Education Support Wellbeing Workshop organised by Wirral NEU

“Staying well in challenging times” was the key message from the Education Support Wellbeing Workshop organised by Wirral NEU for our members.

This practical and empowering session was delivered by an associate from Education Support the national mental health charity for education professionals. The facilitator, a former teacher and headteacher, brought both professional expertise and lived experience, emphasising that the current education system often makes sustainable teaching and leadership impossible without deliberate, protected wellbeing practices.

The workshop explored how stress operates physiologically through the stress cycle. In evolutionary terms, humans are designed to experience danger, respond through cortisol (fight, flight or freeze), reach safety and then release that stress. In modern education, however, staff experience repeated “micro-dangers” such as observations, emails, challenging behaviour, workload, deadlines (not an exhaustive list) which continually trigger cortisol without resolution, on top of the demands of a full working day with children.

When the stress cycle is not completed, cortisol accumulates, leading to exhaustion, illness, poor sleep and ultimately, burnout.

Members learned that completing the stress cycle is essential. Effective ways to release cortisol include:

● Crying and laughing

● Physical movement (walking, stretching, dancing, even stamping)

●Breathing, especially longer exhales

● Singing

● Affection (from people or animals, or even imagining it)

● Creative activity

● Social connection

Alcohol was questioned in jest by a member, but importantly highlighted as a suppression strategy rather than a stress-completing one.

The workshop reframed rest as essential fuel rather than an absence of productivity. Drawing on research, it was explained that the brain requires around 42% recovery time. Continuous effort without rest leads to diminishing cognitive function. Short breaks improve effectiveness and wellbeing, even during the busiest periods.

Participants were introduced to Dr Sandra Dalton-Smith’s Seven Types of Rest:

1. Physical

2. Mental

3. Sensory

4. Creative

5. Emotional

6. Social

7. Spiritual (not necessarily religious; includes connection, meaning, nature and community)

True wellbeing requires balance across all seven. Sleep alone is not enough. Many educators are depleted because the rest they take does not match the type of fatigue they are experiencing.

The concept of a “wellbeing window” encouraged staff to reclaim and build in:

● 30 seconds breathing, gratitude, grounding

● 3 minutes stretch, pause, mindful drink, reset

● 30 minutes weekly protected time purely for themselves (as a minimum)

These practices are achievable during the school day, not just outside work. Mindfulness was framed simply as paying full attention to one act, such as drinking a cup of tea or eating lunch.

Crucially, wellbeing was positioned as both personal and collective. Individual self-care strengthens the whole organisation. Staff have influence even without formal power: inviting colleagues to take breaks, modelling boundaries, supporting ECTs to step away and encouraging leaders to practise what they promote. Leadership modelling was highlighted as vital as staff mirror what they see.

The workshop challenged “grind culture” in education and reframed self-care as a form of resistance rooted in social justice traditions (Audre Lorde). Caring for oneself is not indulgence; it is preservation and collective strength.

Education Support’s wider role was also outlined:

● Free 24/7 helpline for all education staff

● Counselling and resources

● Leadership supervision (currently funded for leaders via DfE/Welsh Government)

● Research and advocacy, including the annual Teacher Wellbeing Index

Members described the session as validating, transformative and empowering. It provided language and evidence to justify boundaries and wellbeing practices. There was strong interest in extending this work and across whole-school communities through INSET or CPD, building a shared culture of care across all roles.

Embedding these approaches has a direct and lasting impact on both our professional effectiveness and our personal lives. When we are able to complete the stress cycle, take meaningful rest and challenge grind culture, we become clearer thinkers, more patient practitioners and more sustainable colleagues. Decision-making improves, relationships strengthen and creativity returns. We are better able to regulate our emotions in high-pressure situations, respond rather than react and remain connected to the values that brought us into education in the first place.

Beyond the workplace, these practices ripple into home and community life. Reduced chronic stress supports physical health, sleep and energy levels. It enables us to be more present with family and friends, to experience joy without guilt and to reclaim parts of ourselves that constant urgency can erode. Modelling healthy boundaries also teaches our children and young people that wellbeing matters, that rest is not weakness and that a life of purpose must include care.

Overall, the workshop reframed wellbeing as essential, evidence-based and achievable not an add-on but fundamental to sustaining educators and the system itself. The content is suitable for everyone, not just teachers. Wellbeing matters for all.

For many of us, it was the right time to hear these messages and have them reinforced and renewed. There was new learning grounded in science and research, alongside reassurance that much good practice is already happening and that we can continue to encourage one another to prioritise care, connection and rest.