The document discusses teacher and pupil well-being in schools. It notes that up to 30% of new teachers in England leave within 5 years, with teacher stress being a significant factor. Various programs have aimed to build pupil emotional well-being and coping strategies as many teachers see increasing pupil stress in primary schools. The presentation then discusses a research project on mindfulness in teachers and learners, and the importance of investing in staff well-being to develop well-being in children and young people.

1. Shireland National Research School
“Better Together”
Teacher and pupil well-being
Prof Des Hewitt
Head of Primary and Early
Years’ Teacher Education
University of Warwick

2. ‘’How can we develop
well-being for children
and young people if we
don’t invest the same care
in our staff?’’
Teacher well-being
 Up to 30% of new teachers in
England leave the profession
within 5 years.
 Teacher stress is widely seen a
significant contributory factor
Fisher (2011)
Pupil well-being
 Many teachers believe that pupil
stress in primary schools is an
increasing issue.
 Various programmes have sought to
build on pupil emotional well-being
to develop coping strategies.
TES (2015)
‘Mindfulness in Teachers and Learners:
An Evaluation in Teacher Education and Primary Schools’
Prof Des Hewitt, Centre for Professional Education

3. Your research project Name: _______________________
Research Question/ Topic
Subsidiary questions:
Impact:
Scope/ Limitations:
Manageability:
Research approach
Research methods:
Data storage and recording:
Data analysis:
Ethics/ Informed consent:
Validity/ reliability/ relateability
Literature and theoretical background
Last 5-10 years:
Professional implications:
Research approaches:
Reporting findings
Results/ findings:
Claims:
Coming back to your literature:
Conclusions:
Implications/ Recommendations:

4. Education and Research ethics
Do good Do no harm

5. Human flourishing
Greek word commonly translated as happiness or
welfare; however, "human flourishing" has been
proposed as a more accurate translation.

6. School responsibility for pupils
and employees
Duty of care
Safeguarding: KCSIE (2016)
Rights: UN Convention for
Children’s rights

7. Adult safeguarding
Physical abuse
Domestic violence or abuse
Sexual abuse
Psychological or emotional abuse
Financial or material abuse
Modern slavery
Discriminatory abuse
Organisational or institutional abuse
Neglect or acts of omission
Self-neglect

8. Teacher stress vs Pupil stress
Exam Factories: The impact of
accountability measures on children and
young people
www.teachers.org.uk

9. Chain of responses: stress and ‘secondary’ behaviours.
Child struggles
to understand • This might be due to a language or
learning difficulty.
Teacher
responds
under stress
• The teacher may misunderstand the reason
for a learner’s response or be plain stressed
due to overwork.
Child responds
to a stressed
teacher
• The child may not
understand why the
teacher is stressed.
• The child’s response is a
secondary behaviour.

10. Duty of care
The law imposes a legal duty on teachers and schools to take care of
the safety and wellbeing of pupils in their care. ...
Employers have a duty of care to their employees, which means that
they should take all steps which are reasonably possible to ensure
their health, safety and wellbeing.
Demonstrating concern for the physical and mental health of
your workers shouldn't just be seen as a legal duty - there's a clear
business case

11. Taking care of children and staff
‘’How can we develop well-being for children
and young people if we don’t invest the same
care in our staff?’’
‘’Evaluation of SEAL programmes for pupils
suggested they are of limited use unless
there is a parallel programme to support
staff.’’

12. How do we react to life?

13. Intrinsic Motivation
Connected: we are intrinsically social;
Autonomous: we need to be in control;
Personal development: we need to grow
Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic
motivation and self-determination in human
behavior. New York: Plenum Press

15. Mindfulness Activity
Breathing Mindfully
– Posture is important
– The optimum breathing rate is 5 seconds in and 5
seconds out
• If this in uncomfortable find your own pace
• The rhythm is more important to begin with
– “Here and now” breathing

16. Mindfulness
For Teachers
Builds resilience to stress, strain and change
Allows you to connect with and express your
authentic self
Modelling mindful responses to
pupils/students/learners is very powerful
Non-attached awareness is vital for being an
effective reflective practitioner

17. Mindfulness
For Teachers
Allows you to engage with the emergent,
organic nature of teaching and learning
Helps to negotiate frustrations
– Frustration is the easiest negative emotion to slip
into
Helps to fully engage moments that you
appreciate
– Appreciation is the easiest positive emotion to
cultivate

20. Five a day for mental health and well-being
Connect with other people
Learn something new
Be aware of your own feelings
Get active
Do something good for others

21. Miss D RQT [Emily Davies]
(former Shirelands pupil and trainee teacher)

23. Connect Be
active
Keep
learning
Give
to others
Be mindful
Details Listening
and
talking to
others
Staying
active at
school
Enjoy
learning a
new skill
Unexpected
acts of
kindness
Being aware of
how you feel
and caring for
yourself
Environment
Staff
Curriculum
Behaviour
for learning
Parents
And
community

24. Some useful twitter links
@mindfulpedagogy - creates lots of mindfulness lessons/great blog
@MartynReah - creator of the #teacaher5aday hashtag.
@teacher5aday - account for said hashtag.
@NQTUK - host chat sessions every Wednesday between 8-9 for
NQTs
@ITTchat - host chat sessions every Wednesday between 7-8 for
trainees
@ukedchat - host chat sessions every Thursday between 8-9 for
more experienced teachers
@ICT_MrP this guy is great for ways to use ICT in the classroom(a
little off topic but very useful)

25. Moral compass in Teacher Education

26. UN Convention on Children’s Rights
The Convention must be understood as a
whole: all rights are linked and no right is
more important than another. The right to
relax and play (article 31) and the right to
freedom of expression (article 13) are as
important as the right to be safe from
violence (article 19) and the right to
education (article 28)

29. The next steps
Do something
Spread the word
If you’re interested please let me know
@deshewitt
d.m.hewitt@warwick.ac.uk

30. Resources
Five a Day for Mental Health
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-
anxiety-depression/pages/improve-mental-
wellbeing.aspx
UN Convention on Children’s Rights
https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-
convention-child-rights/