Staff Wellbeing & workload
At Raynes Park we value Staff Wellbeing and are committed to creating a supportive and caring professional community at our school. We strive to ensure that all our practices and routines in the workplace are manageable and do not place unnecessary strain on our staff. We regularly review our practices in all areas and consult staff to ensure that our expectations are reasonable and have a positive impact on student performance. It is important to us that our time is well spent and that teachers and support staff feel satisfied and happy with the work that they are doing.
We believe that ensuring staff wellbeing is key to securing a positive learning experience for our students and with this in mind we take care to provide staff with the opportunities, resources, services, and information which may serve to support their health and feeling of wellbeing both in the workplace and at home.
Supporting Health and Wellbeing
- Annual Wellbeing twilight, well received by staff
- Annual Staff Wellbeing survey/audit followed by SLT reflections
- Annual signposting of external agencies available to support with personal problems
- Increased focus on mental health and mental health awareness
- Staff access to Employee Assistance Programme
- HR Manager available to staff to discuss relevant concerns
- Weekly staff sports events organised by PE department
- Occasional staff events such as self – defence/ yoga
- Termly social events organised by SLT
- Tea, coffee and milk is provided for staff in the main staff room
- Wellbeing Zones in staff rooms
- Staff fund is collected to enable us to mark significant events such as births, marriages, illness, loss, retirement etc.
- Free annual flu jab
Data and Meetings
- A maximum of 3 data drops annually per year group
- Data drops strategically placed on the calendar avoiding pinch points for staff
- School closed to students 3 afternoons a year to allow teachers to mark/ moderate books/ assessments prior to a data drop
- Staff meetings have been reduced over the past 2 years – no longer weekly
- Calendar designed carefully to avoid meetings and events in the same week
- All school leaders chairing meetings encouraged to begin and end punctually
Teaching & Learning
- Lesson observations are developmental- feedback is designed to facilitate professional growth
- The Marking Policy is fair and has been recently amended following feedback from staff
- SLT and Senior Teachers operate an open door policy when teaching
- We do not expect detailed lesson plans, but a very short summary in the Teacher Planner
- We encourage collaborative planning in departments to support teachers
Professional Learning:
- Twilight Professional Learning is carefully planned by experienced SLT/ Senior Teachers to ensure that staff value this time and feel that they have made significant professional gains
- Additionally, we offer bespoke CPD opportunities for middle leaders, HODs, HOYs support staff, ITT, ECT's
- There is a growing culture of coaching at RPHS – empowering our staff to seek their own solutions and diminishing top down guidance
- Personalised support available for staff when required
New Staff Induction
- Carefully planned by SLT/ HR to ensure that new staff feel welcome and prepared
- Coffee and refreshments with SLT after first half term
- ECTs provided with a mentor
- ITT’s provided with a mentor
Managing Behaviour
- Clear and transparent behaviour policy
- High expectations of behaviour consistently communicated to students
- An on-call system to support teachers with disruption to lessons
- Centralised detention systems to reduce the burden on individual colleagues
- Interdepartmental safe rooms for placement of disruptive students
- Restorative meetings between staff and students take place before readmission to lessons
Communication
- We encourage a culture of openness between staff and SLT
- Staff Wellbeing drop- ins
- We discourage sending/reading emails outside of school hours although recognise this is sometimes necessary
- We encourage staff to address recipients carefully to avoid sending unnecessary information to staff
- Raynes Park Thank You (post cards) given to all staff to recognise and praise colleagues