Whole school support to help untangle challenge
The Context
Herne CE Infant and Nursery School is a three-form entry infant school with a 52 place, teacher led nursery. The school has a very positive reputation in the local area and has maintained an Ofsted rating of ‘Outstanding’ for many years.
The school is situated in the heart of Herne in Kent, serving a village community with a range of different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. High value is placed on children receiving a holistic approach to their experience in school and attending a provision which nurtures academic, social and emotional growth. The school attracts and employs excellent staff who are regularly deployed across other settings to deliver training or share expertise.
The Brief
The intake at Herne has changed over the last few years and it had become necessary to provide support for the whole school team with the challenges that this changing cohort has brought, including:
- Increased levels of complex needs, lack of independence & lower attainment on entry in all aspects but particularly social and emotional
- Increased incidences of physical behaviour & heightened anxiety of children and parents
- Challenging relationships with some stakeholders with a greater reliance on staff to parent, guide and support
- Lack of support services, external requirements and the increased workload these pressures create
- Retention and recruitment challenges and budget cuts
The challenges were impacting the levels of wellbeing of staff and causing heightened stress and anxiety. The staff are conscientious and have high expectations of themselves and want to do the very best for the children and their families, but this sometimes was to the detriment of their own wellbeing.
The leaders in the school found their time and headspace was being taken away from the strategic running of the school to support staff and students. While they recognise that this was important it did impact on other aspects of their role and increase their stress levels.
The aim of the support was to enable the staff to thrive, feel empowered and confident in themselves, each other and the systems in place at school. To gain a better understanding of themselves and develop an increased awareness of how to approach situations with clarity of thought to reduce feelings of fear, pressure and anxiety so they can manage challenges calmly and confidently.
The Support
3 whole staff workshops focusing on:
- Understanding your mind to decrease stress levels and increase wellbeing
- Focusing on your strengths to build capacity and identify steps to move forward
- Adapting your mindset and planning how to address challenges
The benefit of starting the work together in this way meant that all staff were on board with the ways of working together, including the terminology and relevant, researched examples. It meant that time was used effectively in the team sessions as everyone was on the same page in terms of prior learning; no time was wasted explaining techniques or theories.
Team Coaching sessions:
After the workshops, each year group team, including the HoY, had bespoke 60 minute team coaching sessions to further explore the challenges they are currently facing as a team and work towards creating positive outcomes and plans to address them.
While some whole school challenges were addressed in the workshops, these sessions enabled the teams to dig deeper into their own specific challenges and achieve outcomes that work for them.
The sessions followed a non-directive approach, focusing on the desired outcome of the team and were confidential. This gave teams a forum to express themselves freely as well as a feeling of control and ownership over their challenges, which supported them to get to new thinking.
An agreement was in place that if a common theme emerged from the sessions that SLT would benefit from knowing in terms of supporting staff and moving forward effectively this would be shared, all parties knew this and were in agreement.
The time dedicated to each team demonstrated how much they and their expertise are valued in the school. The opportunity to take time and create headspace to address their challenges was received very positively by all staff.
The outcomes
“Rachael has enabled staff to consider the development of a culture of learning, experimentation and collegiality. She has the ability to create a thinking environment which enables colleagues to be empowered and have a sense of self, purpose and direction. Her energy, professional knowledge and vitality are irresistible!”
Liz Thomas-Friend, Executive Headteacher
“The sessions have enabled a better understanding of myself and an increased awareness of others. They have given our team the space to explore our vulnerabilities and begin a conversation about how together we can approach the challenges we face as a school. The sessions have not always been comfortable as we have had to acknowledge some of our fears and trust ourselves and each other with this. I believe that the sessions have given lots of prompts for self and group reflection.”
Lucy StJohn, Head of School
“The sessions have given staff a greater understanding of themselves and how they are able to shift their own thinking. This has enabled them to manage the demands of school and identify potential stresses in themselves and to then use strategies to manage these situations more effectively.”
Angie Cox, Assistant Head & SENDCO
“It was so useful to be given the time and support to share our thoughts as a team and work through a challenge we were facing together. It helped us to work out what was going wrong, and right, and how we were going to move forward from there. We learnt a lot about ourselves in the process and how we can work more effectively as a team. The sessions made us feel really valued and were fun and engaging, even when things were challenging!”
Sharon March, Class Teacher
How this programme could benefit your school or group of schools.
Designed to help individuals and teams learn more about themselves, discover ways to put this learning into practice and feel empowered and confident, this package of workshops and team coaching will make a valuable addition to your professional development cycle by:
- Enhancing performance, professional relationships & wellbeing
- Increasing Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
- Improving understanding of individual strengths & areas for development
- Strengthening communication & team cohesion
- Enhancing self-reflection & awareness
- Boosting levels of confidence & skill
- Untangling whole school and team specific challenges.
Want this?
Book a call to find out more about how this could support your school or group of schools.
0 Comments