September, and the start of a new academic year, can be a great time to have a little check in with yourself on how your goals and plans for this year are going and also to review your self-care practices. Hopefully after the summer holidays you are feeling revived, refreshed and ready for the year ahead but how can you keep those healthful and helpful practices up during the busy term times of the school year?

Remember, YOU are WORTH IT!!

We are able to offer much more to others when we also paying attention to our own wellbeing and listening to our needs throughout the days and weeks.

In the Summer term HeadStart delivered some ‘Summer self-care’ sessions to school staff so we wanted to share some of the ‘top tips’ with you all on how to keep that goodness going all year long!

Schools can be challenging environments to work in at times, during term time your focus is on pupils and your to do list. Summer break can be the best time to develop good self-care habits so when term time starts again you have tools and techniques you can turn to in stressful times.

These three key areas are a good starting point to consider for yourself:

1. Prioritising rest
2. Reviewing boundaries
3. Prioritising healthy habits

Build healthy habits for the academic year

1.What are your wellbeing non-negotiables?

Consider what they are and make a note of them. These actions should keep you balanced and help you feel good.

2. Start your day well

Find something that you can easily do each morning that helps you get in the right mindset for the rest of your day.

3. Do a weekly wellbeing check-up

Ask yourself how you’re feeling mentally and physically. We’re all human and our emotions are valid.

A final note to remind you: Keep putting YOU on your to do list!

There are some great staff wellbeing articles to check out on the HeadStart website too! HeadStart South Tees

Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff

Promote staff wellbeing and support workload reduction in your school with free resources that:

• are produced by school leaders, for school leaders
• support what you’re already doing
• can be adapted to work in your school

Explore all resources

Browse through all our staff wellbeing and workload reduction resources.

They are contributed by school leaders from their experiences improving workload and wellbeing in their schools.

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Workload reduction toolkit – Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff (education.gov.uk)

Staff wellbeing – Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff (education.gov.uk)