Question: What could be better than having a fully-fledged, funny-as-**** Laughologist facilitate your session at a headteachers’ conference?
Answer: Having a fully-fledged, funny-as-**** Laughologist who, in a previous life, was a headteacher herself.
Of course, we’re talking about our Sarah Creegan, who was asked to deliver a session at an away day in Brighton on ‘Building a culture of good mental health and wellbeing’. The aim was to give the school leaders strategies for looking after their own and their teams' well-being.
The group wanted realistic takeaways that they could immediately implement, so at the end of the session, they all committed to one action.
For example, the head who knows that she says ‘yes’ too much and ends up feeling overwhelmed has committed to ‘The Power of Pause’. She’ll now give herself extra thinking time before she responds. And, when it’s appropriate, she’ll work on feeling more comfortable saying ‘no’.
Another head was going to return to her school and use Laughology’s Wellbeing and Happiness Matrix as an audit tool to see what people think is going well and what could be even better.
As well as mulling on the things that Sarah suggested, the chats at tables and sharing of ideas amongst each other were another brilliant part of the session. One head shared that she’d used the book ‘Fish’ with her SLT to think about the kind of leaders they want to be. Another talked about the opportunities for laughter and humour amongst his team, such as all taking a photo of their slippers, fridges and loos and playing ‘Guess Whose?’
A great afternoon was had by all, with lots of laughs and helpful takeaways. And as the feedback from the Merton Heads’ Conference said: ‘Excellent to have an ex-headteacher to facilitate as she totally understood the pressures.’
Although, to be fair, none of the takeaways were quite as tasty as the fish and chips that Sarah ‘had to have’on the beach before heading home (see what we did there?)
Interested in having us deliver at your conference? Get in touch with Doug at HCS HQ, and he’ll talk you through how we can help - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
