Skip to content ↓
Howden School

Howden School

Staff Well-being

Well-being is at the heart of the TEAM HOWDEN ethos. 

Balancing everyday life with the requirements of work and home can create pressures for all of us. Work is a large part of people's lives. With increasing working hours as well as technological developments to support remote working, it is vital to ensure that there's a productive, healthy environment that is conducive to a healthy lifestyle.  

Staff Well-being 

Benefits of at working at Howden School 

At Howden School we recognise that our staff are our greatest asset to fulfil our vision, to provide a high quality learning and developmental experience for all our children and young people. To ensure our staff are able to deliver that in a dynamic and multi layered organisation, it is essential that we provide opportunities for professional reflection and continuing professional and personal development. Our commitment to our staff underlies our desire to be an employer of choice and we are passionate about retaining, recruiting and developing high quality colleagues within the organisation. 

Well- being Support 

We recognise that at times we all need someone to talk to and though friends, family and colleagues can be a great source of support or comfort, sometimes it takes something more than that! As a Trust we subscribe to a 24/7 Support and Counselling Service which is completely CONFIDENTIAL and FREE to employees. Please do use the service if ever you feel it would offer support to a positive mental health being sustained. Education Support can be contacted at educationsupport.org.uk/helpline or 08000 562 561  

In addition we have a team of qualified Adult Mental Health First Aiders across the Trust who have a passion for supporting the mental health and resilience of their colleagues. If at any point in your time with us you feel that a fully qualified supporter would help you to develop your positive mental health then please email staffsupport@consortiumtrust.co.uk and a member of the HR support team will be in touch to discuss your requirements so we can allocate the right colleague to begin your qualified support. 

Well- being Physical Health 

As a public sector employee, you can access the Government rate for memberships at all East Riding Leisure Facilities, which means that you can get Premier Membership which is usually £33pcm for just £25pcm, saving £96 per year. (Subject to minimum contract length of 12 months). Facilities can be found in the following locations: Anlaby (Haltemprice), Beverley, Bridlington, Driffield, Goole, Hornsea, Pocklington (Francis Scaife Sports Centre), Preston (South Holderness Sports Centre), South Cave, Withernsea. 

Cycle to Work Scheme – this allows colleagues to obtain commuter bikes and cycling accessories through their employer (TCAT), spreading the cost over 12 months and making savings through a tax break. Further details on the scheme can be found at http://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/b2b5a0 

Continuing Professional Development and Learning 

We  pride ourselves on the professional development and learning support that is offered to all staff and at Howden School and we endeavour to enhance this core offer. We do this by developing networks across the school and the Trust and beyond to support all colleagues to be part of our culture of continuous self-improvement. The Trust level offer includes: · Conference · Teach Meets · Collaborative Groups · Well-being Training · Academy Improvement Team 

Led by exceptional school based leaders or our Academy Improvement Team these groups focus on research within the educational sector and look to work together to improve the learning experience (in its broadest sense) for all our children and young people in a sustainable way.  

Staff well-being during COVID-19

Below is a list of measures we have put in place to ensure that our high standard of staff well-being is maintained during this current situation. 

  • Access to mental health support doing lockdown provided by TCAT 
  • During lockdown we held well-being meetings with all staff to ensure they felt comfortable coming back to school  
  • Guidance given to all staff regarding home working to ensure a good work/ life balance  
  • Engagement with union representatives on a school and regional level to ensure that the policies were robust  
  • All dated policies shared with staff  
  • Published online training to ensure staff could continue with CPD  
  • Weekly keeping in touch newsletters that advised about working successfully from home, sustain a work /life balance and how to support other staff 
  • Whistle blowing during lockdown identified staff who may require additional support 
  • Sharing of all plans to do with wider school opening  
  • Regular feedback sort and acted upon regarding the wider school opening   
  • Support structures put in place through existing line management structures  
  • Managing workload by putting in fair and equitable timetable during lockdown 
  • Reduced school working day to enable greater flexibility to meet current circumstances such as changes in child care needs 
  • Return to work meetings with staff coming back to school during or after lockdown that focused on reducing anxiety by sharing plans to keep people safe  
  • Reduced number of duties during lock down 
  • Flexible working around after school meetings with the option to hold meetings at home rather than at school  
  • Using different communication methods to keep staff safe 

To restore and maintain staff wellbeing during this period, as we start to recover and consider what the new ‘business as usual’ will become, we should consider: 

  • How we can allow time and space for staff to take stock and seek help if needed. We want to use trained practitioner psychologists to facilitate reflection and processing of experiences. 
  • Seeking feedback from staff about what their mental wellbeing needs are and how they can be best supported via a staff survey 
  • Providing spaces for ongoing peer support to continue.  
  • Involving staff at all levels to share learning which can be fed into future preparedness plans.  
  • How they can recognise and reward the contribution of their staff for going above and beyond during this unprecedented time. 

Well-being Training 

We recognise the need for in depth skills and capacity for our learners (and our staff!) in this vast area. We have a rolling programme of training each year in this field to ensure that we maintain and build our capacity as an organisation.  At Howden School we subscribe to the Pearson ….The programme includes certified training in Youth Mental Health First Aid and Emotion Coaching.  

Our special relationship with Chris Lambert of Educate Financial Limited is based on exceptional feedback from our colleagues within the Trust. Chris and his company provide advice on all aspects of financial well-being and his service is available to staff of all ages and stages of their career. Chris has over 12 years experience working with education professionals and has expert level knowledge around the benefits staff are entitled to. He is however also able to work with people from all professions and so this includes the rest of your family. 

 Areas covered include: 

 • Pensions and retirement  

• Savings and investments 

 • Mortgages and insurance  

• Inheritance tax  

• General financial guidance 

Howden Well-being Champion – Ryan Gardiner 

I accepted this role because I’m very passionate about well-being and mental health and believe that every school in TCAT should have somebody installed to drive and promote these issues behind the senior leadership team. Teaching is an incredibly demanding profession, and despite being richly rewarding, can still affect our well-being – particularly in times as troubling as those we live in at the moment. COVID has taken its toll on us all, but as professionals we’ve kept going and going, but that attitude just simply is not sustainable. The pandemic has taught us all that we need to be kinder to each other and to ourselves, and my goal is to ensure that we provide everyone with the tools, knowledge and strategies to survive not just now, but also in a post-pandemic world, and to show everyone how we can manage our own well-being in a positive way. Our Team Howden ethos has frequently been the envy of many onlookers, and now I want my school to be seen as the trailblazers for others to follow in this field too.