Big things are happening for the Diary Toolkit this academic year as we launch phases 9,10 and 11 of the project and go live with our commercial product! It’s going to be a busy autumn term…
PHASE 9
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The new academic year started with a Diary Toolkit Launch at a primary school in South Gloucestershire at their INSET day on September 1st.
This launch of phase 9 was the beginning of a yearlong collaboration with 37 staff across all roles at the school, where wellbeing has become an important part of their ongoing professional development.
It’s wonderful to work with a school that so openly recognises that looking after ourselves as educators is the foundation for looking after our pupils and/or students and, as the head put it, ‘keeping the show on the road’!
During this phase we will also be working with a primary school in Bolton, who we worked with before. They have joined the whole school phase because the project really had a positive impact on staff wellbeing. New staff have since joined the school and the headteacher was keen to join the project once more!
This phase hopes to explore the benefits of working on an organisation-wide scale and extending the benefits of the Diary Toolkit when working in the way.
We are really looking forward to working with everyone at both schools and welcoming them into the CPD community at our first session this month.
We are also hoping to work with some individual educators who contacted the project during the last academic year.
Phases 10 and 11
Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year’s mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.” — Wallace Stegner
This academic year also sees the Diary Project expand its work with students as well as educators, as we with students in a school in
Gloucestershire, as well as an international school in Slovakia.
We know that student and teacher wellbeing are “two sides of the same coin” (Roffey 2012), and as with teachers the mental health and wellbeing of students is in issue of real concern as “anxiousness among both primary and secondary-age pupils appears to have increased and is higher than in 2020/21” (DfE 2022) This is an issue that the DfE acknowledges the need to address.
We’ve included links to some resources to help you support young people’s wellbeing at the end of this blog post and are really looking forward to seeing the impact the Diary Toolkit can have on students as well as teachers.
“And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.” – Meister Eckhart
We are also looking forward to working with a cohort of trainee teachers from November onwards.
Trainee teachers are encouraged to engage in journaling and reflective practice to develop their professional skills and meet the teaching standards. The use of the Diary Toolkit will expand their use of reflective practice to their wellbeing, and the project aims to encourage them to see reflection as a tool for self-care as well as a means of profession development. This part of project seeks to support educators at all stages of their career and to help them prioritise their wellbeing from the outset.
And finally…
“There is something so special in the early leaves drifting from the trees – as if we are all to be allowed a chance to peel, to refresh, to start again.”- Ruth Ahmed
You can now buy a Diary Toolkit of your own! Dr Lucy Kelly and Kimberley Evans (CEO for the commercial strand) launched the new version at PedagooHampshire23 earlier this month. Dr Lucy ran a workshop, ‘How diary keeping can enhance your wellbeing’ and then led a closing keynote showcasing how the transitions and activities in the toolkit work.
They were really pleased with how the event went and meeting lots of people in real life really boosted their wellbeing.
This new version of the Diary Toolkit allows individuals to purchase it themselves to make personal commitment to improving their own wellbeing. Although the content of the activities is the same, we have gone through a full rebrand with new colours and design to make it as user friendly to the individual as possible. This includes our exciting folder design which allows you to create a Diary Toolkit that is bespoke to your needs.
The new academic year started with a Diary Toolkit Launch at a primary school in South Gloucestershire at their INSET day on September 1st.
We are also looking forward to working with a cohort of trainee teachers from November onwards.
This new version of the Diary Toolkit allows individuals to purchase it themselves to make personal commitment to improving their own wellbeing. Although the content of the activities is the same, we have gone through a full rebrand with new colours and design to make it as user friendly to the individual as possible. This includes our exciting folder design which allows you to create a Diary Toolkit that is bespoke to your needs.