In our Wellbeing Around the World series, Tes speaks to leaders across the globe to see how they’re nurturing positive staff wellbeing, whatever challenges they may face.

In this article, we meet June Donnan, headteacher, and Jeremy Newton, deputy headteacher, of King’s College School, The British School of Madrid, to hear how they set about boosting staff morale during some very stringent lockdown measures and how this has helped keep staff with the school after a difficult two years.

Why does staff wellbeing matter to you as international leaders? 

Staff wellbeing is at the centre of our school life. If you do not have great staff wellbeing then you cannot have outstanding teachers, and teacher quality underpins everything we are trying to achieve in our school from pastoral care to academic excellence.

We also have a strong sense of school community and caring for our staff comes naturally to us all. We want our teachers to be happy and healthy. 

Are there any wellbeing issues unique to your region?

The pandemic affected our teachers in Spain in a very specific way as lockdown restrictions were particularly strict at the beginning of the first outbreak.

We were literally confined to our homes and were only allowed out for essentials. Police in Madrid patrolled the streets and enforced the rules strictly. At the same time, we moved to fully online teaching - the combination of these two led to significant wellbeing issues.

These ranged from loneliness and claustrophobia to simply not having any space to work in for those with families or those living in shared accommodation. We are proud of the provision we were able to offer to our students but acutely aware of the need to support staff through the process.

Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, lessons took place with students divided by Perspex screens. This, along with teachers having to swap rooms instead of students, led to a reduction in the quality of the day-to-day experience for teachers.

Retention has not been a problem for us, yet. We believe the team appreciate that we have done what is in our power to support them through the experience.

However, now things are beginning to settle, we do expect staff who have been unable to return “home” as frequently as they may like to consider returning to the UK.

What wellbeing initiatives have you introduced in the last two to three years?

We believe that wellbeing is at the heart of what we do every day, as opposed to an initiative.

To this end, we build in opportunities to support wellbeing to our continued practice. This ranges from spending one-on-one time with staff to arranging team breakfasts, handing out gifts and presents, and generally being available.

We also try to be as flexible with staff as we can. If there is a family issue or emergency then we will do whatever we can to support them through it and arrange cover as required. This has been particularly challenging over the last two years but we do have great leaders who handle the logistics to support staff as needed.  

Our email policy is also particularly important to us. We have a ban on work emails between 5.30pm and 8.00am on weekdays and over weekends. This is to promote a strong work-life balance.

We understand that some may prefer to get certain work tasks completed at home but this should not be something that is forced upon people by receiving communication out of hours.

For us, wellbeing is not an initiative but a continuous chain of small but impactful leadership choices.

How did this idea come about? What caused you to act?

One idea that has been added to our recent practice was the creation of personalised survival kits being sent to each staff member’s home during quarantine.

The packs contained stress management objects as well as some nice gifts including food and drink.

How involved were staff in this work?

Wellbeing has been part of our School Development Plan for the last three years. One of the strengths of our school is that each member of the staff team joins a working party linked to an area of our development plan.

Therefore 20 per cent of our staff team have focussed on wellbeing over the last few years. Ideas such as the survival kits and other regular things we do have come directly from staff.

We do also take top-down decisions to act and support when we can see that workload or stress levels are rising.

How was this initiative rolled out on a practical level?

On a practical level, the survival kits were actually quite interesting to create. We sought a range of opinions on what items would be suitable for inclusion, found a department store that would organise them for us and went ahead.

More recently, as rules on gatherings prevent us from having a Christmas party, we have done something similar as a gift for staff. Christmas hampers are given out to every member of the team.

They have been particularly popular and are an idea we think we will stick to, regardless of Covid.

What was the impact and how did you measure this? 

We have noticed a significant improvement in staff retention rates since wellbeing became part of our whole school conscience.  

We can’t fix everything, and schools can be a challenging place to work - especially in recent times. However, we do hope that the team realise that we do whatever we can within our power. This has been reflected in the retention rates and is something we are particularly proud of.

Having wellbeing in our development plan certainly helped that and led to members of the team across the school collectively working to support everyone’s wellbeing.

What overall advice would you offer on wellbeing to other leaders?

Our advice would be to avoid single, large initiatives and instead to do a little as frequently as you can. A focus on wellbeing should not be an individual event but a characteristic of a successful school.

How do you look after your own wellbeing?

Our positive coping strategies involve physical exercise such as Pilates, running and dog walking. We are also sounding boards for each other so that, when things become particularly challenging, we are able to let off steam in a safe and confidential environment.

June Donnan is headteacher and Jeremy Newton is deputy headteacher of King’s College School, The British School of Madrid, part of the Inspired Education Group