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Updated:
December 12, 2023
Written By:
Elliot Foster
The Senior Mental Health Lead's main priority is supporting pupil mental health and wellbeing. The most effective way of supporting pupil mental health and wellbeing is through championing and leading a whole school approach. Supporting staff wellbeing is an essential component of any whole school approach.
The focus of this article is to provide Mental Health Leads with shareable wellbeing tips for themselves and colleagues. We hope that sharing these Christmas wellbeing ideas will promote school staff wellbeing through encouraging the essential rest and recuperation required to reduce stress and aid recovery.
Over the last decade, stress levels amongst those working in education have become an increasing cause for concern. Even though both the awareness of mental health and the volume of support for staff wellbeing available to those in need has increased, levels of stress amongst those working in education has continued to increase.
In a joint report between Education Support and YouGov released last year, 72% of teachers and 84% of senior leaders reported being stressed at least once over the last year. The proportion of those working in education feeling stressed and/or experiencing mental health issues has increased every year since these reports began in 2017. The unprecedented nature of the demands faced during 2020 have only added to pre-existing issues.
One major source cited for this worrying trend is the increasing number of hours individuals in education spend working rather than relaxing. Last year, 33% of teachers and 65% of senior leaders worked more than 51 hours per week. Although it may feel necessary to work this many hours in order to keep up with the seemingly ever-increasing workload, and the demands 2020 has brought, evidence shows that such an unhealthy work-life balance can severely impact both physical and mental wellbeing.
Working more, and relaxing less is dangerous to both your mental and physical wellbeing as it often creates a 'vicious circle'. Think about it like this. The more hours worked, the more time that is required to fully recover. But unfortunately, working more hours also means that there is less time in the day for relaxation. This can often lead to individuals returning to work before they are fully refreshed, where they work again and end up needing even more relaxation time that they do not have.
74% of teachers surveyed felt unable to switch off and relax when they finally left work.
If this 'vicious circle' occurs over an extended period of time, it can lead to fatigue, increased work strain and even decreased life satisfaction [1]. All of which can negatively impact both mental wellbeing and physical health. Encouraging staff to use school holidays such as Christmas provides a vital opportunity for rest and recuperation. Enabling school staff to make the most of these periods is an essential component of any staff wellbeing strategy. To do this, it is key that individuals understand how to best use this time to relax effectively.
An obvious fix for stress reduction would be for those working in education to work less and relax more, but as we know, this is rarely possible. Those working in education are stretched, with high levels of demand placed on them by leadership, and are often so committed to helping their pupils that they feel unable to reduce the amount of work that they are doing.
Therefore, another way of combatting this stress is to maximise the time that is available to relax and recover. To do this, it is key that individuals understand how to best use this time to relax effectively.
To help with this, we've put together our 5 top tips for effectively relaxing over the well-earned Christmas break. Following even just one of these tips will help you to recover more, meaning that you will be less stressed and more refreshed when you return to work in January [2] [3].
It may sound simple, but making time for things that you enjoy doing during the holiday period is a vital way to top up your own levels of wellbeing. Doing things you enjoy such as arranging to catch up with family, taking time to cook, watching some old Christmas films, wrapping presents, or going for walks in the fresh air provides several opportunities for mini wellbeing top-ups! All of these mini top-ups enable us to encourage the recovery required during school holidays.
These enjoyable activities lead to something called 'positive affect' and increase the volume of positive emotions that you feel. Every mini top-up is a micro-moment of positive affect that gradually builds up wellbeing levels and supports mental health. Evidence suggests that this is essential for buffering against adversity as well as reducing levels of stress [4].
Having said this, make sure you take some time to rest. This may seem obvious and your body may be telling you to have a rest. If you are feeling tired and fatigued it is a sign you need to rest and recuperate, we often ignore this sign and keep pushing on.
There is a danger of trying to pack everything into the school holidays that you don't time to do during term time. But this can mean that you miss out on the well earned and needed rest and recovery time. Even though you may feel like you don't want to waste your holiday in bed, having a few lie-ins will allow your body and mind more time to recover. Resting your brain and body is essential for wellbeing.
By doing this, you'll be less tired, more likely to enjoy the stuff that you should be enjoying and be fully recovered for when you return to school.
Although many of your closest friends may also be your colleagues, try and increase the amount of time that you spend, even if that is virtually, with people that you wouldn't see at school. If you spend time with people from work outside of work it can be very easy to 'talk shop' and keep going over work-related matters without getting the mental break required to fully recover.
Arranging to catch up with friends and family will mean that you will see people that you haven't seen in a long time. This is another strategy for topping up your wellbeing by building relationships and positive commendations. Hopefully, you will be less likely to talk about your work-life. This is key, as mentally 'detaching' yourself from work for increased periods triggers recovery mechanisms and allows strain and negative mood that may have developed to dissipate [3].
We know it's difficult. Individuals working in education are some of the most committed to their professions and may want to be contactable in case something goes wrong.
But as much as email allows quick and easy communication, it can also be a nuisance. Constant notifications and an expectation to reply rapidly can cause work tasks to leak into time dedicated for relaxation with your family or friends. Not only can this lead to tension, but it also reduces the amount of time available to detach and recover from work.
To combat this, let the necessary people know that you will not be contactable via email over the holiday period, or at least on which dates and times you can be contacted. Use an automatic reply function to make those trying to contact you over the holiday aware of how often you will be checking your email. If you want to, include your phone number to use in case of an emergency.
Unfortunately, those working in education often need to use holidays to catch up on work that wasn't completed during the previous term. Although there may be a need to do some work, it will help if you plan when you are going to do this so that it doesn't end up spreading into your relaxation time.
Make sure you set aside specific times during the holiday when you are going to do that catch-up and prep work for the next term. Doing this will mean that you are less likely to be constantly thinking about the work that needs to be done, meaning that the majority of your holiday is spent relaxing rather than worrying about the work that needs doing.
Based on the tips above we have devised this Christmas Wellbeing Activity for you to run in your staff meeting before the end of term. In the staff room or staff meeting, share these ideas for topping up levels of wellbeing that can be done over Christmas.
Try this simple activity, this could be part of an end-of-term staff meeting. The aim is to set the intention to encourage colleagues (and yourself) to boost essential wellbeing levels over Christmas.
Make a list of 1- 3 things for each question.
Next, make a commitment to achieve these during the Christmas holidays. Further questions to help raise levels of commitment include:
Finally provide a way to share feedback on how this went at the start of term. Remember to celebrate successes and share experiences of your enjoyable wellbeing activities.
This helps re-experience the feelings of 'positive affect' providing further mini wellbeing top-ups!
We hope these tips will be helpful for you over your well-earned Christmas break and allow you to return to work fully recovered.
Everyone at Worth-it would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the continuous support during 2022, and to send you all our best wishes for Christmas and the New Year ahead.
Need more ideas to support staff wellbeing in your school or college, then join our free community of school mental health leads. Looking for support and training to develop staff wellbeing, then join our DfE assured Wellbeing Club.
[1] D. S. Carlson, K. M. Kacmar and L. J. Williams, "Construction and initial validation of a multidimensional measure of work-family conflict," Journal of Vocational behavior, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 249-276, 2000.
[2] S. Sonnentag and C. Fritz, "The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work," Journal of occupational health psychology, vol. 12, no. 3, p. 204, 2007.
[3] S. Sonnentag and C. Fritz, "Recovery from job stress: The stressor‐detachment model as an integrative framework," Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol. 36, no. S1, pp. S72-S103, 2015.
[4] B. L. Fredrickson and T. Joiner, "Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being.," Psychological science, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 172-175, 2002.
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