This way in which the House system allows younger children to develop relationships with and learn from older children and the older children to develop leadership skills and empathy in their relationships with the younger children, is just one of the positives of the House system. Houses also create a sense of belonging, feeling of camaraderie and ensure children have the opportunity to develop teamwork skills that will stay with them for life. Houses are about more that the academic side of school and help develop the whole child, which is so important for overall wellbeing.

When I was Housemistress of the Junior Girls Boarding House at Marlborough College in Malaysia, I saw first-hand the important role of Houses in first class pastoral care and indeed the House system stems from boarding schools, where children live in their ‘House’. However, I firmly believe that Houses are just as important for day schools as for boarding schools and should be a core part of any school’s pastoral care tool kit.

Whatever age and stage children join a new school, they very quickly identify with their House and that sense of belonging is really important to all of us, but particularly to children who are changing, growing and learning the whole time. Collaboration is an important part of this and we often run inter house competitions at Crown House to develop this further.  We recently had a charity school fair where each of our 3 Houses had to create and market 3 stalls in order to raise funds for their chosen charities. The event raised over £600 and was a real example of teamwork and collaboration at its best with children from reception to Year 6 working together to deliver on their stalls. Other recent inter House events have included art competitions and singing competitions which have seen older and younger pupils working together towards a common goal.

Another important aspect of Houses is the opportunity for pupils to get to see their teachers in a different light, outside the classroom. This develops relationships and dialogue between pupils and staff which both helps in the classroom and outside it by creating new bonds so pupils have other adults – in addition to their form teachers – they feel comfortable talking to about whatever may be on their mind at that time. Strong and positive relations between pupils and staff leads to a happier school which is good for everyone.

For older children, the House system presents leadership opportunities and at Crown House our Year 6 pupils are given areas of responsibility that help them develop leadership skills which they can develop further at secondary school.

The House system supports pupil development and wellbeing, setting our children up with skills for life, which is why I believe it should be integral to the pastoral care of all schools.

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In August this year, the Guardian reported that while ‘students attending independent schools in England achieved top GCSE grades at twice the rate of those attending state schools, this year the top grades fell from 61.2 percent to 53 percent, a fall of nearly four times the national average (overall, the proportion of students getting top grades this year fell from 28.9% to 26.3%).’ At the same time, it was also reported that ‘GCSE students’’ exam nerves were at a high’, with headteachers stating that ‘GCSE students this year were so nervous about their exams that they suffered from anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia’.

Students feel that the entire sum of their education is leading up to this one day; their nerves are based on failing their parents, teachers and of course themselves.

Last year we reported on research from the Sutton Trust which highlighted the pressure that teachers are also under! The survey showed that 23 percent of teachers at private schools have felt pressured by parents over students’ grades, compared to 11 percent of teachers at state schools in poorer areas.

Exam success – the importance of critical thinking

Whether students are taking GCSEs or iGCSE exams, how can teachers give students the skills, confidence and tools they need to apply their knowledge effectively, avoid mistakes and achieve the greatest pass marks?

These skills are not part of the syllabus, but by teaching the students how to achieve these extra marks, they can go into the exams with more confidence and less stressed, knowing that they will be able to achieve the optimum marks for their responses. Also reducing the teachers’ stress!

The most important thing to remember is that exam success is not about cramming or teaching to the test (this just adds to the pressure they’ll feel) but about demystifying the exam process; supporting the students to understand the exam structure and requirements.

As a team of former examiners, we regularly saw student exam papers where the student clearly knew the answer but could have earned a lot higher marks if they’d have presented their answer in a different way.

An excellent example can be found in the AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 1, question 5: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing.

It is important that students realise that this question is worth 40 marks, equivalent to half the entire exam paper. The key to this kind of question isn’t writing as much as of a story as possible. The examiners love inventive stories that stand out for using a wide range of phrasing and language techniques; basically they are inviting the students to ‘show-off’ their knowledge and flair.

There is an easy hack in this paper that we recommend. Section A requires students to analyse a literature extract and identify the writing techniques used. Having done this, they can ensure they include those techniques in their own story in Section B.

A student who understands pedagogical practice would first consider how marks are awarded and how to allocate their time accordingly.

In this question 16 marks are awarded for technical accuracy and 24 marks for content and organisation. The recommended time to spend on this question is 45 minutes.

A student might aim to write a long and detailed story and do a quick proofread, but with spelling, punctuation and grammar worth the majority of the marks in this question, at least five or ten minutes should ideally be spent on thoroughly checking and proofreading to maximise their results.

The framework we have developed to help student achieve top marks in this English Language paper is the DFZCR framework, however our advice covers all subjects.

D is for Dialogue, reminding students to follow the critical writing rule of ‘show don’t tell’ through expressive dialogue that shows the reader how their characters are feeling. F stands for Flashbacks. Additional marks can be scored by contrasting this dialogue with scenes from the past, moving backwards and forwards in time. This relates to Z which stands for Zooming in and out, focusing on smaller elements and then how they fit into the overarching story. C prompts students to include a Crisis, the focal point of a story around which events unfold, in response to which the main character should make an important decision. The final piece of the puzzle is R, the Resolution, which brings the disparate elements of the story together in conclusion.

Four marks can be earned in this question purely on the basis of a story being compelling, so students should use these story elements to provoke the readers’ curiosity and emotion, illustrated with the creative language techniques they’ve learned.

None of the above skills can be gained through cramming. By breaking down what examiners are actually looking for, students can enter the exam calm and equipped with precise knowledge of what they need to demonstrate to gain marks.

These techniques can be applied to any subject, including Maths, where the key is still in demystifying the paper and understanding what skills are actually being tested.

In GCSE Maths, students aren’t only being tested on their aptitude for numbers, but correct comprehension of the question being asked. This is why Read, Read and Read Again is one of the most important pieces of advice in our toolkit.

For an example of what this looks like in practice, consider the following Maths question:

 If 16 + 4x is 10 more than 14, what is the value of 8x?

1. A) 6
2. B)80 
3. C) 2 
4. D) 16

A student who is rushing through their paper might quickly decide the answer is C. But what the question actually asks for is the value of 8x.

What’s more, while all teachers will tell students to include their workings so examiners can see their process. However, fewer will be aware that even this has a preferred format which students can use to be awarded extra marks.

Summary

By itself, being an experienced examiner itself would leave one ill-equipped to teach in a classroom. But by the same token, a teacher’s skillset is quite different to the one I have just described. By entering exams armed with an examiner’s insight, students can more calmly and confidently display their skill and prowess to achieve the best possible grade across all their subjects.

About the author 

Tamara Budham Caldwell is one of a team of former GCSE, IB, principal and senior examiners at Impress Education.

You might also like: International Baccalaureate exams to move online

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Much of Covid-19’s disruptions were negative, but some of its modifications caused a shift in thinking that would, ultimately, bring about positive and permanent change.

Exercise became much more accessible, as did conversations around mental health – and using the former to manage the latter. A walk was a daily highlight during lockdowns, and an emotional lifeline for many.

Whether it was through Joe Wicks’ daily PE live streams, which aimed to ‘help us feel happier’, or the daily stroll outdoors, fitness was viewed through a new, compassionate lens. And although it’s a delight to see our school sports fields back open ‘as they were’, we should continue to celebrate simple movement and the benefits it can bring.

Removing competition 

Competitive sports such as rugby, cricket and lacrosse are ingrained into independent school culture, but given the full-contact nature of team sports like these, they were no longer feasible during the pandemic. At Loughborough Schools Foundation, we quickly adopted a Functional Movement Systems (FMS) based curriculum to keep our pupils active throughout the pandemic, in partnership with FMS UK.

FMS activities are a stark contrast to team sports – rather than adhering to rules or strategy to score points, the goal is to retrain the body and mind to improve movement efficiency. Aided by technology, classes can be performed both virtually and in-person, with no limit on group sizes.

But, just as mandatory remote working soon kick-started a hybrid revolution across the nation’s offices, we noticed a similar change in attitudes as we removed the competitive nature of physical education. Of course, there are many benefits to team sports we can’t overlook – yet we also mustn’t discount those who experience that environment differently.

Focus on the individual 

Nationwide studies show that this changing mindset goes beyond our own school gates. A survey by Women in Sport from March 2022 found that more than one million girls who considered themselves ‘sporty’ in primary school lost interest in it as a teenager – and 68% of those said it was due to a fear of feeling judged. By focussing on the individual, this pressure to be the best and keep up with others on the team is removed.

In our new curriculum, every student has an FMS profile which is logged on a digital dashboard. Just as tutors in other subjects like maths, English or history might work with a pupil to identify areas where they need to improve, this works in a similar way. These areas could include strength, balance, mobility and even teaching students techniques for breathing more efficiently.

The bigger picture 

Beyond keeping fit, these self-defined lessons can have far-ranging benefits. Working on developing good posture and breathing can have a positive impact on confidence – that first job interview may become a lot easier after months of practising crocodile breathing patterns. Pupils who aren’t the best at scoring goals, for example, can also have an equal experience during FMS activities, boosting their morale which will soon be visible across other subjects too.

Myself and all other leaders at Loughborough Schools Foundation are continuously looking for ways to support our pupils’ wellbeing, while also giving them the skills they need to do well beyond their education, into their future professions  – the two go hand-in-hand.

Across the Foundation, we believe that developing a good student into a well-rounded adult starts from the very beginning. For example, after noticing significantly that more of our early years pupils were showing signs of anxiety after the pandemic, we introduced yoga and mindfulness sessions into our nursery. The aim was to nurture their wellbeing and independence, while also alleviating immediate pressure on the milestones expected of them, like learning to read and write. It is our hope that these early learnings will stand them in good stead for whatever future endeavours they may face in life.

For some students, nothing can beat the buzz of match-day energy, comradery with teammates and post-match debriefs – and there will always be clubs for that if they so choose that route. But what about those students who can’t keep up with their teammates? Putting pressure on them to do so as part of their everyday curriculum is unnecessary, and potentially harmful to their self-confidence. Why not use this time to do what’s best for the individual, and their future?

You might also like: Virtual physical education should be priority in schools, says sport charity

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Of course, food price hikes are putting organisations under an enormous amount of pressure and have left them burdened with seemingly ever-rising costs, so there is an understandable sense of concern among caterers as we enter the new academic year.

This, of course, has a knock-on effect in the school kitchen. Caterers are facing huge challenges at every turn when it comes to operating a school meal service with staff shortages and high vacancy rates, coupled with a shortage of drivers, all making things in the sector difficult. To compound this, food inflation means that many school caterers are having to compromise on the quantity and quality of the meals they serve to pupils, which is a concern given the obvious importance of giving young children a healthy and well-portioned meal.

Many school meal providers have already admitted that they’re worried they’ll simply be unable to meet the basic legally mandated food requirements, which could mean a rise in the cost per school meal and possibly lead to parents being priced out. However, modernising the school meals system through the introduction of advance ordering can mitigate the impact of price rises. Caterers will be able to manage costs as they will have prior information on the ingredients required for the week which, in turn, should ensure that parents will be able to afford meals for their children.

Government support needed

As well as modernising the school catering system, the government has got to do more to support the catering industry. Back in May, catering giant BidFood warned former Prime Minister Boris Johnson that school meals will shrink without help to tackle the rising costs and it’s a warning they’ve repeated to his successor, Liz Truss. The only measure taken so far to ease the pressure on caterers has been to increase infant free school meal funding by 7p, but this is inadequate on two counts: firstly, it falls short of inflation; and, secondly, this increase only applies to reception pupils.

Ultimately, the government must provide more money to help cover the charge per meal cost of free school meals to reduce the burdens on councils, schools and caterers and prevent parents from being priced out of school meals.

The importance of school meals

It’s crucial that students have access to quality and well-portioned lunch as research has shown that it will significantly improve educational performances. A hot, nutritious school meal at lunchtime can help improve a child’s satiety and energy levels in the afternoon, which will help them to take in key learnings and prevent rumbling stomachs from becoming an unwelcome distraction. This could lead to long-term benefits and, with wider access to school meals, we will likely see a boost to academic outcomes across the board.

Not only will it improve performance in the classroom, but it’s important to remember that, for many pupils, this will be the only means by which they receive a nutritious meal during the day and, sadly, for some it could be their only meal of the day. Reducing quality and quantity of school meals will have a devastating impact on their health and could lead to large numbers of children across the country becoming malnourished. So, while costs rise, it’s vital that school meal standards are not diminished, which is why further government intervention and modernisation is needed.

Pre-selection: a modernising solution

This is where pre-selection of meals comes in. Lunchtimes in schools can often be chaotic and are becoming even more costly for schools and councils. With pre-selection of meals in place, school kitchens can operate far more efficiently. The service allows for parents and children to choose their lunchtime meals in advance and, ultimately, provide more choice.

Choosing meals in advance also reduces waste as children with a choice are more likely to eat the meals they select and caterers can order ingredients in advance, which allows for less waste and therefore more choice. An increase in school meal uptake also helps to reduce cost per meal for schools. All of this can help bring about greater efficiency in school kitchens and, with the right system, schools and councils can significantly reduce their losses and operate in a much more financially sustainable way.

There’s no doubt that we are living in exceptional times for the food (and many other) industries, but with a system of this kind in place, an uptake in school meals is likely to be achieved, and this will, naturally, help to alleviate the losses caused by rising prices.

Of course, this is not a magic wand; it has to be coupled with further government support so that losses can be mitigated. However, what it will do is provide a significant saving which should prevent schools and councils from having to raise prices, meaning that parents won’t suffer from being unable to afford school meals.

You might also like: Navigating spiralling costs in the school kitchen

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The Department for Education’s 2017 research report entitled Encouraging People into University stated that attending university is a: “life-changing opportunity that can bring high returns to both the individual and country”, and “in an economy increasingly driven by knowledge and ideas, the supply of highly-skilled graduates is likely to become ever more important over coming years. Therefore, it is vital to sustain high levels of university attendance and a pipeline of graduates to meet the needs of employers and society”.

But Wrekin College’s head, Tim Firth, wants to reverse this trend: “The idea that all should go to university is creating absurd and unnecessary pressure on a lot of people who actually don’t want to go, and shouldn’t actually go.

“It’s almost teaching them that anything they do, that isn’t [university], is a failure or a shortfall, whereas in fact, it could be better than or equivalent to.”

He points out that independent schools are particularly guilty of having a blinkered approach to post-18 options for pupils, which he describes as “a bit odd” because “there are many, many more options”.

“At the moment the world – certainly this country – needs a hell a lot of people to do other things.”

If universities diversified their offering with more vocational courses, Tim would be happier, so long as the end result was “a whole bunch of different people doing different things”.

His statements carry particular weight this year when many students still didn’t have any university offers by the time A-level results day rolled around in August. Due to higher numbers of applicants and rejection rates, and more conservative offer-making from institutions, the percentage of 18-year-olds not holding an offer before results has risen from 6% to 9% over the past two years.

This summer also saw the most UK students in over 10 years entering clearing, and those that have graduated are demanding refunds for teaching lost to strikes and Covid. And, yet, students are keener than ever to head straight to uni, with record numbers shunning a gap year.

Tim says the current recruiting market is leading universities to deceive students with “ludicrous degrees”. 

“I think if [universities] were honest about it, they would be possibly less successful but it would be better and children would be freed up. Breeding young people to think they need to go to university and making them think they’re academically really able and they’re going to a really good one might set them up to be defensive. 

“It actually takes them longer to get used to the workplace, and they’re less fit for it because they don’t think that what they’re being asked to do in the workplace is aligned with their previous aspiration of a degree. There’s some misalignment, which I think leads to unhelpful labelling of the self.

“The danger is that it churns out people who aren’t that numerate or literate even after they’ve got their degrees, and you do wonder what it was for.”

The ‘passion degree’

A university graduate himself, Tim sees no problem with the ‘passion’ degree that leads nowhere but deeper into a subject a student loves, so long as there are “no other pretensions about it”. Such a degree won’t do anything for your employability, he says, adding that he left university totally unprepared for the workplace – “I was absolutely hopeless” – and gradually figured out that teaching was what he wanted to do.

Whilst he loved his time reading English, and is glad with where he’s ended up, he knows there are other people who’d benefit from a more practical and integrated higher education experience. 

“I think had I, for example, decided I wanted to be a teacher. There’s no reason why I couldn’t have got a degree whilst learning how to teach at the same time.”

Wrekin College in Shropshire is working hard on giving pupils alternatives to traditional university courses. Its purpose-built business school teaches employability through talks, events, self-startup opportunities and entrepreneurial challenges, and this year three leavers picked competitive apprenticeships at PwC and Deloitte over university degrees.

But Wrekin ‘isn’t daft’, says Tim. It knows many bright pupils come to the school in order to get into good universities, and doesn’t intend to stop encouraging them to do so.

“We teach people there might be more valuable things than university. We want them to vote in to what they do rather than just default. People who go straight to the workplace and earn money absolutely command the respect of this school.

“I think for children it’s hanging above their heads, this myth that you’ve got to go to uni. People get very wedded to the narratives of these universities, who claim to be the third best at this, the tenth best at this, which are absurd.

“But it suits a lot of schools not to talk about it and to shut it up. Because, of course, children get the degrees, the schools can say they got their children to university. 

“It needs a radical rethink.”

“We do put our pupils through multitasking scenarios. We keep it broad here for longer without any doubt. And they do have to do quite a lot of formal and informal, team leading and taking care of other people – they end up directing plays, whether they’ve been in and one or not, for example, because everybody’s got to have a go.”

Why does Tim think pupils should lead these rich lives, broad in experience?

“Because you don’t know what’s in you. And I think if you do stuff, you say yes to stuff and have a go at it, I think you always surprise yourself. And even if you didn’t like it, it normally taught you something or made you stronger, or gave you more empathy. 

“I think that if you stay too narrow, you never find out about that kind of stuff. Stretching and challenging yourself is important. 

“A good school teaches people they can have a go. They might find it difficult, but they’ll keep going. There are very, very few people in any job who are perfect or do it really, really well. It’s quite freeing to realise that.”

The post Wrekin College head: ‘The idea that all should go to university is creating absurd and unnecessary pressure’ appeared first on Independent Education Today.

Teaching is majority white

The NfER’s recent report on racial equality in the teacher workforce shows, yet again, what we already know – that there is significant under-representation of people from Asian, Black, dual heritage and other ethnic minority backgrounds within the teaching profession. Teachers from Black, Asian and Global Majority backgrounds have been marginalised in a system that seems to have changed little since the 1980s, back when the Swann Report identified that ethnic minorities were underrepresented in teaching.

What is striking in this latest report from NfER is the fact that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are clearly keen to become teachers, and are over-represented in Initial Teacher Training (ITT) applications, yet, at all stages thereafter, numbers decline. From acceptance onto the courses, to enrolment, achieving QTS, right through to becoming middle and senior leaders and headteachers, the trajectory points steadily downwards. White candidates, however, are significantly overrepresented at all stages of this career journey, except, significantly, at entry to ITT, and remain so consistently.

Unless there is simply coincidence at play here, or there is something inherently deficient in people of colour’s ability to deliver when it comes to training to be a teacher, and subsequently progressing professionally, we must examine the structural reasons why these trends persist. The simple fact is, improving ‘diversity’ by investing efforts in attracting people of colour to the profession is like pouring sand through a sieve if we don’t change the biases and structural racism which creates and maintains teaching as a white profession, and one which actively locks out teachers of colour at every stage.

Initial teacher training is where it starts

A recent DfE survey, revealed that only 53% of newly qualified teachers, six months into their first post, felt well-prepared to teach pupils “from all ethnic backgrounds” and only 39% felt well-prepared to teach pupils who use English as an additional language. Preparing teachers for multicultural Britain has been removed from ITT curricular since the 1990s, in favour of more technicist teaching approaches geared towards curriculum ‘delivery’ models.

We desperately need to ensure that teachers understand how society works, including concepts such as socialisation, power structures, structural inequity and inequality-by-design. Teaching, once regarded as a political act, has been neutralised to ‘curriculum delivery’, memory recall, and accountability to a marketised schooling system where children are regarded as assets or risks to schools’ position on the league tables.

Teaching and teacher education has a mandated ‘race’-evasive approach, even when it does purport to be the great leveller for social inequity. The Teach First manifesto to end educational inequality is a spectacular specimen of this approach. It fails to analyse how inequalities are socially constructed and operationalised, as it stumbles through some of the most used ‘tools of whiteness’ to evade ‘race’. The manifesto talks of potential as a finite entity and fails to acknowledge that far from being neutral, many of our current education processes create and reproduce inequalities, are high stakes, obsessed with labels, segregating, and creating hierarchies.

Most worrying is that Teach First, an organisation which made bold declarations around race equity over the course of the last two years, fails to connect the dots, including in its manifesto an entire section on supporting leaders from underrepresented backgrounds without once mentioning ‘race’, structural or institutional racism or what anti-racist practice might look like. This is hardly surprising perhaps given the tightrope this organisation must walk between being the government stars of teacher training. This is the same government insisting that racism is a thing of the past in the UK through the much-derided Sewell Report on race disparities which has released teacher impartiality guidance openly attacking schools’ commitment to antiracism education and practice as ‘political’ and ‘personal opinion’.

There are pockets of hope, however. The recently launched Anti-Racist Framework for ITT/E has been developed by Professor Heather Smith, Professor Vini Lander and Marsha Garratt in partnership with a number of leading organisations concerned with race equity in the education sector, including the NEU, CREDand The BAMEed Network. This collaborative project has generated new data and evidence for this research-informed anti-racism framework for Initial Teacher Education/Training, including PGCE and SCITT courses, in England.

How do we recruit teachers from Global Majority backgrounds better?

In the meantime, some schools do want to do better when it comes to attracting, recruiting and retaining teachers of colour in their ranks. For a campaign to ‘recruit for diversity’ to be successful, it’s worth taking an honest look at your organisational bias, and seeing why it may not yet be friendly to all humans. This is important because the last thing you want to do is recruit new people from more diverse backgrounds than you are accustomed to, only for it to be experienced as a hostile environment lacking the self-awareness to understand why only certain people will be able to thrive there.

To do this, you will need to commit some time and budget. You may benefit from some outside help to set the strategy with you, but you must carry out any work on this, as part of a committed whole-school learning process, even when you do have external support. You will need to commit time to reading, re-educating yourselves and un-learning some practices you have always considered normal. It is also important to have an educated grasp on what systemic racism is, and not frame racism as many schools do, as just dwelling in notable incidents and overt acts of racist abuse. The BAMEed Network has a wealth of free resources to help you, including recordings of the recent presentations delivered at The Bett Show earlier in the year. These cover issues such as identity and belonging, racial literacy, and developing psychological safety for Black and Global Majority staff in schools.

Other solutions which may be of interest are tools to identify and track where and how racial bias is holding your organisation back and ethical recruitment platforms which help to prevent bias from sabotaging the drive to improve diversity. Be warned, though: the mark of an organisation committed to change and anti-racism may be one that once you have learned to see structural racism, you see it everywhere. This can often be the marker of the shift from being ‘not racist’ to being ‘anti-racist’. Change takes commitment and time.

You might also like: How to recruit and retain the best teachers

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This is a chance to reflect on how far D&I initiatives have come, the work left to do, and how we need to create a holistic approach to improving overall wellbeing.

In the context of the current climate, it’s more important than ever to take a step back from the day-to-day and consider the bigger picture.

Our global mission is to help individuals feel fulfilled and lead purposeful working lives.

In practical terms, this means that employers must be mindful that work is only one aspect of an employee’s life and that their people may be facing unseen challenges that may impact on their mental health.

Any organisation is only as strong as its people, all of whom have their own stories, difficulties and strengths. For employers, it’s important to understand that dealing with mental health can be a long road and there often isn’t an immediate fix.

Accepting this and taking a long-term view by providing support through implementing initiatives focused on wellbeing and mental health can help to open up conversations and remove stigma.

Mental health and the workplace

Thankfully, the stigma around mental health in the workplace is beginning to become a thing of the past. However, having a day dedicated to awareness of the effects of poor mental health can act as a friendly reminder of what we can do to be aware of, and assist those suffering with, mental health challenges.

Work has an important role to play in creating a space, both physical and psychological, where everyone can be their true self and feel free to share difficulties and problems, should they wish to do so.
The rise in remote and hybrid working has made this even more challenging for employers, which raises an important question:

How do employers do this?

First and foremost, you must make employee wellbeing a priority. This may sound obvious, but it can be easy for the best-laid plans to become words and not actions. Developing platforms and strategies which help employees manage hybrid working and prioritise their wellbeing can have tangible impact.

Here are three tips we have implemented at Ricoh:

1. Define the tools and technology needed
As we all know, the way we work has changed. Technology is an important element of making hybrid working possible and the key to giving employees the best digital experience to support their wellbeing and development. Without investing in technology to aid communication and collaboration, your people cannot truly excel in a hybrid working environment and achieve fulfilment through work.

2. Communicate regularly and openly
Nobody likes to be left in the dark, especially if they’re feeling anxious or uncertain. Managers have a key role to play, and regular one-to-one conversations with their teams can help combat isolation and loneliness. This is particularly important when teams are distributed across the office and remote locations. Reaching out to your colleagues can help put in place support before anyone even needs it.

3. Signpost mental health and wellbeing platforms
Recent statistics from Gartner’s global 2021 EVP Benchmarking Survey highlight that, although 87% of employees have access to mental and emotional wellbeing platforms, only 23% of employees use them. It’s the responsibility of management to ensure your people know they have platforms and tools that can help them prioritise how they’re feeling and the challenges they’re facing.

Any organisation is only as strong as its people, all of whom have their own stories, difficulties and strengths

Implementing support

While recognising that more can be done to support on mental health, there comes a point where practical, on-the-ground support needs to be rolled out. Within this, it’s also important to consider that while people may be in need of help, they may not necessarily be ready to reach out and ask for it.

As an organisation, providing opportunities for your people to reach out to others in the business who may be able to help them maintain their wellbeing or manage mental health concerns is key.

At Ricoh, we have in place commitments to support employees, across all levels, with their mental health, as and when they need it.

Initiatives such as the Mental Health at Work Commitment… Endorsed by both Business in the Community and Mind, these are a set of actions for organisations to follow to improve, support mental health and to create a culture which promotes and supports the health and wellbeing of our colleagues.

Alongside this, we’ve also developed The Wellbeing Champions programme, which provides training to selected employees to provide their colleagues with mental health first aid. Wellbeing Champions can be the first point of contact for those who need help or someone to talk to and can provide signposts to further help as necessary.

Our Wellbeing Hub has also been a huge benefit to our business, culture and people. It’s a central hub where people can access resources, tools and training, including the free-to-use and confidential ‘Employee Assistance Programme’, for help with any personal, health, financial or other problems.

Finally, we launched the Everymind Wellbeing app, a mobile application available for all employees to download, designed to provide tailored, individual experience and 24/7 support.

Work has an important role to play in creating a space, both physical and psychological, where everyone can be their true self

Understanding the now

Cliches are cliches for a reason – because they’re generally true. One of the latest additions to the cliche store cupboard is the now familiar ‘uncertain times…’

But the truth is, these are uncertain times.

And with uncertain times can come mental hardship.

The cost of living crisis can, and inevitably will, cause stress and anxiety for many. And for those already dealing with their mental health, it can become all too overwhelming.

In recognition of this, we’ve introduced a range of initiatives specifically designed to support financial wellbeing, including a 30-minute free consultation with an independent financial advisor. Giving all employees access to the MyEva app (which helps with financial planning), this is currently used by a third of our employees – well above the average for a company the size of Ricoh. This is as well as producing internal guidance and signposting to useful resources, tips and ideas on helping with the cost of living.

We also offer access to ‘Elements Everyday’ which provides discounts and benefits across a range of products and services on everyday purchases, including fuel cards for discounted fuel for those travelling into the office. Not only does this help encourage our people to travel to the office, should they wish to do so, but ensures this doesn’t impact the cost savings they are making on not using the energy at home.

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According to the NHS website, physical benefits of exercise include a lower risk of: coronary heart disease and stroke; type 2 diabetes; bowel cancer; breast cancer in women; early death; osteoarthritis; hip fracture; falls (in older adults); and dementia.

However, there are many equally important mental health benefits, too.

Chemical-boosting happiness

So, what exactly does happen when we exercise?

Why does it lift our mood? Quite simply, when we exercise, the human body switches on and releases several chemicals that boost your sense of happiness and wellbeing – as well as silencing the hormones that cause stress and anxiety. Endorphins, serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitters are just a few of the main chemicals released during exercise. Endorphins help relieve stress and pain as well as improving wellbeing. Serotonin is the feeling of happiness, optimism, and satisfaction; while dopamine plays an important role in pleasurable reward and motivation.

It has become almost universally known that exercise is good for the body

Happiness is a subjected state of mind characterised by the feeling of enjoyment, being content and overall wellbeing (Veenhoven, 2010). Such is the importance of this that countries such as France, Canada and the United Kingdom now include a national happiness index as an indicator for national progress (Ghent, 2011).

Reduction in anxiety

In a follow-up study in 2021, mental disorders have increased in 6–16-year-olds from one in nine to one in six since 2017. It is likely that one of the main reasons for this can be attributed to children not exercising during the Covid–19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns.

In fact, according to MIND:

● 9 in 10 young people said that loneliness made their mental health worse during the pandemic
● young people said they were missing positive coping strategies, like seeing friends or being outside.

The toll of anxiety can be demanding; it can increase a person’s risk of depression as well as contributing to diabetes and cardiovascular problems. People who suffer from anxiety tend to do less intense forms of exercise and are more sedentary. However, exercising can help ease anxiety, and here are the reasons why:

● Engaging in exercise can help take your mind off the exact thing you are anxious about
● Moving the human body decreases muscle tension, thus lowering the body’s contribution to feeling anxious
● An increased heart rate changes the brain chemistry, releasing all of the happy chemicals and hormones
● Exercising regularly builds up resources that bolster resilience against stormy emotions.

Sports scientists conducted a meta-review researching if anxiety specifically was reduced through exercise. Results provided clinicians with solid evidence to recommend exercise training to patients as a means to reduce anxiety (Herring et al, 2010).

Physical fitness and exercise can also help young people develop important skills such as conflict resolution, cooperation with peers and social skills

Exercise can be daunting for some; however, not every individual has to play a 90-minute game of football or complete a marathon to reap the rewards. In fact, the NHS states that 150 minutes of moderate exercise (75 minutes of vigorous) a week is the guideline. It is important to spread the exercise out across the week and reduce the times sat down and not moving.

While children may well get their quota of exercise at school, both through play and at sports clubs, busy teachers and staff who may be juggling their jobs and home life – or for those less sporty – there are some simple ways to make exercise more accessible:

● Park further away from the shops
● Take stairs instead of the lift
● Go on a family bike ride or walk
● Find a workout partner
● Take breaks from your computer and walk up and down the hallway.

Reduction in stress

Exercise can also aid mental wellbeing by reducing stress that occurs. Any form of exercise can act as a stress reliever. Exercise will reduce the negative effects of stress whilst imitating the effects of stress – such as your fight or flight response, which is an example of one of the stresses your body faces when exercising. This helps your body and its systems practise working through the effects of stress.

Exercise could also be seen as a form of meditation: as you exercise, you have to think about how your body is moving and how you are going to move your body.

This keeps the mind at bay and helps you forget about all the stressful things going on. And, as mentioned, exercise will also improve your mood, releasing the endorphins and hormones to make you feel happy and relaxed.

Physical activity improves your body’s ability to use oxygen and also improves blood flow; both of these changes have a direct effect on your brain. Some people notice an improvement in their mood straight away following activity, and those feelings won’t end there. Generally, they will become cumulative over time. This means, the more you exercise, the greater those feelings will become as you stay committed to routine activity.

For children, notably, exercise can boost self-esteem and reduce depression and anxiety, as well as symptoms of attention deficit disorder, notes the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK.

Improvement of social skills

There are also indirect mental wellbeing benefits that people may not be aware of, such as the increase in social skills that people of all ages can gain from activity. For children, it can provide a way of connecting with peers and a common interest, particularly useful, perhaps, when joining a new school.

Physical fitness and exercise can also help young people develop important skills such as conflict resolution, cooperation with peers and social skills, such as leadership, and fine-tuning motor skills. For the more reluctant, team sports may be the only way to get some individuals exercising because they may only want to exercise if they can be on the same team as a friend.

Team sports also promote feelings of camaraderie such as sticking together if you lose, or celebrating when you win. The feeling of belonging to a group or a team, to a community, can help the child – or adult – join in again – and its benefits cannot be overstated.

REFERENCES
Veenhoven, R. (2010). How Universal is Happiness? (Chap. 11). In E. Diener, J. F. Helliwell, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), International differences in well-being (pp. 328–350). New York: Oxford University Press.

Ghent, A. (2011). The happiness effect. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 89(4), 246–247.

Herring, M. P., O’Connor, P. J., & Dishman, R. K. (2010). The effect of exercise training on anxiety symptoms among patients: a systematic review. Archives of internal medicine, 170(4), 321-331.

A note of caution

Obviously, while the positives of physical activity cannot be overstated, it is important to know about and manage some of the possible negative effects that could arise from exercise in certain situations. One known example is the link between exercise and eating disorders or conditions such as body dysmorphia. The latter is where a child or adult can become overly obsessed with how they look and how they think they should look, which can lead to over-exercising and thus cause more harm than good. While this can affect people of any age, men or women, the latter is more prevalent in teenagers and young people, particularly with all the current societal and social media pressures on looking a certain way.

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Wellbeing and personal development post pandemic

Earlier this month Sir Anthony Seldon was clear in his view that teaching wellbeing and character is critical in all educational establishments. In the light of the pandemic, this has never been never truer. With child and adolescent mental health services stretched (CAMHS) beyond capacity, schools, colleges, and universities are having to contain and manage complex mental health situations in pupils.

This sounds like and is a sad situation, yet the wellbeing and personal development (WPD) team at Solihull believes that the delivery of practical, realistic wellbeing and personal development is a privilege, pleasure, and important part of their school psyche.

“We see this as part of our educational duty to foster awareness, provide skills and understanding of modern-day issues, to help pupils incorporate and use skills for coping with life’s challenges in a realistic and pragmatic way, and to facilitate safe and authentic learning spaces for young people to explore who they are and how they fit into the world around them” says Louise Rooney, head of WPD and diversity, equity and inclusion lead at the leading three –  18 independent co-educational day school in the Midlands.

Rather than this just being a series of one-off assemblies or occasional drop-down of timetable, headmaster Mr David EJJ Lloyd, wanted to incorporate a more structured and relevant approach to wellbeing and all those themes that reside under the umbrella of ‘Learning for life’.

Wellbeing initiatives

In 2013, the then Solihull junior school implemented growth mindset lessons and the ‘Happyometer’ initiatives under the steady hand and inspiration of Mr Mark P Penney, head of the prep school, alongside ‘Scuffle and Twitch’, two characters that act as purveyors of wellbeing and positive psychology to our youngest pupils.

In 2014, the junior school was the first part of the school to introduce structured mindfulness lessons into their curriculum, the ‘paws b’ model, with staff being specially trained to facilitate this work via the mindfulness in school’s project.

Since then, the WPD curriculum has grown year-on-year and seen the launch of the Scuffle and Twitch guide to fulfilling your potential as well as their ‘Guide to behaviour that benefits others’.

‘We call it wellbeing and personal development because it is important to illustrate that this is designed to provide skills, help pupils build metacognitive awareness including development of their own characters and values.’ _ Louise Rooney, head of WPD and diversity, equity and inclusion

Most recently our infant children have enjoyed the introduction of their own bespoke ‘Guide to living life well’. These WPD initiatives have proved to be incredibly successful with pupils and their parents alike, with staff also reporting having felt hugely empowered in adapting extensive research in psychological science, age appropriately, for the benefit of young children.

The work extended into the senior school in 2017. Louise, who is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy as well as a teacher, was appointed to create a unique curriculum that would incorporate the best quality PSHEE, RSE and SMSC lessons alongside the inclusion of mindfulness skills, a resiliency programme, and flourishing qualities for young adults.

“We call it wellbeing and personal development because it is important to illustrate that this is designed to provide skills, help pupils build metacognitive awareness including development of their own characters and values, and have a sense of efficacy in their learning process,” says Louise.

The wellbeing and personal development team

The WPD team of teachers, made up of enthusiastic professionals who do this as their second discipline includes maths, delivers weekly lessons in the senior school across all years. It is a timetabled, non-academic yet core subject, with its foundations drawing from the Jungian idea of individuation and with the Lave and Wenger community of practice teaching philosophy at its heart.

“Pupils like the unique way that WPD is taught. They have a voice in organic knowledge acquisition and awareness building, and they appreciate the opportunity to discuss prominent issues and themes in a way that does not infantilise them but elevates them into people with the capacity to understand, acquire skills and employ them for their own wellbeing and for others.”

Pupils write their own end of year reports so that they speak to how they feel they are coping and how they have grown as individuals each year, writing about what the impact of learning in these key areas means for them personally.

“When you read these reports each year, it is moving, exciting and delightful to know that the pupils are enjoying the learning and that it is making a difference.”

The Solihull WPD programme does not shy away from being real about life; the ups, the downs, and the in-betweens, including key lessons on contemporary issues such as sexism, discrimination, social mobility etc.

‘We are not ‘Pollyanna’ about challenges and difficult themes. However, we do foster and model the hope that everyone has the capacity to be well and be prepared for life’. _ Louise Rooney

“WPD is a spiral curriculum, taught in an age-appropriate way but we are not ‘Pollyanna’ about challenges and difficult themes. However, we do foster and model the hope that everyone has the capacity to be well and be prepared for life. Pupils appreciate this which is why it has embedded so deeply into our school’s identity,” Louise continues.

WPD has its own branding (copywritten) and a clear identity in all the lessons, resources, and content. Satellites from this core subject include for example key and important pupil voice in their highly respected pupil equity group and the newly formed alumni equity group, a strong and supervised peer mentoring scheme, the unique RESTORE/RETRACE ©  behaviour management programme (at the time of writing a finalist for Innovation Award for an Outstanding New Initiative in the Independent Schools Awards 2022), and co-facilitator training for sixth form medics to help deliver certain RSE lessons to younger years.

“Not only are teachers trained in these disciplines, but we also extend our learning opportunities in the spirit of community care and task-shifting to older pupils, alumni, parents, and families of our pupils and beyond. For a community to thrive together, we must come together to strengthen and take care of each other and have the skills and confidence to know that we can all play a part. This for us is our part in creating individuals with the capacity to thrive and be happy and cope with the many diverse elements of human life.” 

Provision of this learning did not stop during the pandemic; in fact, it was readily accessible for everyone and went a huge way towards sustaining community wellbeing.

“The post-pandemic curriculum is thriving too,” says Louise. “We are meeting the big issues head-on, we are focusing on nurturing pupils’ awareness of their own experiences of coping and resiliency that they showed during the last two years in particular, and they are learning that they have the capacity and skills to be well and thrive in life.”

Read more about IET World Mental Health Day

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Whilst positive mental health and wellbeing practices have always been a hugely important area for schools, there is no doubt that a global pandemic, coupled with the increased use and influence of social media by students, has increased the focus in this area. The national picture statistically shows a marked increase in poor mental health and a decline in wellbeing and so at our school, we are taking a very proactive approach to the support we provide as opposed to simply reacting to problems when they occur.

Early intervention is paramount when it comes to identifying mental health issues in young people. Equipping students with an array of positive wellness habits from the moment they join us, is an important part of the preventative puzzle. At Downe House we believe a key aspect of strong pastoral care is relationship building between students, staff and parents. When all parties work closely together, the support the student receives is holistic and tailored. More importantly in this scenario, the student feels seen and heard which is a vital aspect of wellbeing and mental health.

‘Early intervention is paramount when it comes to identifying mental health issues in young people’ ­– Ellen Llewellyn, director of wellbeing at Downe House

As a school that is passionate about nurturing lifelong learners, we absolutely want our students to thrive in the academic sphere. We also believe that academic success is more achievable for students who are healthy and happy individuals. We encourage our students to actively take ownership of their wellbeing journey and empower them to feel confident in recognising when they may need to employ some wellbeing strategies. We teach our students about the importance of developing individualised wellbeing strategies and encourage them to be self-aware when it comes to their own wellbeing so that they can seek additional help at an early stage if they need to.

Championing self-care

This education in self-care comes in lots of different forms, from informal chats with house staff in the boarding houses, right through to our Learning for Life weekly taught lessons. For students who need a little more support, we have resident school counsellors who work with students to offer the additional care required and our counsellors also work with our house teams to identify areas of more general support for specific groups of students who may benefit.

A new initiative for Downe House this last year was the introduction of a wellbeing committee, made up of students from across the whole school, with the aim of giving them the opportunity to help develop the mental health and wellbeing programme we offer. The committee is led by 10 sixth form students who have undergone training to become wellbeing ambassadors. The training itself covered basic mental health first aid, explored some key signposting for additional resources and practical examples of the different ways students can support each other with wellbeing in the school setting.

Students in the younger years are undergoing a paired down version of this training to become wellbeing champions, and together the ambassadors and champions perform the dual role of contributing to the committee while also being someone in the community who is championing good wellbeing and supporting their peers. As the committee develops, the students hope to be able to roll out initiatives to help their peers to become even more aware of the necessity to look after the wellbeing of themselves and each other.

Wellbeing comes in many shapes and forms

The launch of our finding balance programme has also provided a whole range of introductory and practical ways of looking after personal wellbeing. As part of this, various activities are offered to allow students a taste of things they might then embed in their own lives to help them develop positive wellbeing strategies. Sound baths, puppy therapy, forest bathing and acrobatic yoga have all been activities on offer and these help to highlight to the students that wellbeing comes in many different forms and understanding what brings you calm, joy and relaxation is crucial.

‘You can’t pour from an empty cup’ ­– Ellen Llewellyn on the importance of staff wellbeing

Of course, it is natural for schools to focus on the importance of wellbeing of their students, but my favourite phrase is ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup’. Our programme of staff wellbeing support is designed to ensure that they too are self-aware and able to access additional support when needed. All of our staff are automatically members of an employee assistance programme which is facilitated by an external company and consists of a whole range of resources to support them.

This means they have around the clock access to free, confidential support including a counselling service, as well as resources covering all aspects of life which can be a source of stress from finance to bereavement. In addition, we offer an extensive continuing professional development (CPD) programme to help support the staff with common issues they may encounter at school so that they feel better equipped to deal with them and gain a sense of personal growth and development too. We also have an active common room association who offer various opportunities for staff to come together socially both on and offsite and they have been instrumental in listening to staff feedback and driving change.

Training the mind

There are lots of really positive steps happening in schools today around mental wellbeing, but regular, up to date training is really important to keep things moving in the right direction for both students and staff. As part of our staff CPD programme we regularly include topics around wellbeing and mental health, either bringing in external experts or sharing good practice from within our experienced team. These sessions may focus on staff wellbeing e.g., the importance of saying no sometimes, or on student wellbeing topics such as understanding LGBTQ+ terminology and its importance for students.

The programme we offer is flexible intentionally so that we can adapt and react when needed. Ideas from speakers may come from staff suggestions for things they would like support on, or from student feedback on what they wish we as staff knew, or this can come from investigating the areas we feel our staff need to be equipped in, in order to deal with in the future and remain proactive about keeping that knowledge in place.

Synergy between school and home is important too. Parents are often seeking support in this area just as much as staff and pupils, and at Downe House we have also created an excellent parenting and educating in partnership programme of talks for our parents to help equip them with the skills they need to be able to talk to their children effectively, about what can be difficult topics. We have been able to welcome some incredible external experts for talks on an array of topics from how to deal with the difficult teenage years to internet safety tips including speakers such as Mandy Saligari, Emma Gleadhill, Karl Hopwood and Robin White, to name a few. We also utilise the expertise of our staff and this year our programme included a talk from our library manager on the importance and wide-ranging benefits of reading as well as a talk from myself about how our Learning for Life programme supports the students with their mental health and wellbeing.

Future strategies

Another recent addition to our parent programme is a collaboration with the website Tooled Up which provides our parents access to hundreds of online resources, from live and pre-recorded lectures to book recommendations and practical ideas. It is a one-stop shop of parenting resources to help support our parenting body with 24-hour accessible sources of information and learning. Everything produced on the site is grounded in research evidence and is constantly updated meaning it is always relevant to the challenges our students might be facing and can help parents navigate those in an effective way.

Mental health education is constantly evolving so schools like mine are always looking towards the future. Our student wellbeing committee is brimming with new ideas for this academic year and as a school we are also looking at our pastoral monitoring systems to ensure we are utilising them effectively, particularly around early detection and intervention. We use the affective social tracking system to monitor pastoral progress which has just rolled out a new online interface, and this gives us an opportunity to relaunch it to staff and see how we can utilise the data it produces even more effectively to support the students.

Moving forward, we are also looking at our counselling provision to expand what we offer, largely this has involved looking at how we can utilise the expertise of the counselling team more within our boarding houses, specifically to work with the boarding staff so that they can better support the students at an earlier stage in the mental health cycle. The earlier issues are detected the better chance you have of getting to the root of problems, adopting the right strategies of support, and hopefully avoiding the need for counselling intervention.

About Downe House School 

More about the IET World Mental Health Day campaign 

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