Mental health in schools could radiate outwards
It won’t be new to anyone in education, but those not involved may be surprised to learn how many teachers I speak to find themselves waking up an hour earlier than needed during busy terms, ruminating over the academic progress or pastoral care of numerous pupils. These class relationships are in their infancy but already the dedication to that relationship is incredible. Just look at how headteachers and class teachers shifted to accommodate online learning over what amounted to Sunday evening directives during lockdown!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that this is just part and parcel of teaching, that the teaching profession regularly attracts people who care, and who often go above and beyond. Like many public sector roles, it relies on a dedication that can never be covered by the directed hours but can lead to burnout. Should we accept that is an acceptable outcome? Here we are back in another busy term on the back of a pandemic that almost seems forgotten and the pressure is back on again!
I know that as a teacher I wouldn’t have had it any other way, term time fatigue is a price you pay as you become an expert in all kinds of fields that fall outside of the remit of teaching. Social work, social prescribing, nursing...and it can be even more demanding for the headteachers. Now imagine being an executive head and doubling, even tripling that. If you are lucky you receive supervision – a therapist must receive supervision for at least an hour and a half per calendar month. A class teacher may share with supportive colleagues, business administrators (who often hold a lot!) or their headteacher. The headteacher is an incredibly important role, they are the glue, the ethos - teachers and pupils often reflect the leadership of the school. A good academy trust has spent time to acquire good headteachers, hopefully, they continue as executive heads who can extend that reach further to affect even more pupils. So they need protection. Protection from the demands of the job, the demands of the community and the demands of maintaining a reasonable work-life balance. Sometimes they need protecting from themselves, it is so easy to see the end of the term in sight and just empty the tank. Half-terms may be seen as a holiday by certain less sympathetic elements of the media they are often used as recovery time to compensate for the boom-and-bust nature of the academic year.
A recent journal, ‘School counsellors can ease the burden on teaching staff’ (BACP, 2022) warns how teachers are ‘buckling under the strain’ of holding the mental health of an entire class whilst in loco parentis. Twenty-four to thirty clients (pupils) would be a busy week for a therapist! Each class, six hours a day, with 24 representing a smaller class represents a huge emotional burden, one that is managed well in tandem with the teaching and learning. Yet it is a burden that would require a huge amount of supervision if we just looked at well-being. Well-being for anyone in the class is worth it because happy learners attach positivity to their learning and make what occurs in the classroom magical. To bring balance, on a good day in the classroom there is often a euphoria and satisfaction that you are making a difference and you’d do it for free (but we whisper that!).
Mental Health is certainly a word we hear more of and that has increased since the pandemic. ‘In 2019 two-thirds (66%) of school leaders said they provided school-based support for students’ emotional and mental wellbeing, including counsellors.’ (BACP, 2020) So we are becoming accustomed to identifying the needs of the pupils, but who is looking out for the staff?
It just makes sense that you protect the people on the frontline from the wear and tear of the job – a whole school community approach. Whilst it is wonderful and evergreen that ‘schoolchildren have such good relationships with their teachers that they can go to them with their issues as their first port of call.’ (BACP, 2022), teachers need a release beyond raiding the biscuit tin in the staffroom! On a more serious note, they simply deserve to be able to continue their work, improve their practice, and maintain their relationships alongside a career.
Research consistently shows that the relationship in therapy is the key to success so it makes sense that pupils place such care with their teachers, but as a profession, we must supervise adult mental health. I propose a model whereby we pay most attention to a middle layer of adult staff, in that way, we radiate outwards, offering pupils a regulated, content teacher and academy trusts the reliability to plan and retain experienced, talented staff.
BACP (2020) Number of schools buying professional mental health support for pupils doubles in three years. Available at: https://www.bacp.co.uk/news/news-from-bacp/2020/3-february-number-of-schools-buying-in-professional-mental-health-support-for-pupils-doubles-in-three-years/ (Accessed: June 1, 2022).
BACP (2022) School counsellors can ease the burden on teaching staff. Available at: https://www.bacp.co.uk/news/news-from-bacp/2022/11-march-school-counsellors-can-ease-the-burden-on-teaching-staff/ (Accessed: June 15, 2022).
