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Talking about workload and wellbeing is a tricky beast, because it’s so bespoke to the individual. What I do won’t help the next person, but a great deal of it for me is setting boundaries. A short thread (famous last words, Howard) about how I do this:
I don’t do Sundays. Ever. Sundays are days where I squeeze children, eat cake and occasionally go for a run.
I don’t bring marking home. It just makes me feel crap having a pile of marking looking despairingly at me from across the kitchen and no one needs judgy marking.
I don’t bring marking home. It just makes me feel crap having a pile of marking looking despairingly at me from across the kitchen and no one needs judgy marking.
Outside of work, I say no to things I don’t want to do, a lot. Life is too short to do stuff you don’t want to do. I want to work on projects I can deliver to a high standard because I am enthusiastic about them and they won’t ask me to work on a Sunday.
I am surrounded by people who make me want to be better. This means the conversations I have are really fulfilling and I feel very lucky in this respect.
I read and learn a lot about what I teach and what I do for my job, because teaching a decent curriculum is one of the most satisfying ways I can spend my time. This is balanced with the Sunday thing, so my brain doesn’t pop.
But above all, the value adder, is that I work with, help to implement and refine systems that keep the main thing the main thing. From stripping back calendars, to conversations over emails, to whole class feedback, to collab planning through lockdown...
The systems allow all of the other stuff. Working in the right conditions- and having candid conversations around how we continually get better means I can give time to the things that are important. #
