the goal of every lesson and sometimes the extra time it takes to make a PowerPoint slides beautiful will make no difference to the quality of a lesson but will significantly eat into your time.

Set yourself set times for arriving and leaving school. Inevitably, there will be times when earlier starts or later finishes are required, but if you’re doing this every day, it’s likely to take its toll.

3. Have friends who aren’t teachers!

It can be easy to fall into work mode if you only socialise with other teachers and this can make you feel that you’re back at work! Interacting with non-teaching friends can help with perspective and give you a break from the classroom.

4. Be selfish!

A friend and colleague who provides mentoring for teachers often says that teachers ‘give and give and give some more to their pupils.’ Make sure you’re making some time for yourself to do the things you enjoy. You are as important as the students, and you need the mental and physical energy to provide all that ‘giving.’

5. Limit online time. 

We are constantly advising (nagging) students to take time away from their mobile phones, have breaks from social media, turn off notifications. But, what about you? Are you spending too much time on social media platforms? Do you find yourself being pulled down ‘rabbit holes’ about teacher stress, problems in education, others in the profession sharing their problems, worries, stress? Perhaps, taking onboard some of the advice we give to pupils is equally relevant to us?

Can Chameleon PDE help you with work/life balance?

We cannot claim to offer you the perfect solution for managing your work/life balance, but we can certainly take the stress away and save you considerable time in researching, planning and preparing PSHE/PD lessons for your students. Our philosophy is to support and empower teachers to deliver high quality PSHE/PD lessons and with decades of experience collaborating with teachers, senior leaders, parents, health professionals and of course students we are confident that we’ve got the best solution on the market.

But don’t take our word for it, here’s what the PSHE lead in one of our partner schools has to say:

As I sit here planning KS5 PHSE lessons once again for the Spring Term, based solely on your Chameleon resources, I just had to take the time to say what a godsend your website and resources are. Without them, I wouldn't possibly have been able to carry out the role effectively, producing worthwhile weekly lessons for our Sixth Form. The structure and content of the resources are just fantastic. They provide so much practical advice, incorporating realistic scenarios and always regular and worthwhile resources throughout. (Chris, Head of PSHE, West Devon)

And as winners of the prestigious ERA award in 2023, we have been recognised by experts in education.

Our ‘wrap round’ PSHE support won the best secondary resource category at this year’s National Education Resources Awards and our services aim to provide PSHE/PD leads with the tools to put them firmly in the driving seat. By collaborating closely with our partner schools, listening to students, and collaborating with our teacher advisory board we can confidently say ‘we’ve got you covered.’

In part 2 we will consider how you can help promote a positive work environment and in part 3 will look at resources to support wellbeing.