During the festive period, it’s easy to eat more than your body weight in food and reduce your movement to simply walking from the fridge to the sofa… or maybe that was just me? It’s hard not to feel exhausted and fed up after returning to work in January. Everyone gets it, and it can spread quicker than headlice in a reception class.
According to the National Education Union, 44% of teachers intend to leave the teaching profession within 5 years. Through my experience of working within schools with teachers and students, the main reason for burnout is a result of stress and lack of work/life balance.
Solutions for school burnout
When you feel overwhelmed, unsure or stuck at work, it’s always better to take a break and ask for help. I know it sounds simple, and some of you may already do this, but as Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created them.”
So what’s the solution?
Have you noticed that when you’re doing something you love, that time flies by, but when you’re doing something you dislike, it drags? With that in mind, combine arduous tasks with things you love - this helps to reduce overwhelm. Take regular breaks too. Think about the time of day you do tasks too - the same can be applied to students, who might prefer their harder lessons at the beginning of the week or in the mornings.
Consider the Pomodoro method too, which sounds like a tasty Italian dish but actually advocates working for 25 mins and then taking a break. There are loads of different time-management tools and methods, so it’s worth trying out a few to see what works for you personally.
Boost your happiness hormones
At Happy-Centred Schools, we know increasing our happiness hormones makes us feel good and boosts our immune systems. One way to do this is by practising gratitude and recording achievements using a positivity jar - something that also works well with your pupils and peers in school and at home. Every time you achieve something small and large or something nice happens to you, write it down on a piece of paper and add it to the jar.
And then, whenever you feel low or need a boost, choose something from your jar to read and remember how amazing you are. Encourage your class to do this regularly too, perhaps during PSHE or as part of your end-of-day routine. It’s fun to review these again at the end of the year because we easily forget about the wins.
Lastly, be kind to yourself while discovering a way to work and live more happily. We’re often our own worst critics and are harder on ourselves than we would be on others. Think about what advice you’d give a loved one or student who started to feel burnout, and apply the techniques yourself. You can find further advice on burnout in this video from Dr Rangan Chatterjee, where he shares the 7 signs of burnout and how you can manage it in simple, practical ways.
Good luck!
If you’d like support to improve the mental health and wellbeing of your school team, take a look at our Mental Wellbeing workshop.
