In the second of our Wellbeing Around the World series, we chat to Jennie Devine, head of primary at the Montessori School Almeria, about initiatives from her career that she has instigated to boost wellbeing among staff - and how she prioritises her own wellbeing too

Why does staff wellbeing matter to you as an international head? 

In any school, for any headteacher, staff wellbeing is a concern. We all try to minimise stress, help staff cope with changes and ensure the school environment is safe.

However, an international school has not only the work environment to think about but also how a staff member is settling in to a new country.  

When staff come to an international school, we need to recognise that teachers are leaving behind support systems and routines and that this can have an impact on mental health

Being preventative, giving staff a sense of community and providing a support system are all therefore very important to me as a leader.

Are there any wellbeing issues unique to your country or school? 

The current school I work at is small and in a beach city that is not a major metropolis. There are some amazing benefits to this: nature and the beach are all around, there is a slower pace of life and everyone at work knows each other.

However, there are some downsides to that. At my previous school in Milan, we had a large student cohort so we had a large staff body too and this meant there was a ready-made social group for new staff.

Milan is a more international city than Almeria so it was easier to find English-speaking communities. In the smaller, more isolated city of Almeria, there aren’t the same opportunities, though they do exist.

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

The main focus for wellbeing initiatives in the last few years has been giving teachers a sense of community as well as providing some positive growth.

To this end, I created an initiative I called YOUniversity (a cheesy name but it made people laugh!) where teachers offered to provide workshops or clubs to staff members outside of school hours.

Offering to give a class or lead a session was done on a totally voluntary basis. If I had the budget, I would have loved to offer a supplemental payment to teachers who offered to give a class, but even without that, we had volunteers who led book groups, held art sessions, started a choir, created a staff band, gave fitness classes and arranged online quizzes.

The school did, however, pay for supplies and staff could use school materials and space. We also were able to retain the extracurricular yoga teacher for an hour one day a week to be available to staff.

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

Being in a country where English isn’t the first language means that outside courses and classes are not always accessible to staff members who don’t speak the local language.

Teachers also have few opportunities for leisure activities. After hearing this lament from several staff members who came to the school, I decided to create YOUniversity as it addressed several needs: helping teachers find community, creating a more cohesive team and allowing teachers to bond with others who shared their interests.

As I wrote earlier, as international heads, we need to take a more gestalt approach to wellbeing.

Implementing something that recognised staff not only as teachers but as talented individuals with their own outside interests serves the purpose of making staff feel more seen and valued.

It was also the case that in our school, staff often didn’t know each other because their roles rarely interacted: the infant teachers and the middle school teachers very rarely met for example. So even though we had over 100 staff it could feel like a small community.

Doing this helped break down those barriers and help people get to know one another in a fun, informal way.

The idea for the project actually came about as a corollary to having staff lead “bite-sized” workshops in staff meetings. Everyone was keen to share and to learn from colleagues and so I extrapolated out from there.

After I shared the idea with staff, I surveyed them and asked them specifically what classes they would like to see as well as what classes they would be prepared to offer.

How was this initiative rolled out?

Before I introduced this, I floated the idea to a few key people, especially those who I knew might want to help out and offer classes.

A Year 6 teacher had spoken to me about a book club, so I got her on board. A music teacher wanted to create a staff choir, so she was drafted in. The art teacher could stay after school and let people use different media and offer advice. The ever-ebullient PE teacher was keen on leading staff exercise classes. The yoga teacher was on board. I checked days and times with them and created a skeleton framework.

With these courses decided, I introduced the initiative in a whole staff meeting and the courses that were already being offered. Then I asked staff to write down ideas about what they would like to clear, what they would be prepared to lead, and their availability so I could coordinate this together.

What was the impact and how did you measure this?

I measured this through take-up numbers and informal feedback. For example, the staff workout lessons regularly had 15 to 20 people attend even during the online teaching period, while the book club had about 10 dedicated members, and there was a very little cross over between the two, meaning that a wide number of teachers were having their needs met.

There was a lot of positive talk about people enjoying the classes and the time together; staff would speak with anticipation about courses.

Of course, it didn’t suit everyone - these were mostly teachers who had children and who had lived in the country for several years. Obviously, their family and social focus was very different.

One teacher grumbled that they were being asked to work “for free” but since participation was voluntary, that mindset didn’t gain much traction. In retrospect, an initial survey and follow-up survey would have been useful as they would have made concrete the informal feedback I received.

Staff retention rates in the year we implemented this were better than previously. Usually, we would have to hire five to eight new staff, and we only had to replace one, though of course, that could have also been due to the fact that the pandemic made teachers less reluctant to relocate.

What overall advice would you suggest to others looking to do something similar?

This obviously works best in a bigger school if you are going to have this be a teacher-led proposition.

I did not have room in my budget to offer a fully-funded programme so the model I used was that teachers volunteered to give courses. It could be that offering additional payment to offer staff courses could be another way to recognise their expertise, but then again, it might undermine the feeling of a staff learning community.

It was also important to have realistic time expectations. The only classes that met every week were the fitness classes.

The book club met monthly, choir and band heated up before Christmas and the end of the year and the art sessions were done in half term blocks. This was important to make everyone feel like it wasn’t an infinite commitment and an additional stressor on time.

I would make sure that there is a need where you are. I think that having yoga on the slate was really useful to staff; a mindfulness course could also have been a supplemental course.

Overall, having the structure of the school as a learning community for staff recognises the pastoral role we have for teachers in an international setting. It lets teachers know that the school views them as more than just “teaching delivery machines”.

How do you look after your own wellbeing?

I relax by doing things. I have two dogs, so I go for long walks and short runs with them. I also enjoy studying. I recently finished my masters’ degree in librarianship and I am now studying an online programme in writing through the University of Cambridge.

All this is part of my focus on ensuring I have genuine time off. As a school leader, I can’t just switch off completely as I walk out of the school gates, but I do allocate specific times on the weekend or evenings when I’ll check my email or do work.

Everyone who needs to have my mobile number has it and they can reach me if it is an emergency, so I feel confident that taking a day out on the weekend won’t lead to disaster.

I don’t think that pulling 14-hour days, seven days a week is a sustainable way to work and so I make sure I ringfence time for myself. I expect my teachers to find time to switch off fully for their mental health; I make sure I do the same myself.

Jennie Devine is an international headteacher who has worked in Italy, Colombia and Ecuador. She is currently head of primary at the Montessori School Almeria

If you’re an international leader with an interesting wellbeing initiative you’d like to share then please contact dan.worth@tes.com