Early Days
Since beginning in 2018, Reimagining the Diary (RtD) has been on quite the journey! It has gathered pace and participants – with over 450 educators taking part in reflective wellbeing activities through the diaries and toolkits developed by the project to date.
Phases 1 and 2 laid the groundwork for the development of toolkits, revealing the power of the diary for teacher wellbeing – allowing them to reconnect to their aspirations and motivations, as well as celebrating positives and stress busting. Through our first trial we found that there’s no such thing as a perfect diary – a bespoke, creative and multimodal approach is needed. That way, it can be customised to the interests and wellbeing needs of the user. The resulting multi-modal, playful, and creative toolkit developed for phase 2 was extended to more than 140 teachers through phases 3 and 4.
Gathering Pace
The impact on wellbeing was clear – during the Covid-19 crisis, 79.5% of participants in phase 3 and 69.2% of participants in phase 4 reported that having access to the Toolkit improved their wellbeing. As one individual said “It literally saved me from having a breakdown. I believe that I would not have managed my feelings and emotions as well had I not had this outlet for feelings and worries”.
The need for a bespoke approach was developed in phase 3 and 4, where participants used a blanket version of the diary toolkit before customising the toolkit according to their preferences. 92.3% of participants in phase 3 and 79.5% in phase 4 appreciated the opportunity to engage in activities that spurred their creativity. One participant mentioned “I added my own creative tasks (playlists) and was inspired to do more activities and build on activities such as drawings and doodles – lovely to see progress of my confidence in my writing over time”.
During these phases, a programme of CPD for wellbeing was also introduced. 86.8% of phase 3 participants and 79.5% of phase 4 participants expressed a desire for this to continue. 94.9% of phase 3 participants and 100% of phase 4 participants said they would recommend the wellbeing CPD programme with the Diary Toolkit to other teachers, with one participant passing the toolkit “to the Director of Well-being at school as something she could do and share as well!” 89% of phase 3 participants and 87.2% of phase 4 participants responded positively to the Transition stage of the Toolkit as it allowed them to focus on themselves and put schoolwork behind them after the day’s work. They enjoyed a variety of Main Activities; with free writing (76.9%), affirmations and positive thinking (61.5%), doodling, and reflective writing (56.4%) ranking as the top three favourites for phase 3 participants, and free writing (61.5%), reflection through writing (61.5%), and positive mindset/affirmation (61.5%) ranked as the top three favourites for phase 4 participants. This non-judgemental process was described as “Great to clear mind of all the clutter. A way to vent and move on”.
Extra Features
In phase 5 the project worked with two schools and saw a mixture of physical and PDF Toolkits used by participants, while all participants in phase 6 received the physical Toolkit. In both phases, the toolkit also included bookmarks, websites, and digital activities. About half of the participants used the bookmarks, which overall generated positive feedback, such as the ease of navigating the activities in the Toolkit. As one participant said, “Ease of use was great and made the activities very user friendly.”
Phase 6 comprised of a male-only group in response to participants in previous phases being predominately women. 78.6% of participants liked the three stage approach, with none responding negatively. Transition activities such as ‘Breathe’ (64.3%) and ‘Play Music’ (71.4%) were particularly popular helping participants become “settled … into the right frame of mind” for the Main Activity and Reflection stage.
All the participants in phase 5 and 81.8% of the participants in phase 6 reported using the Diary Toolkit to reflect on their working day. 90% of phase 6 participants and 100% of phase 5 participants said that being a part of this wellbeing group has improved their personal and professional wellbeing.
Echoing the findings in phases 3 and 4, all participants in phase 5 and 81.8% of participants in phase 6 said they would encourage other teachers to sign up for the wellbeing CPD programme and use the Diary Toolkit to track their progress, with one participant having “set up a wellbeing channel for our trainee teachers off of the back of this project.”
Looking Forward
Reimaging the Diary continues to grow. We are currently trialling a student version of the Diary Toolkit with a whole cohort of Y12 pupils at a school in Gloucester, and big things are coming for the project in September 2023.
Watch this space for updates and information on how to get involved. You can also follow RtD on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, and LinkedIn and read Lucy’s brand new book :
