Student and Teacher well being: the virtuous circle.
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A guest post by @jo3grace
This week it was reported that 74% of teachers are seriously considering leaving the profession. I also listened with a heavy heart to a debate between two opponents in the argument over primary school SATs: as the pro SATS commentator insisted that students must be assessed “So that we know what they know, and what they don’t know” and the anti SATs parent replied that they did not want their child tested, and this toing and froing continued for several minutes, no one interrupted to point out that just possibly the teacher in the child’s class might be able to use their professional judgement to identify “What they know and what they don’t know.” Beleaguered, forgotten, downtrodden. It’s no wonder that teachers are losing heart.
But that’s just it: I know they’re not. They’re not losing heart, they’re full of it.
And their heart is for their pupils, they want what is best for them, and if you enable them to offer that, if you give them the training they need in order to provide that, then their well being improves.
Student well being and teacher well being go hand in hand. I don’t know a single teacher whose well being isn’t affected by the well being of their students. Yet many teachers struggle to access training relevant to the needs of their students. Especially training relevant to the needs of students with special educational needs.
More than once I have received private messages from teachers who support children with profound and multiple learning disabilities who are overwhelmed by the fight. They are fighting for these children, and sometimes they’re having to fight their managers. The most recent message was from a teacher in a quandary: her Headteacher had demanded a particular teaching strategy be used in all the classes in the school, but she knew it would be meaningless for her students. Should she be the awkward one yet again and object to the strategy, or should she go with the flow and use the strategy even though she knew it would not reach her students?
It’s such a rock and a hard place decision and I know she’s not alone. The research archive reports that individuals with profound and multiple learning disabilities have high mental health care needs, and yet if you look around for training relevant to the mental well being of students with profound disabilities you’ll be lucky to find anything.
After that teacher’s message I decided it was time to stick my neck out, and so later this year I’ll be hosting two conferences that focus on the mental well being of students with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Having not hosted a conference myself before this really is a neck out situation for me but I’ve been really encouraged because even though the conferences aren’t until the autumn I’ve already had to arrange a change of room at my Birmingham event to cope with the number of delegates. And the delegates on my list are people who care. People I want to learn from, and people I hope will stay in the teaching profession, for the sake of their students.
Teachers are incredible, you can stomp on them all you like and they still care. As well as the mental well being days I’m also hosting two Develop your sensory lexiconary days, these days will support people in developing their engagement with the sensory world. The two events might sound different, one fun, one very serious, but actually they’re interlinked. Both events will support teacher’s well being and reward them for their caring and dedication.
it’s a virtuous circle like in a fairy tale: the teachers who attend the PMLD mental well being will, through their dedication to their students, come to know a group of people who are supremely good at deriving joy from the moment; at paying attention to the moment; at accepting people as they are. And as they spend time with these experts in mindfulness a little of those skills will rub off on them. And our increasing current knowledge about mindfulness testifies to it being an effective way to prevent stress, anxiety and depression. Through their students and their dedication to their students these teachers gain a perspective on their own lives and a gratitude for each moment lived.
The teachers who come to develop their sensory lexiconaries with the motivation of using this to better communicate with their profoundly disabled students will increase their connection with the sensory world and when we engage with our senses we reap all sorts of wonderful well being rewards. Paying attention to the senses helps you pay attention to the here and now and that slows down our perception of time, so if you feel like your life is a bit too frantic, then “stop and smell the roses” is good advice, and touch them too, and make sure you look at them closely. And as their sensory lexiconaries develop they will increase their ability to connect with their wonderfully mindful resilient students, and we would all benefit from being friend with someone who is able to live joyfully in the moment.
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t’s all cyclical – how do we support the well being of teachers? Enabling them to support the well being of their students is one of the ways. How do we support student well being? Supporting the well being of their teachers would be a good first step.
Jo Grace: Founder of The Sensory Project, International Inclusion & Sensory Engagement Consultant, Trainer & Author.
Images: @jo3grace