Summary
Do you feel that your role in education is taking a toll on your mental health?
In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we discuss burnout and the crucial importance of self-care for educators. Join us as we talk to Kate Whittlesey about effective strategies for teachers and school leaders to prioritise their well-being and stay at the top of their game.
Important links:
Visit the SEND Advisory Team website for advice and information.
Here is one link to find out more about the Circles of Influence
And Click here to check out The Burnout Report by Mental Health Uk
Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/send-handbook
Download other FREE behaviour resources for use in school: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/resources.php
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Show notes / transcription
[00:00:00 - 00:03:49] Simon Currigan
Do you feel as a teacher or a teaching assistant or a school leader or a person who has any other role in school for that matter that the work itself is taking its toll on your mental health? Do you feel like you're experiencing burnout? It's a cliche, but it's a cliche because it's true that you can't help and support and regulate children if you're not in a good place yourself. It stops you teaching effectively. You can't pour from an empty cup, and that's why in this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we're going to talk to Kate Whittlesey about the important topic of self care for educators, what we can do as school leaders and teachers to ensure that we look after ourselves so we can stay on the top of our game. That's all coming up in this week's episode of School Behaviour Secrets. Welcome to the School Behaviour Secrets podcast.
I'm your host, Simon Currigan. My cohost is Emma Shackleton, and we're obsessed with helping teachers, school leaders, parents, and, of course, students when classroom behaviour gets in the way of success. We're gonna share the tried and tested secrets to classroom management, behavioural special needs, whole school strategy, and more, all with the aim of helping your students reach their true potential. Plus, we'll be letting you eavesdrop on our conversations with thought leaders from around the world, so you'll get to hear the latest evidence based strategies before anyone else. This is the School Behaviour Secrets podcast. Hi there. Simon Currigan from Beacon School Support here, and welcome to this week's episode of School Behaviour Secrets where we're going to explore the impact of working in schools on the adult's mental health, whether you're working in school as a teacher or a school leader, and I'll be joined in a moment by Kate Whittlesey to share her experience knowledge on that topic, and she's got some practical suggestions to support you whatever your role in school is.
But before we get to that, if you're finding the podcast useful, maybe you're new to the video version of the podcast on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe. And if you're listening to the audio version and you haven't followed us yet, come on. What are you doing? Pull out your phone and hit the follow or subscribe button, so you never miss another thing. It's completely free. And one last request, if you've got a friend or colleague who would find the information that we're sharing today useful in their work, please don't forget to share it with them. It's the easiest way to help the show grow, and it takes just 30 seconds to forward them a link. All right.
That said, let's jump into this week's focus, what we can do as educators to make sure that we're looking after our own mental health so we're better placed to support the students in our care. Welcome Kate Whittlesey to the show today. Kate is the director of the SEND Advisory Team and educational consultancy firm specialising in the development of whole school and MAT SEND improvements. By the way, if you're coming across the term SEND for the first time, it means special educational needs and disabilities. Kate has experience of working across all age ranges of education from birth through to post 16. She has vast educational experience across the UK, including trust send leadership, SEND and whole score improvements at multi academy trust level, directing regional send provision and local authority SEND advisory roles. Kate and her team have developed a positive reputation for successfully working with schools from those in need of rapid improvement through to those with an Ofsted rating of outstanding, and she and her team carry out their vast range of SEND improvement work across the UK.
Kate, you are obviously very, very busy. Thank you for being on the show.
[00:03:51 - 00:03:54] Kate Whittlesey
Oh, thank you for having me. Thank you. It's absolute pleasure.
[00:03:54 - 00:04:26] Simon Currigan
It's great to have you here. So today, we're gonna talk about mental well-being for teachers and the impact of working in schools on teachers and teaching assistants and school leaders and anyone with a role in school. I thought it'd be a good idea to start with a state of the nation. And sort of given your experiences working with schools, we talked about how you work with lots and lots of schools across the UK, particularly your work around supporting pupils with special educational needs. What do you see right now in terms of teachers' mental health and and their well-being?
[00:04:26 - 00:07:32] Kate Whittlesey
Well, first off, what a perfect time of year to be talking about this. I mean, we as teachers don't we in the education sector, we have these lovely lump sum holidays, which can be a challenge in themselves for some, but we come back and we have that that joy of being back and we feel really energised And this is the best time to be talking about self care, how we can look after ourselves because actually, hopefully, we're in a we're in a good place so we can start to prepare for the year ahead. So perfect timing, Simon and team. Absolutely perfect. So in terms of what we're seeing, you're actually right. We we work across the country, and you only need to walk into the school straight away to see the environment that staff are working in, and the constant, requests for information, parental demands, this time of year. Right? Have you got your displays up?
Do you know all your key pupils? Have you got your lessons planned? Have you had your meeting with your teaching support staff?
And it's constant isn't it? That constant barrage of demand on teachers at the moment and I think when we're definitely talking about SEND, we've seen that need rise in the classroom quite dramatically if you think over the last 10 years. And I know some of your listeners won't quite be as old as me, linking back that long ago, but actually, that need has risen, and the demand on teachers now when we're talking about special educational needs, I think we sometimes we underestimate that demand that's class placed on classroom teachers and leaders as well. So when we're looking at those figures, I mean, we've seen an increase of it's a 101,000 pupils with special educational need since 2023. I mean, that's that's huge. Absolutely massive. And then when we're talking about when we split up SEND, we talk about, E and K code pupils.
And the E code pupils are those pupils with an educational health care plan. The numbers of educational health care plans have risen. And then the numbers of pupils we refer to as K code pupils. Those are pupils that don't have an educational health care plan, but instead have just whole (I say just, it's massive), but whole school support. Again, that has risen as well up to 13.6%. So when we're looking at those pupils' needs within the classroom, teachers are navigating what does the pupil need, what's in the EHCP, external influences as well. And that's all adding to the workload.
So it's a it's a massive thing at the moment and when we're looking at the number of staff that especially by the end of the academic year that are suffering from either stress, mental health, etcetera. I mean, the numbers have just continued to rise, don't they? And I know that you guys hear this all the time, but they they do just continue to rise nationally, which is scary. I think we're in an uncertain time, aren't we?
[00:07:33 - 00:08:34] Simon Currigan
We are. And there's rightly a lot, I think, of attention in the press and focus in the on in the media in general about there are more and more SEND there are more and more children with SEND needs, and parents are rightly frustrated, and they're worried about their kids because they can see their kids not getting the support they need, and schools are not being given the kind of budgets they need to meet that demand. But the what's been missed is then the impact on the individual teacher in the classroom who has who has more and more children with high needs in the room, but they don't have the staffing or the resources to manage that child. So while the child is falling behind and having their own difficulties, and it is important we focus on that, Also, we can't neglect the impact of the people in their in the classrooms doing their best, and then they get the frustrations of teachers and politicians and, you know, and and the media. And and and that's really tough that's really tough if you're in there trying to do your best every day without the resources to make the difference that you you wanna make.
[00:08:34 - 00:09:32] Kate Whittlesey
I think we underestimate as well the impact of (especially if we think to primary schools), that teacher is meeting with the parents day in day out. And actually, you've got a parent who wants the very best for their child. And because of the complex nature of the system that we've got in terms of SEND at the moment, the lack of resources, what we're finding is that the teachers are at the forefront of having to answer some really difficult questions. And they've also got the quite suddenly the emotions from some parents as well that either comes out as very challenging behaviour from parents or parents being really upset that they don't feel the child's getting the support they need through the educational health care plan system or funding or schools also, whatever that is. So teachers really do take on huge brunt when it comes to special educational needs. Even if they've got fantastic leadership team to support them, they're still passing their day in, day out, aren't they? Out that door.
And it takes toll. It really does.
[00:09:32 - 00:10:14] Simon Currigan
It does. It's easy to make these funding decisions if you're sat in the in the DFE at Whitehall and you're not the person being abused or shouted at at a classroom door at the end of the day by someone who's just at the end of their tether. You know? I'm not I'm not sort of making aspersions against parents, but you see people who parents who are just at the end of their tether because they see that their their child's being left behind. So what's the impact then of sort of self care in this situation on our ability to be effective in, like, in in the classroom? Well, not just the classroom. I'm thinking about teachers and school leaders here because we have a mix that listen to the program.
So so what's the impact on on their actual effectiveness, their ability to to do their job day after day after day?
[00:10:15 - 00:11:24] Kate Whittlesey
Well, what I see is it's very personal, isn't it, how the workplace environment and high levels of workload, it's very personal to that individual. But we work a lot with SENCOs in terms of coaching and mentoring. And what we're seeing is that lots of SENCOs, they don't have that support network around them. So when they don't have that support after network run, just because it's quite a lonely job, it means that they tend to either find that they express their frustrations, maybe by not necessarily being as constrictive with members of staff or parents and then they reflect and look back because they're tired, they're lonely, they have enough time to talk things through. It might be actually that I know we're going to discuss burnout in a short while aren't we in terms of what that looks like. But actually then you have got stress that rises as well for key individuals. I think if you don't look after your own well-being then you've got to understand that actually that is gonna impact on your daily practice.
[00:11:24 - 00:11:45] Simon Currigan
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I'm just thinking, so if you're if you're working with someone who you suspect might be under those stresses and strains, what should we be looking for in terms of what burnout looks like or or that kinda, like, path to burnout, if that makes sense? What are the warning signs? And and, again, I'm I guess we're talking about teachers or school leaders here.
[00:11:45 - 00:13:40] Kate Whittlesey
That's it. And I think we need to talk about it a bit, don't we? Because people regardless of your position within the school, we work within the education sector. So we find that we do have similar challenges, obviously, to different degrees. But what I think we have to be really careful of is that we don't just say as a society, oh, leaders properly suffer the best stress and school teachers don't. That's not true at all. And there has been recently a survey that shows that actually, it's now actually more teaching staff.
So outside of leadership teams that have the most stress. However, it is head teachers that serve the most burnout and leaders. So it's it's interesting. But there's a brilliant report actually if you, it's by Mental Health UK and that was produced in January 24. And this report shows how burnout and stress are very very different. But burnout occurs when you've had repeats or high pressured demands over a long period of time. And that report goes through and it separates it out into, your your physical, your emotion, and the behaviour symptoms as well that you might see within people.
In terms of what you might see, there are things like somebody complaining of frequent headaches. That's a very common sign of burnout. Constantly saying they're tired, they're exhausted all the time. Somebody who's constantly feeling well, that's because it's it is a physical. It's that their immune system is low. That's that's the difference between burnout and stress. And it's a physical thing.
It's a medical thing. Might be difficulties breathing, etc, high blood pressure. So you've got the physical elements and then you've got the emotional. The SENCO role is highly pressured as we all know. I walk into a room and I do have some SENCOs who see me and burst out crying. Hopefully that's not because it's me. I want to caveat that Simon.
[00:13:42 - 00:13:52] Simon Currigan
We have that experience too. We we meet a lot of SENCOs who are literally on the edge. You know, they're they're finding it hard with the day to day, just just because the pressures the increasing pressures.
[00:13:53 - 00:14:42] Kate Whittlesey
That's it, isn't it? And and I am very careful, and I say to to the thinkers we work with, it's good it's good to have that emotion in that controlled environment. It's good to, yeah, it's good to have that support network. And that again, being upset, etc, emotion can be a form of stress. But what we've got to make sure is that actually we don't get to the point of burnout. And that's what this report is brilliant at how can everyone stand it. It is long term pressures over a period of time.
And that's why it's vital, isn't it, that when we're seeing people with their symptoms of stress, actually, we've got support networks in place and we don't wait until people are much further down the line. And we're risking burnout, which is a separate thing.
[00:14:42 - 00:15:08] Simon Currigan
And and to even put it in harder terms, actually, like like pounds and pence terms, in in a school that's strapped for cash. If you've got someone who then goes off with stress for 6 months, you've gotta pay their salary, and you gotta pay the salary of the person that comes in to take the class. So stress is actually expensive, not just in terms of the emotional damage that it does and the and and the health, you know, impact on the on the person that's out, but also on the school budget.
[00:15:08 - 00:16:26] Kate Whittlesey
It really is, isn't it? And you think about the impact as well on parents, that if you were SENCO and, sorry, I keep coming back to SENCOs because they're obviously the bulk of the people that we work for but actually takes, the classroom staff, leaders, head teachers, etc. If that person is suddenly off work, gee that really unsettles parents who've built up that relationship with them over time And it just it really un yeah.
Really unsettle everything. Doesn't it? I've worked with people that have said, oh I would never have burnout and I know my well-being. And actually they have become burnt out and it's only afterwards that then they've reflected and said actually yeah we should have seen this coming because those long term pressures aren't sustainable. So just say to anybody listening now, it's it's not a taboo subject and we're at this time of the year now where let's really think about how we can consider our well-being as we move through the year. How we can be aware of what the symptoms of stress look like but also then what the symptoms of burnout look like that are very different. And just being aware that it can happen to anybody even if you regard that person.
From the strongest people within your school, your mortality trust, just be right, it can happen.
[00:16:27 - 00:16:40] Simon Currigan
So we've talked about what burnout and stress look like and the impact on the school and the individual. So let's turn now to what the individual can do because we've gotta set up a sustainable work pattern.
[00:16:41 - 00:19:34] Kate Whittlesey
Absolutely. As a sector, we we're constantly on the go, aren't we? All the time. Go. Go. Go. Go. Right? From the minute we step into that school.
And I remember coming into education, back in my very early twenties and, I remember speaking to leaders. They said, oh, we never go to the toilet. Oh, we never grab a cup of tea. Oh, we never get any downtime because we've gotta be on duty. Or we're meeting these pupils at lunchtime. We're delivering these interventions. Now that is incredible.
And I fell into that as well. So what we need to think about is reflecting on your day. Now there's some fantastic material to read and we can put it in the in the links and see if you want, Simon. But it's all about 3 circles of influence. So looking at those things that you can control within your day to day work life, what can you control?
What can you influence? And what can you not control? And thinking about your day. So what we do sometimes to some leaders is we get them to write down everything they've done that day. And then some people will be thinking, you know, Kate, that's even more more workload. You're piling on more workload. But actually, the outcome of it should lower your workload.
Because if you can think about your activities throughout the day and what you're doing, especially if you're working with these long hours then do split it up. Think about right, what are the things I can control? So for example, I can control when I'm going to make sure I have enough water throughout the day. I can control when I need to go and have my lunch because I need to set my boundaries. I can control what time I am going to leave work, believe it or not. I know some people are going, no. I can't. I can but, yeah, I can control if I'm going to leave work at 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock after my meetings.
Then think about things you can influence. So thinking about your teaching and learning styles etcetera and how you can influence that, thinking about your relationships with parents, thinking about relationships with TAs etc, think about your relationship in terms of how you might liaise with your leadership team, if you're a classroom teacher. All those things you can influence. And then think about the things that are completely outside of your control.
So that's things like government policy. If you're a SENCO - EHCP, a deadline consultation, and such, they're things that are outside of your control. And then once you've got that then, think about, right, how can I get those things that I can influence into my working day? How can I take those things that are within control and how can I actually maybe take more control of those things so I'm not stopping for a break etc? So think about reflecting on your working day. And then also don't be afraid to put your out of office on your emails.
[00:19:35 - 00:19:53] Simon Currigan
And this is a big change, isn't it? Because people are communicating with teachers all the time now. Like, 15 years ago, we didn't really email parents. We didn't have Dojo messaging systems. You you would have a stressful day, but then you could walk home maybe with a ton of marking, but you you weren't having people pinging you expecting instant instant communication.
[00:19:54 - 00:20:58] Kate Whittlesey
So that's it and I think that's a massive difference, isn't it, now that we expect, and parents that are are really concerned about their child and might have lots of emotions going as well. It's very quick for parents to sit and send an email and fire go on it. Well, if that's landing in your inbox at 20 past 6 on a Wednesday evening, gee, that might be a time that's really important for you and your family to sit down you might be having a meal. And if you've got it on your phone and it's pinging upon your phone, straight away your attentions move from your family dining room environment and your own children and your partner or your animals or whatever that is important to you in your life. And it's removed from that and instead then your brain goes straight back into work mode. So it is making sure that, yes, technology is great, isn't it? And we would be able to do this, would we now?
Without that great technology. But it is thinking about again, thinking about those circles of control, control your emails, control that accessibility.
[00:20:59 - 00:21:05] Simon Currigan
And in your auto responder, do you think it's okay to say things like, I've got your email. I will get back in, say, 2 days.
[00:21:05 - 00:22:14] Kate Whittlesey
If you are responding and you're saying to parents that thank you for your email. I acknowledge the importance. I will come back to you within 24 hours, 48 hours, whatever that looks like in terms of your working week. Remember if you're part time, full time, etc. And then just making sure that on those automatic replies, you do put a link to if you need emergency support, this is where you can access it. And there are lots of external agencies then that provide that emergency out of our support for parents so that you're not just leaving a parent who might be at crisis with nowhere to reach out to. But we've really have got to think haven't we about technology and how it is brilliant but at the same time it can really impact our mental health and our well-being.
So yeah if I can give takeaways it would be yeah. Obviously the norm. Obviously please making sure you're sleeping well, you're eating well, you're you're hydrated, etc. You you're doing something for yourself. You've got something to look forward to.
All those norms. But also review your day.
Review the day. Look at what you're doing, and then take those control over those things you can like your emails, for example.
[00:22:14 - 00:22:39] Simon Currigan
Okay. So we talked about the things that we can control independently as people working in schools. Right? And then we've got that kind of like middle ground, the the influence, and then we've got things you you don't really have any control over. So let's think about the next level up. School leaders listening to this, head teachers, deputy heads, assistant heads, the people who are setting the policy and and setting the workday, what kind of things can they do?
[00:22:39 - 00:24:43] Kate Whittlesey
So one, don't don't just assume that everybody's gonna present in the same way when they're struggling. I think it's key. Everybody is different and unique and you know your staff. So thinking about actually what systems and processes can you put in place to support your staff. So sometimes those very small moments of just thanking people, reflecting your staff. Actually, what do my individual staff need to support them? Makes a huge difference.
Thinking about things like and there's more and more schools that are moving towards 4 day week. In some schools, that's not as a leader, that's not going to be possible for you because your budgets don't allow that. Your staffing structure might not allow that. As a head teacher, you might be in the classroom so because you can't afford as many teachers as you you need. But for others, they are able to look towards more of a 4 day working week for their staff. So I think it's very individual, isn't it - depending on the school, but the one thing I would say is as a leader, know your staff. Know your staff.
Think about the CPD that you can provide as well. Think about, right, where what aren't staff telling you? Have you done well-being surveys? What CPD do you need to provide to upskill, but also support so that stress is lowered? And staff filling in those as well, you need to sit down and reflect. Please, if your head teacher says to you fill out this well-being report. And there are loads of fantastic apps out there and stuff that does it at the moment.
But the information you put into those systems, it's normally analysed and it normally will spit back recommendations for you in terms of some of the apps that I've seen. But as a head teacher as well, they will need to analyse what their staff are saying to them. So teachers feeding into that take it seriously and leaders give it the time and attention you need to go through and analyse. Are you seeing any trends? Are you seeing any patterns?
Does that link back to CPD? Does that link back to staff feeling valued, etc? And share it with your governors as well.
[00:24:43 - 00:25:20] Simon Currigan
Because this is a general purpose approach where we're we're doing surveys. We're looking at the impact of work on our employees, on our teachers, on our teaching assistants. We're we're celebrating what's what's going well, which is something we often forget to do in education, but then actually seriously looking at that and thinking, what does this mean for our individual school and our practice? Because all schools are different. All schools have different policies. Trust to trust have different policies. Local authority to local authorities are different.
Know, you can have 2 schools on the same road that have very different approaches to education, and then actually do something about that that that that's meaningful.
[00:25:20 - 00:25:35] Kate Whittlesey
Absolutely. Yeah. That's it. And if I sat here now and said, oh, I think everybody across the country should do this, I can guarantee it would fail straight away. So it is just knowing it is knowing your, yeah, knowing your staff, knowing your school, and not being afraid to address those challenges head on.
[00:25:36 - 00:26:02] Simon Currigan
I'm just thinking, like, teachers and school leaders are often very really conscientious people. So what can they do to balance the demands of their job? And the job does have to have demands, and it does have to be demanding, and we do have to provide a high quality education to the kids and a service to the parents. How do they but how can they balance that with this agenda around personal self care without them feeling guilty about it?
[00:26:03 - 00:26:45] Kate Whittlesey
One thing I would say is that you need to be as a teacher, as a leader. You need to ensure that you have got a a home life or you've got well-being. You've got something outside of work that actually you feel secure and successfully and happy in whatever words you want to use but you you that's got to be your positive. That really has. And if you don't invest in that and spend time on things outside of school, be that family hobbies, whatever that is, then actually, you won't have the energy levels to commit to all those parents and children within your school that that do need you.
[00:26:45 - 00:27:17] Simon Currigan
We've covered a lot, today in this conversation. I always like people to be able to walk away with something they can do. So if you're a teacher or a school leader and you're listening to this podcast, what's the first simple practical step you can take to support either yourself if you're feeling stressed and feel like you're moving towards burnout? Or if you're a school leader, what's the first practical thing you can do for your school to to have a positive impact on the stress levels of the teachers that you work with?
[00:27:17 - 00:28:46] Kate Whittlesey
So there's two yeah. Two bits there, aren't there? So in terms of an individual, be that if you're members you're a teacher, you're in leadership, head teacher, whatever that is, first thing I want you to do at this time, yeah, is start writing down the positives. And that's not the positives of the great things that other people are doing around you. It's the positives about what has been your impact. So that actually if you are having times that are difficult and you're just thinking, I don't feel like I've done anything well. I just feel like I've got the weight and everything on my shoulders.
You can actually just refer back to that and go, actually, I did do that well. If you are a leader and you're looking at your school and you're thinking, right, I've I've got concerns about well-being. If you're not running things like well-being indexes, if you're not doing that type of stuff, get onto it straight away. Run one now. Run one midyear and run one at the end of the year as well. And just please do not be afraid of the results. Instead, take the results, analyse them, and then don't take that as a personal reflection of you either as a leader.
Because I think some leaders, we take things on really, really personally. Look at it and say, right. What can I change? And we can come back to those circles, aren't we? What can I change? What can I influence? And what can I really struggle to change?
And just map out that pathway. And then remember, all your staff are unique.
[00:28:47 - 00:28:52] Simon Currigan
Okay. How can we find out more about you, your services, your resources? Where do we go?
[00:28:52 - 00:29:38] Kate Whittlesey
Best place to contact us is, well, type into Google, the Send Advisory Team, and we should pop up, fingers crossed, but we are at www.sendadvisoryteam.co. uk. And all of the information about what we do, how we support SENCOs, SENDTrust leads, our school improvement work, our specialist hub. Everything about us is on there as well. I'm easily contactable. LinkedIn, email, phone, etc, etc. All the information is on the website.
But, yeah, please, I'd just encourage anybody, reach out, especially if you're a, reach out before you get to the point of burnout.
[00:29:38 - 00:29:59] Simon Currigan
And as ever, I'll drop direct link that that direct link to your website in the in the comments if you're on YouTube or in, in the show notes if you're you're listening to the audio podcast. Kate, I always ask this question of every everyone we have on the show. Who is the key person or what is the key book that you've read that has had the biggest impact on the way that you work with kids?
[00:30:00 - 00:31:49] Kate Whittlesey
I have 3 key pupils that I always remember. One who said to me, that she felt like she'd been handed a pack of cards, and she'd and she felt like that pack of cards was and she said about how it's all in the wrong order, and it was a really bad set of cards that she'd been handed. And she said, but that set of cards won't define me. And she went off to university. She went off to do fantastic things. Actually, from a really challenging, Some of us it would have been quite an awful background, to to witness me part of and she yeah. She said, I I just this set of cards can't define me.
And and that's something that's really stayed close to me over the years, to help pupils and make sure that we're providing that support network around the pupils in our society that are the most vulnerable. And then there's other pupils, another pupil I worked with who turned up, with a pen knife in his pencil case. In the following week turned up with a back in the day when it it was kept in police custody and he turned up with a little plastic wallet with a single pencil and rubber in. But he turned up to school. And it's those key things and those key events for me that actually have really shaped who I am, but also what the company is about and and how we can impact education. So, yeah, I'm afraid I've deviated a little bit there, Simon. So it hasn't necessarily, you know, a key person or a key, but it's been key people, but key students, I think, over time.
[00:31:50 - 00:32:08] Simon Currigan
Thank you for sharing that that those those personal experiences because, I think a lot of people will will be able to relate to that who watch and listen to this. Kate, we've run out of time. Thank you for sharing your time and experience with us, and you've given us, I think, food for thought and practical things we can go away and start doing in school. So thank you for being on the show.
[00:32:09 - 00:32:23] Kate Whittlesey
Oh, thank you ever so much for having me, and just look after yourselves, everybody. Alright? You're in a fantastic a fantastic profession, but let's all look after each other. So thank you for having me, Simon, and, speak to you soon.
[00:32:24 - 00:33:31] Simon Currigan
And that was Kate Whittlesey talking to us today on School Behaviour Secrets all about how you can take care of yourself in the busy, frenetic world of education and avoid that burnout we were discussing earlier. I hope you found this practical tips useful. I'll put the link to her website as promised in the comments if you're watching on YouTube or in the, the show description if you're listening to the podcast. And, also, Kate's gonna share those links with me about that study on burnout and the different sort of circles, of influence that we can have over the the stresses that we experience in our own lives. So if you want that material, make sure you check out the comments or the show description. Thank you for joining me today. If you found this useful, remember, do like and subscribe so you can get more of this information in the future.
And if you've heard something that you think would be useful for a colleague or a friend that works in another school, feel free to share that too. Or if you wanna take a snippet of this, by the way, if you're watching the video and you wanna take a snippet of the conversation that might be useful for part of a staff meeting, feel absolutely free to do that. I hope you have a brilliant week, and I look forward to seeing you next time on School Behaviour Secrets.
(This automated transcript may not be 100% accurate.)
