Quick Read…
As educators (and even if you’re not an educator!), you probably don’t need to be told why it’s important to keep on learning. As an
example, a recent TES article talks about what teachers gain from being learners – in this case learning to play the drums! For most professionals, ongoing learning often takes the form of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). In an ideal world this would be a priority for teachers, but in reality, it can be a bit of a luxury due to a time-poor profession and a world of shrinking budgets.
However, when it comes to CPD for our wellbeing…
“…a person too busy to take care of their (mental) health, is like a mechanic too busy to take care of their tools!”
In other words, short-term wellbeing maintenance pays dividends not only in our professional lives down the line but in our personal lives too.
The Teacher Wellbeing Index showed that team culture played a big part in feelings of wellbeing and teacher retention: 82% of teachers who reported a negative team culture had considered leaving the profession in comparison with 47% of those who reported a positive culture (TWI 2022 p38). So, how does the Diary Project contribute to a sense of community that supports our wellbeing and helps us take care of our most value tools – ourselves?
The Diary Toolkit is used by individuals in their own time, in combination with an ongoing CPD course and access to a wellbeing community, either through Twitter or within school. The online CPD community was run in collaboration with Martyn Reah, the founder of #teacher5aday on Twitter.
Let’s take an in-depth look at how participants in phase 7 of the study felt about the CPD and wellbeing community offered as part of the Reimagining the Diary project.
The vast majority of participants (92.3%) enjoyed the monthly CPD slots, finding them to be both “Very informative and practical” and “inspirational and each brought something different”.
91.7% of participants responded that the wellbeing community had a positive impact on their wellbeing, personally and professionally. Participants said that it:
“Gave me a chance to talk to more people at work as we had common ground”
and
“made me feel that wanting to work on yourself is normal and encouraged especially in teaching as I feel I have to be perfect as I am older.”
Two thirds of respondents said being part of a wellbeing community made keeping the Diary Toolkit easier. One main reason given was 
the sense of accountability. Some of the comments include: “It spurred me on because I knew others were doing it too”; participants felt “More likely to keep up with it as I knew others were involved and that made me want to be involved too”.
The majority of participants responded that they would advise other teachers to join this wellbeing CPD programme, using the Diary Toolkit to track their wellbeing journey. They commented on how the programme had benefited them:
“It has been a positive experience for me and I feel I have learnt a lot and that others would benefit too.”
“It really helps you to focus on what is important”.
Some participants suggested that all schools should embrace the CPD programme:
“All schools should be encouraging it. Although well-being will mean different things to different people but whatever brings them joy should be encouraged”.
Echoing the finding of the Teacher Wellbeing Index one participant said: “I think it would be really good to encourage school to give more time to this. For staff partaking in the project to meet up together in groups to share and talk together”.
All participants said they would advise other teachers to use the Diary Toolkit.
…and the benefits of being part of wellbeing cohort have been felt since phase 3 at the beginning of the project, where 90% participants found being part of the Reimagining the Diary project wellbeing community had a positive impact on their wellbeing.
If you’d like to get involved with the next round of the project please contact Pen Williams, one of our research assistants on pw17644@bristol.ac.uk and in the mean time for a quick community hit – have a look at these short films as part of the BBC confessions of a teacher series.
Resources:
TWI teacher-wellbeing-index-2022.pdf (educationsupport.org.uk)