Stress Management Training –
School Leaders & Business Managers
Course attended
3-hour virtual Stress Management for Managers training course
Group size and make up
This group consisted of 13 people; 7 head teachers, 2 lead teachers, and 4 school business managers
The pressures felt by participants:
- Stresses related to Covid
- Supporting students with social anxiety
- Issues arising from financial crisis that will impact students
- Increased incidents of antisocial behaviour and self-harm
- Tighter budgets and rising energy costs
- Teachers passionate about teaching but having to do administrative work
- Burnout risk – teachers who are passionate will just keep going and going
- Long-term stress related absences
Areas of the training participants particularly valued:
- Proactivity about managing the risk of stress – until now they felt they had been firefighting and solely reactive
- Recognising the early warning signs of stress –
- Helpful to prevent stress related illness by recognising these signs in others and taking action
- Knowing how to support each other – such as recognising that someone has had a tough week and suggesting a lunch time walk
- Recognising vulnerability in others and pull people back to health
Practical tools participants were grateful to take away:
- Stress Container
- Work Pressure Profiling
- CUSP™ – participants felt this tool opened up opportunities to explore.
Before, they felt stuck, like they couldn’t make adjustments within the constraints of the curriculum, working hours, etc, but CUSP™ helped them look at things differently and to think outside the box.
You can find out more about CUSP™ by clicking on this link which takes you to a short 3min podcast explaining the model.
The value participants expressed after attending Stress Management Training
The consensus was that it was a valuable 3-hour training session and also an opportunity to network across a range of schools to share experience, explore issues and explain their viewpoints. Discussions were sparked about putting stress on the agenda, sharing ideas on approaches, and the importance of celebrating successes and achievements.
Each school took away an action plan they had created by the end of the course in order to help put things in place on their return.
Feedback comments following this training included:
“Work pressure profiling: really useful to have a clear process to work through and unpick what the issues are so that these can be addressed more effectively.”
What will you do differently as a result of attending this training?
“Find ways to talk to staff about stress and help identify changes to prevent this or lessen the effects of it.”
“It was a really worthwhile few hours that has helped me in my thinking around this subject and will result in a number of changes to practice in my school.”
