This guest blog is written by Samira Sadeghi, Head of Academies Governance at Academies Enterprise Trust. Over the past year, we have started to rethink what ‘normal’ means, particularly in education. Reflecting back on many years advising schools on exclusions, I am struck by how ‘normal’ it was for exclusions…
Over the term, we’ll be releasing more materials outlining ways in which governors can help schools intervene and improve physical activity levels for all pupils. There are, however, baseline areas of knowledge and action that they can begin to look at and get to grips with. It’s a good idea…
If there are big, and largely well-known, benefits to be gained by young people being more physically active, both in and outside of school – and there are multiple ways to achieve this – then why is it so difficult to make improvements? Governors must have a firm grasp…
What makes physical activity practice and culture in schools may appear obvious – but actually there are a variety of ways in which a school can improve, or fail to provide, when it comes to ensuring pupils and staff are encouraged to be physically active. All schools have different circumstances,…
There are a variety of reasons why physical activity levels are critical to wellbeing and why that is particularly the case in schools. Failure to adequately address the issue and proactively engage with pupils not only leads to diminished attainment whilst they are in school but results in their entering…
In this guest blog, Tim Small from Integrity Coaching outlines some questions and prompts to guide governors’ thinking and action when it comes to headteacher wellbeing. As a school governor, responsible for the strategic direction and educational and financial health of your school, how much value do you place…
In this guest blog, James McLoughlin, Director at TAP (Thank And Praise) outlines how sharing messages of gratitude can help improve staff wellbeing. We all know that school staff, in particular teachers, have one of the most stressful jobs around. We also know that teachers who work in schools where…
Teacher workload has been a problem for years, contributing to stress and playing a role in driving people out of the profession. The pandemic has changed some workload patterns – at times even reducing it – but it’s still unclear whether any of these changes will become…
Editor’s note: this article is longer than our usual posts but we wanted to include a diverse set of opinions and perspectives on the concept. Remote governance, or flexi-governance, is a model of school governance that allows for at least a minority of board members to attend meetings remotely.
Fortunately, highly traumatic events are not a common occurrence. But, when they do happen they can have devastating and long-term consequences for those affected. School staff are particularly vulnerable, working in stressful conditions and being exposed to a wide variety of potential sources of trauma in the school community beyond…
A positive approach to staff wellbeing is a fundamental component of good leadership. However, it shouldn’t be reliant on the abilities, experience or passions of individual governors or members of a school’s leadership team. Too often, schools attempt to address this issue without long-term sustainability in mind. A change in…
Providing support and challenge to headteachers and a school’s leadership team is one of a governor’s key roles. For some people, finding the balance between the two can be the hardest part of the job. To ‘provide challenge’ can conjure up visions of confrontation and…