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Helen Kelly

blog posts

53
5th November 2022
Improving Workplace Culture in Schools Part 2: Belonging
Workplace belonging is a key component of a positive workplace culture. Schools foster belonging when they unite staff around a shared purpose and create an environment where everyone feels accepted, respected and recognised.
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52
22nd October 2022
Is Underfunding and Staff Burnout Creating a Global Crisis in Special Education?
Underfunding in a high-burnout profession is impacting staff recruitment and retention globally. Ultimately, pupils and their families are being failed by the system.
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50
15th October 2022
Teacher Burnout: Is Workload the Elephant in the Room or Just a Tick Box?
Studies show that workload is the single biggest contributor to the burnout of teaching staff in schools.  Yet despite increasing interest in improving the wellbeing of staff, many schools seem reluctant to address workload effectively.
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49
24th September 2022
Why Schools Should do More to Improve Workplace Culture
Research from around the world shows that staff working in schools have lower levels of wellbeing and higher levels of burnout than the general population.
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1
18th August 2021
Why Schools Should Take Teacher Burnout More Seriously
As we start another school year in the northern hemisphere I reflect back on the hundreds of conversations I have had over the last twelve months with educators...
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4
26th March 2021
Teaching Through the Pandemic – What Has Been Most Challenging For International School Teachers?
This is the third article in my series on international school teacher wellbeing during the COVID 19 crisis, based upon a survey which I conducted in January and February 2021....
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5
20th March 2021
International School Teacher Wellbeing – How Can Schools Support Teachers More Effectively?
Earlier this week, I published the main findings from my research into  International School Teacher Wellbeing During the COVID 19 Crisis 2020-21. It is important to give teachers a voice and...
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7
17th March 2021
First Results from International School Teacher Wellbeing Survey Reflect Poorly on Senior Leadership
In January and February of this year, 275 international school teachers from 46 countries took part in an comprehensive survey about their mental health and wellbeing. The infographic shows the...
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9
11th March 2021
Should Schools be Responsible for Addressing the Child Mental Health Crisis?
Schools around the world are becoming the front-line for dealing with child mental health issues, yet should this be the case and if so are governments providing schools with the...
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10
30th January 2021
How Do Schools Develop an Effective Staff Wellbeing Policy?
In my last article  What are the Most Effective Steps Schools Can Take to Support Teachers’ and Leaders’ Mental Health and Wellbeing? I listed nine steps that schools can take to determine...
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11
23rd January 2021
What are the Most Effective Steps Schools Can Take to Support Teachers’ and Leaders’ Mental Health and Wellbeing?
There is a host of data from around the world which suggests that teachers and school leaders experience significantly more work-related stress than the general population and are more vulnerable...
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13
9th January 2021
How Can School Leaders Support Staff With Mental Health Concerns?
The mental health of educators is a growing concern around the world. One in twenty UK teachers now report mental health problems lasting more than 12 months and half of...
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14
4th January 2021
What is Burnout and How Can Teachers and School Leaders Overcome It?
Back in September 2020 in my article Is an Epidemic of COVID Burnout Awaiting our School Leaders?  I shared my own experiences of an occupational burnout diagnosed the year before. I also...
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16
5th December 2020
Why Should Parents Care About School Leader Wellbeing?
The media is filled almost every day with reports of increased stress and mental health issues that schools are facing in the wake of the current pandemic crisis. Most focus...
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17
28th November 2020
School Leader Voices Tell the Real Story of Pandemic Stress
In my recent study into school leader wellbeing during the COVID 19 crisis 70% of the 721 school leaders who took part say they have come close to breaking point...
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18
22nd November 2020
School Leader Wellbeing Survey Reveals Worrying Pandemic Stress Levels
Many thanks to all those 721 school leaders around the world who took part in my online survey last month. I have prepared an infographic to share the highlights. A...
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19
5th November 2020
How Can School Leaders Manage Increased Community Anxiety During the Second Lockdown?
As Germany, France and the UK move into new national lockdowns this week, the decision has been taken to keep schools open. Anxiety among teaching staff and parents...
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20
2nd November 2020
How Can We Persuade School Governors/Trustees to Take School Leader Wellbeing Seriously?
On Thursday I led a Zoom town hall discussion with a large group of Montessori school leaders from across the USA who had reached out to ask for my support....
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21
20th October 2020
Resilience Programmes – Are We Ignoring the Real Truth About Childhood Resilience?
Resilience has been a buzzword in education for the last 5-10 years but since the declaration of a global pandemic there has been a much greater focus on the importance...
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22
19th October 2020
The Myth of the Resilient Child
There has been a big conversation happening in the media over recent months about the potential impact of the COVID crisis on the emotional health of our young people. Some...
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23
6th October 2020
Leading Through a Pandemic: Building School Leader Resilience
The COVID 19 crisis is increasing the huge levels of stress already experienced by international school leaders. While some are thriving in the face of the challenge, many are overwhelmed...
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24
3rd October 2020
Leading Through a Pandemic: How Can We Support Middle Leader Wellbeing?
In my article  Are Schools Asking Too Much of Middle Leaders? I examined how the current COVID crisis is leaving many middle leaders exhausted and disillusioned with some close to burnout. Since...
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25
26th September 2020
Leading Through a Pandemic: Are Schools Asking Too Much of Middle Leaders?
The COVID crisis has brought new and unexpected demands for already overburdened middle leaders in schools around the world. Middle leaders are the linchpins holding our schools together but a...
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26
19th September 2020
Leading Through the Pandemic: Is School Leader Loneliness Increasing Under COVID?
My article  The Loneliness of the International School Leader from 2018, is by far my most read and commented upon post, striking a chord with school leaders around the world. Since the...
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27
10th September 2020
Leading Through the Pandemic-Is a Sense of Over-responsibility Harming School Leaders?
In my doctoral research “International Schools as Emotional Arenas: Facing the Leadership Challenges in a German Context” (2017) an emerging theme that went largely unexplored was the heightened sense of...
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28
6th September 2020
Leading Through the Pandemic-Is an Epidemic of COVID Burnout Awaiting our School Leaders?
A year ago, at the start of the 2019-20 school year, I took the decision to retire from work at the end of the year, at the age of 56....
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29
19th May 2019
The Epidemic of Workplace Stress Facing Women Educators
The current teacher strikes in New Zealand have brought into sharp relief the issues facing overworked and stressed educators around the world. On social media groups increasing stories are posted...
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30
12th May 2019
Overcoming Loneliness as an International School Leader
In a previous article,  The Loneliness of the International School Leader, I wrote about the professional and personal isolation of principals and heads around the world. We are built for social...
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31
17th March 2019
The Loneliness of the International School Leader
The loneliness of headship is a commonly recurring theme in the literature on school leader wellbeing. What MacBeath (2009) calls “structural loneliness” results from the lack of external support available to school...
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32
10th March 2019
Why is the School Principal’s Role so Emotionally Draining?
There is considerable evidence that school leaders find their work stressful and that, for many, this is impacting on their individual wellbeing. A study into the recruitment and retention of...
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33
10th March 2019
Why Principal Wellbeing Should Matter to the Whole Community
Employees today, across a range of industries, are experiencing increased work-related stress. The intensification of work, as technology speeds up the movement of data and increases time and deadline pressures,...
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34
10th March 2019
Why are Middle Leaders in Schools so Stressed?
The demands on middle leaders in schools are increasing, accompanied by increased levels of stress. In the past, the middle leader role was often defined in one of two ways,...
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35
10th March 2019
Why Relationships Matter Most in Maximising School Leader Wellbeing
Research shows that the interpersonal demands placed on school leaders bring just as much stress, if not more, than the workload demands of having too much to do and not...
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