Creating Mentally Healthy Schools

Carole BlackDr Challoner’s Grammar School

Creating Mentally Healthy Schools

Introducing Wellbeing Initiatives

Embedding a shared responsibility for

mental health

Gradually engendering change

Where we started?

Students need good mental health and

need to be able to look after their mental

health to flourish

Students - more preventative work● Resilience Building● Understanding mental health &

addressing stigma● Link between physical health and mental

health

Why is staff mental health so important?

Staff to need good mental health to flourish - when staff are flourishing the

students will flourish

We also need staff to be good mental health

role models

Silence around mental health is costly to Employers: ● Affects productivity● Contributes to absence● Contributes to staff turnover● Impacts on staff happiness at work – and good will….

Staff FeedbackWhat can we do to make your job easier?How can we make you happier at work?

Workload

Change management

Community/Isolation

Environment

Recognition & feeling valued

Build trust - don’t make this an initiative

Actions speak louder than words

Recognise that colleagues will have a wide

range of views on this topic

Take people with you - go slowly

Change from the inside

Our approach

● Making staff welfare a key discussion point in school wide decision making

● Activities in INSET to educate and build resilience skills - mirror work with students

● Activities every term to keep the discussion going

● Activities every term to build community

● Repeating activities to show long term commitment, build understanding, good habits and

embed working practises

● Keep reminding colleagues that wellbeing is everyone’s responsibility

● Encourage all staff, especially managers to set examples, lead from the front

● Try not to add workload, make supporting welfare fit into existing systems and processes

But … share any workload related to mental health activities - lots of staff doing a little

● Learn from others – outside our school & outside the education sector

Two week Autumn

half term

Reduced break

duty

Earlier parents

evenings with food

Only one year 6

open evening

Reduced content

for written reports

Stopped Year 8

meet the tutor event

Staff Cakes

Staff Yoga

New, improved

Christmas partyStaff

Wimbledon

More INSET about

Mental Health & Staff

Wellbeing

Staff Book

Club

Staff room notice board to

raise awareness and keep

discussion going

Energy Grid - watch for

burnout and remember the

recovery zone

Staff Badminton

Introduced change

management

policy

Encourage

walking

meetings

Reducing lunch

meetings –

providing

food/drinks

Changed last day

of term finish time

from 2:30pm to

12:30pm

Signed up to

Employee

Assistance

Programme

Outdoor

seating area

Training staff as

Mental Health

First Aiders

Marking Time to Talk Day

to get everyone talking

about mental health

Signed the Time To

Change Employer

Pledge - commitment

to end stigma and

mental health

discrimination

School

counsellors

provide staff

support

Updated PDRs to

include

discussion about

welfare support

Welfare DogNew Staff Welfare

Policy - committing to

support and workplace

adjustments

Teaching staff

PRP skills -

recognise ABC &

Catastrophising!

Staff training on

wellbeing as part of

line management

Sharing lived life

experiences

Recruited 20

well being

champions

Improving staff

toilets

Promoting

the 5 Ways

to Wellbeing

5 Ways to Wellbeing - staff, students and parents

Wear the colour each day - connecting

No phones day - noticing, connecting

Whole school donation to a food bank - giving, connecting

Encourage families to prepare and cook a meal together - connecting

Staff v 6th form Netball Match - keeping active, connecting

Try a new club, complete an online learning activity - keep learning

Staff pottery session - keep learning, noticing, connecting

Speak to a relative, neighbour, colleague who you haven’t spoken to for a while - connecting

Have a walking meeting - keeping active

External Expertise & Input

Learn outside the Education sector

External review of progress, benchmarking, suggestions

Repeating the same review helps measure progress year on year

Signed Time To Change Pledge Oct 2017 - Action Plan from staff survey and

Mind Workplace Well Being Index report

Continuing with Mind Work Place Wellbeing Index 2017/18 and 2018/19

Access to a free resources and support

Helps to keep this at the top of the school agenda

Headlines 2016/17 2017/18

Building Mental Health Literacy, Awareness Raising and Anti Stigma Campaigns 47% 97%

Preventative Measures (proactive approach to supporting mental health) and initiatives 57% 93%

Senior Leader Buy In and Organisational Accountability 59% 87%

Physical Environment 60% 79%

People Management and effective skills to support Mental Health 60% 75%

Employee Support Tools 31% 71%

Policies & Policy Development 46% 70%

Job Design & Recruitment - roles consider mental health e.g. workload, autonomy, variety 67% 67%

Lived Experience Leadership - staff who have experienced mental health issues sharing

experiences and being at the forefront of change

27% 58%

MIND Workplace Wellbeing Index

How does experiencing poor mental health affect you at work?

Disclosing a Mental Health Concern at DCGS

Staff who did not

disclose a mental

health issue feel

less confident to

disclose than those

that did

But ...staff who

did not disclose

felt similarly

confident that

they would be

supported as

those that did

disclose

The impact of disclosure on a member of staffs situation at

work - we need to give more staff the confidence to disclose

1

2

3

4

Staff views on whether managers encourage and demonstrate

healthy working habits

Embedding and engendering changeSenior Management support and action – also need a

lead to keep pushing to the top of the agenda

Core (diverse) group of staff to “champion”

Approach that can be woven into existing school ethos

and practices - build from the inside

Time for staff training – mirror with student support

Have a plan and try and stick to core themes

Commitment to develop beyond initial actions, to review

and grow – put on the School Improvement Plan