Amid an ever-changing landscape, competing priorities and almost constant pressures within education, reflective supervision has never been needed more.
Reflective supervision offers individuals protected time with a supervisor to explore their practice and consider what may be having an impact in the here and now, giving time to process what is going on in the present, and helping us to refocus and plan for moving forward.
“We see supervision as a way of life,” Robin and Joan Shohet wrote in their 2020 book, In Love with Supervision, adding: “As we stand back and find a different perspective on the work we do, we learn skills that can apply to all aspects of our lives...when we are most stuck, we can most grow if we have a space to reflect with another who will both support and challenge us.”
Reflective supervision serves people best when it is regular and continuous, including meetings with a supervisor each month to attend to matters both professional and personal. Building our capacity by having time out on a regular basis - to put ourselves front and centre - helps us attend to our needs, and then better attend to the needs of others.
The ripple effect of such self-care can be profound.
Starting in December 2023, one West of Scotland council supported a pilot for a small group of headteachers to undertake monthly one-to-one supervision sessions. Feedback has shown that the impact of regular supervision was a game changer, with one participant stating that it had “enabled me to have a space free to discuss issues”.
They added: “It is a space free of judgement and the complications that judgements bring. This has enabled me to speak freely and honestly. The discussions have greatly influenced my practice, and (in turn) influence staff practice.”
Another participant - who has a leadership role - stated that supervision allows people “to step back from the stresses of the job and focus on you” and “gives you time to stop and think”.
Leaders’ health and wellbeing ‘often comes last’
They added: “Often, as leaders, you are busy thinking of everyone else, and your own health and wellbeing comes last; this is an opportunity to do something that supports you to ensure you are able to support those around you.”
Recent General Teaching Council for Scotland figures showed that 1,337 teachers had left the profession in five years. Meanwhile, we have seen an ever-increasing post-pandemic focus on simultaneously closing the attainment gap, meeting the needs of all children, and attending to the complexity of mental health and wellbeing in our schools.
But how are we safeguarding those tasked with addressing all this? How do staff navigate and keep themselves well in a climate of such change and uncertainty without an effective support system in place?
To be the reflective practitioners we are meant to be requires time and space. As an educator and supervisor, I have witnessed and experienced the impact that having a space to talk and explore can have on all aspects of our being.
Peter Hawkins and Aisling McMahon, in the 2020 fifth edition of their book Supervision in the Helping Professions, wrote: “Lack of supervision can contribute to feelings of staleness, rigidity and defensiveness, which can very easily occur in professions that require us to give so much of ourselves.”
Everyone within education needs a safe space to add fuel to tanks that are running dangerously low. Supervision is that space - let’s champion it for all those who work within education.
Heather Forrest is a supervisor and primary teacher in Scotland
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