Get you life back

School is dominating Y2 teacher Hazel’s every waking hour. But, with a few quick changes, Sue Cowley shows how she can reclaim her life outs

Before

Hazel has taken on too much this year. She’s got a challenging Y2 class, including several children who have complex special needs. She spends lots of time talking with the SENCO and meeting parents and local authority advisers. She spends hours planning to support those children, working late most nights of the week. She’s also part of a working party which is re-writing the whole school behaviour policy.

Hazel is the Induction Mentor for the NQT in the parallel Y2 class, so she has to plan and fit in meetings, as well as both informal and formal observations. As if that wasn’t enough, she said she might be able to help out with the school play and somehow ended up producing the whole thing. Plus she’s the mum of two young children.

The makeover

Take a long hard look at your workload. Which parts are essential or involve statutory duties? And which parts could you drop completely?

The key roles for Hazel are being the Y2 teacher and acting as Induction Mentor for the NQT. Her class and her own pupils must always come first, so those meetings with the SENCO are important. As Induction Mentor, her NQT is relying on her to carry out regular observations, and to hold both formal and informal meetings to assess progress. We’d suggest that the working party could certainly stumble on without her, and it seems unfair that she has been lumbered with running the school play.

Learn how to say ‘no’ and mean it. Realise when you need to say ‘I’m sorry, I can’t manage to do that any more’.

Teachers are notorious for agreeing to do something, when they would be far better off saying ‘thanks, but no thanks’. Maybe it’s because we like to do our best, and we want others to feel that we are enthusiastic, keen and willing. We feel that Hazel needs to withdraw from the working party and from producing the school play. She could set up a meeting with her headteacher and explain that she cannot give her best to all these roles. It’s far better to be honest about this now than to run herself into the ground and end up having to take time off when she burns out.

Don’t be a perfectionist – learn to say (and believe) that ‘good enough is good enough’.
Hazel wants to do the best for the children in her class, so she spends lots of time differentiating for their individual needs. But we’d ask Hazel: what about your own children, your own needs, and your own life outside of school? Our recommendation would be that Hazel sets a clear time limit for differentiating lessons. Then, once this time is up, she goes with whatever she’s managed to plan, rather than striving to achieve perfection every time.Ask around for support, and be willing to accept any offers of help that you receive.

Some of Hazel’s pupils have particularly complex special needs. We suggest that she ask the SENCO and the local authority advisers to get involved in helping her plan for them. She might also ask around to see whether anyone else has differentiated activities that would work for these children.

Practise the art of ‘selfish altruism’: take care of yourself first, so that you are in a fit state to look after your class.

It’s really important for Hazel to start taking care of herself, so that in turn she can take care of her children. We suggest that Hazel designates a ‘me’ evening: one evening a week where she refuses to take any work home with her, and she does something enjoyable and relaxing instead.

After…

Hazel met with her headteacher, who was perfectly happy for her to drop the working party and also to hand over running the school play to someone less busy. Her headteacher has also suggested that they work as partner mentors for the NQT, so that Hazel doesn’t have to do all the observations and feedback meetings. When Hazel spoke to the SENCO about planning, he was able to offer lots of great activities to support the children in her class. She’s set herself a time limit of 30 minutes a night, three nights a week, for creating differentiated activities. Hazel feels a lot more relaxed, and is able to enjoy some time her with family. She has designated Wednesday nights as her ‘me’ night, when she goes to Yoga with a friend.