Nurturing Staff Wellbeing in Schools With Hayley Lamb

Leisa Grace is joined by Hayley Lamb, Vice Principal of Ranches Primary School in Dubai and a well-being and performance coach. Together, they explore crucial aspects of educator welfare and discuss strategies for creating a supportive school environment. Hayley brings her unique perspective as a school leader and coach, highlighting the importance of understanding nonverbal cues and fostering a culture where educators feel truly supported. The conversation delves into the subtle art of nurturing teachers and ensuring they feel valued and respected.

The episode covers their journey toward improving well-being within the educational sphere, emphasising the role of school leadership in establishing a nurturing atmosphere. It shares insights on coaching for well-being, confronting social anxiety, and overcoming limiting beliefs, encouraging listeners to adopt a more reflective and positive outlook on both personal and professional life.

Connect with Hayley Lamb here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayleylamb/

Teach Middle East Magazine is the premier platform for educators and the entire education sector in the Middle East and beyond. Our vision is to equip educators with the materials and tools they need, to function optimally in and out of the classroom. We provide a space for educators to connect and find inspiration, resources, and forums to enhance their teaching techniques, methodologies, and personal development. We connect education suppliers and service providers to the people who make the buying decisions in schools.

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Hosted by Leisa Grace Wilson

Connect with Leisa Grace:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/leisagrace

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leisagrace/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:27

Hey everyone, this is Lisa Grace coming to you again with another episode of the Teach Middle East podcast. And it's a rainy day, guys. It is one of those odd times in UAE when it actually rains, and so right now, I'm sitting here in my office listening to the rain pelt outside, and it's good, because guess what I'm talking to Hayley Lam, vice Principal of Rantis Primary School, dubai, about wellbeing, and rain gives you that feeling of wellbeing, doesn't it? It's a revitalisation of the earth.

Speaker 2: 1:02

You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast connecting, developing and empowering educators.

Speaker 1: 1:14

Hayley spoke very well at the BSME Wellbeing Conference, which was held at Aspen Heights British School in Abu Dhabi, about wellbeing, about practical things that we can do, and that sparked my curiosity and I invited her on the pod to talk a little bit more about it. Listen, you know, guys, I'm all for transparency. I mixed up Hayley with her colleagues so that was a whole other debacle that I cannot even go into, but I'm happy to have Hayley. Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:42

Hayley, thank you. Thank you very much. I'm really excited to be here. It seems a lifetime ago that I was at the BSME conference, but it's really good to be able to share my passion and share my knowledge for well-being and everything well-being with the listeners. So thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:59

You are most welcome. What I loved about your session was how transparent you were, especially as a mom coming back in and what that kind of did for you, and it resonated a lot with me because when I had my boys, I think that's when I kind of started to really think about my own well-being in a different way. Tell me, hayley, as a school leader, as someone who has to look out for their staff, staff members, how do you ensure that as a leader, you don't add to people's not being well?

Speaker 3: 2:32

I always say you have to follow the scent of your, your staff, your colleagues and and by that I don't mean that everybody smells, so everyone. I would say that people are always looking at me. Funny it's, it's about just just reading the room and listening to what's going on. So we have a, you know, we have a large leadership team on purpose. We have, you know, we do. We have a large middle leadership team who are heavily involved in decision making and sort of looking out for staff members and it's for us it's really important. So if a middle leader comes to us and says you know, this has come up in a meeting or we've heard this in a staff room, or so-and-so, just isn't themselves, for me that's my sort of insight, knowledge, and I can then obviously go and do something about it and make decisions and make choices. So, as an example, if your teachers aren't okay and your teachers aren't happy and they're not feeling well, then how are they supposed to support the students? So I say happy teachers make happy children. I know it's not always as simple as that, but if you follow that motto and that rule you can't go far wrong. So, as an example, you know we have a middle leadership meeting on a Thursday and all of our middle leaders are class-based as well, so they're dealing with the little people every day. They are there supporting the well-being of our youngsters and for me it's really important that they're well and we're looking out for their well-being so that they can look out for the teachers and their team's well-being, and so on and so forth, all the way down to the children.

Speaker 3: 4:07

On and so forth, all the way down to the children, and very often on a on a Thursday when we have our MLT sessions, I'll totally change what it was that I was going to present to the staff or ask them to do, or I'll tweak it just based on, like I say, following the scent, what's going on, what's coming out, and it's not always about what people say, it's about how they say it or their body language.

Speaker 3: 4:23

So I I feel like I'm really lucky because for three years I worked as a wellbeing and performance coach. A majority of my clients were in education. I not only worked with school leaders, I worked for charity leaders, I worked with young autistic adults, I worked with children in care. So I have a real sort of range of supporting people with their wellbeing and for me it is about stopping and seeing what's really going on for that person, because what they say or what they type probably isn't the actual thing that's going on for them. So I suppose, coming back to your original question, it's about having your ears on the ground but really listening to what's going on with all your senses. If that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 5:07

Yes, no, it doesn't. You know. You know what you said. Follow the scent of your staff. I know that sounds funny, but I think it will stick out, because it does involve understanding the unspoken. Yeah, definitely Not. A lot of people are willing to just tell you, so you have to be observant, right?

Speaker 3: 5:27

Yeah. So, as an example, in a coaching situation when I have my own coaching business, I would it might take 90 minutes to get to that door handle moment where somebody would really tell you what's going on. Well, we don't have 90 minutes in schools every day to have those conversations. It'd be great if we did, but we don't. And so that's why it's important to have your ears on the ground so that you can pick up on things that are going on, because people won't just come out.

Speaker 3: 5:53

I don't come out with things that are on my mind. You know, sometimes I'll have a reaction to something and I'll really surprise myself because I didn't even maybe know I was feeling stressed out. So the other vice principal, amy Carroll we get on really well professionally, we're really good friends as well, and sometimes I'll say to her oh my gosh, I surprised myself then. I wasn't expecting that, I didn't know. I was feeling how I was feeling. I think it's always good for somebody to have a buddy like that. So another thing that staff, sort of school leadership, can do we're at the looking at our what we call our staffing jigsaw, whereby we're looking at who's going. You know who's going where next year, who's teaching in what year group. And for me it's really important that we place staff with other members of staff, that we they'll actually get along with, that. Maybe they'll have similar interests with and and and that's the part of me you know I got. I got hung up on it over the holidays and I had to go on to the document because my mind was whizzing with who will get on with who. Who'd who maybe might have a night out with somebody or, you know, go around their house? Or their kids will get on with their kids.

Speaker 3: 6:54

And I think as leaders, we need to be seeing the bigger picture, because it's well-being is everything about the person. It's not just one small pocket and our personal lives and our work lives are so intertwined like we're. At the end of the day, we're a human being who wears so many different hats and we have to be able to support as best as possible where we can. And I always say that because, as a school leader, sometimes we we try and be a hero as well and we try and save everybody. But actually then I think I'll come on to obviously.

Speaker 3: 7:25

Second question is about what. What can staff members do for themselves to support their well-being? Because ultimately I've I've definitely had my well-being impacted along the way, not now, but pre-working as a, as a well-being coach, whereby I put sort of my needs on hold and my family's needs on hold for trying to save everybody else as well. And actually people don't want saving. People don't want saving. They don't, you know, they, they really don't. People want to. Maybe they want to be supporting and overcoming a barrier, or they might want some, a listening ear. Some people might ask for advice, and that's totally different to a school leader thinking they can go and save everybody because they really can't, they don't have capacity to do that.

Speaker 1: 8:06

I love that. I love that. I love the fact that you point to the fact that we, as school leaders oh, I'm not, I'm not a school leader anymore, but you guys are school leaders. You can't save everybody, but what can you do to reduce the strain on the people that you work with? What are some of those practical things you think, Hayley, that school leaders can do?

Speaker 3: 8:31

um gosh. Well, this is. You know, this conversation's been going on for many years, hasn't it? It's? It's about really thinking about what is the impact of everything that we're asking teachers to do? So, you know, if, if there, if there's a marking policy, is that? Is that having the most impact? It can have in a positive way? If we are asking the teachers to plan lessons, is the way we're asking them to do it having impact?

Speaker 3: 8:55

So, as an example for us as a school, we've been discussing for the last 18 months the best way to ensure that we're meeting the needs of all our learners, and the way we plan and what that looks like and the way we resource. But at the centre of every conversation is how can we be smart with this? Because you know, we've all done it. I remember my NQT year, definitely being up until midnight every night planning and resourcing and making 20 versions of the thing, and actually the best version was the first one I did and second guess and everything, and we don't want our staff members to be doing that. I think it's about, you know, providing teachers with the autonomy to make decisions so that they don't have to be relying on us as school leaders with regards to absolutely everything they do and empowering them that actually you don't need to make 20 versions or something, because you've employed you because you're good. We've employed you because you are the right teacher to be with us and if, if you do have some hurdles and barriers in your way, we'll support you with that and we'll be very open and honest with that as well, because I think sometimes teachers get so bogged down and end up doing lots and lots of planning and resourcing and second guessing because they're maybe not feeling the best versions of themselves or they're not feeling empowered in their role. So that's our job as school leaders to to make it clear to them you know what, what are your areas for development, what are you amazing at and what are you working on.

Speaker 3: 10:10

And I think transparency is is key there. So, as a school, we always we have observations of learning, as all schools do, um. But the most important thing is the is the feedback conversation at the end of the observation of learning, where it schools do, um. But the most important thing is the is the feedback conversation at the end of the observation of learning, where it's a two-way conversation, because I always say who am I to go into a lesson and judge, judge what you know, the decisions the teacher made right. The teacher knows those students far better, and so we turn it into a conversation, so that teacher walks away empowered, knowing what to do and where to go next, rather than feeling like they've they've. They have a weakness, because nobody has a weakness. We just all have areas for development.

Speaker 1: 10:43

Yeah, I was on a podcast recently. The episode isn't probably going to be out before this one anyway, so guys go listen to that. I was on there with Tom Sherrington talking about how observations and lesson observations tie in with actual well-being of staff and we talked about a method of doing that. So a little plug here. Guys go listen to that one because it'll more than likely be coming out before this one. So go search the catalogue, because here's the thing a lot of times we I keep going, we as school leaders a lot of times school leaders I still consider myself one. I've only left recently.

Speaker 1: 11:20

Come on, I still own the thing we don't understand sometimes what goes into the preparation and delivery of a lesson that is supposedly formally being observed, that we can actually cause more damage than we intended, because I don't think any school leader comes with unless they have a power trip and god knows there are a few people with some power trips, but we won't even go into that one but unless they have a power trip, they want the best for their staff. They don't want the staff staying up till midnight or later and then being really shattered and then coming in and delivering a subpar lesson. They want them them relaxed, and until we sort of change that system, we won't be able to get that from them. We'll always leave them with this level of anxiety. But here's my question to you Apart from lesson observations, what other processes in school do you think we could tweak or really look at closely to help with staff well-being?

Speaker 3: 12:20

I think it's important just to be transparent. So say, for example, you were looking at one of the models where relationships would be part of somebody's well-being. We have to be able to, as an example, then create opportunity for staff members to have relationships in the school. So it might be to ensure that there's somewhere they can go and eat, which obviously links with your sort of maslow's hierarchy of needs, like we all need to be able to eat and use the bathroom, and so, as a school, for example, we are, we're always looking at okay, what do our staff rooms need? Is there enough toilets? Do are people on breaks with this, with people who they are friends with and who they need to socialize with, and that kind of thing.

Speaker 3: 13:00

So I think it's it's about thinking about that, but also then having that transparency with regards to pay, pay scales and holidays and expectations, because a lot of these things can really affect somebody's well-being because they will feel out of control, because having control over your life and autonomy to make decisions and choices is part of your well-being as well.

Speaker 3: 13:22

And so, as an example, if you were looking at the human givens model of well-being.

Speaker 3: 13:26

So, like I say, there are lots out there and I'm an advocate for lots of different ones for different reasons, but one of the nine areas of the human givens is control, and some people's well-being will feel low or won't feel like their cup is filled enough because they don't have enough control of their life, and that might be because they don't know if what their pay is going to be next year or they don't know what year group they're teaching in next year and that kind of thing.

Speaker 3: 13:48

So it's about providing control and providing as much information as you can, rather than keeping stuff to yourself as a school leadership team, to allow people to make those choices that they need to make as an adult, because I think sometimes in schools we forget that the teachers are adults and we're all adults, because unfortunately, sometimes from a transactional analysis perspective, school leaders will sort of step into that parent role and the teachers will step into the child role. And you can see it when school leaders walk into a staff room, as an example, and everybody sits upright or starts to talk properly or, you know, stop slouching and and I'm pleased to say, we don't have that in our school actually and so people are happy to to come and chat with slt and um, it's a very it's about talking to everybody as an adult, because that can also affect people's well-being if they are in that parent-child relationship where you find that even to call the school leader by their first name.

Speaker 1: 15:04

They don't you know. They revert to this oh, ms Wilson. I fought that, gosh. I fought that. It was so hard to fight because people would and some of these people are older than me and they were like, oh, ms Wilson, and I'm like, nope, it's Lisa or Grace, or you can put them together if you like and call me Lisa, grace, but for the love of everything, do not call me Ms Wilson, because it immediately creates this barrier and I know it might sound like a simple thing, but it's true. You do see people sitting up straight and changing their posture and changing the way they would speak, and it really does give that real divide and so it can affect people's wellbeing. As you were talking, I have a question for you. You are a wellbeing coach. What led you to that? What's been your personal wellbeing journey, hayley?

Speaker 3: 15:53

So what led me to that? I first did my first ever coach qualification in 2015, was it? Yeah, 2015, just after my youngest, who's now nearly nine, was born and I went and represented the school that I worked at at the time and did this sort of high level coaching qualification and was really thankful for them to put me through it. And I remember being in the coaching conversation, like in the practice. You had to do so many hours of practice and so on and so forth on the the course, and the lady that I was buddied up with, she said to me as I was talking so I think I just I'd only had like six weeks off with Henry, because obviously that's that's the maternity out here and I wasn't ready to go back into work. I was in a deputy head role at the time. I wasn't ready to go back into work. I was in a deputy head role at the time. I wasn't ready to go back in. I wanted to be at home with my baby. But for many reasons, I made the choice. Or did I make a choice? Did I feel, you know, did I have that choice? Did I have that autonomy? Probably not, actually. And I went back into work and I remember being in this coaching conversation and I was talking about my baby and I was talking about work and so on and so forth, and what I didn't notice was I was going like this on my hair and I was pulling down my hair and the lady, like the lady I worked with, she said do you realize? You're pulling your hair? And I hadn't noticed. And for me, at that point I realized about the power of coaching, because I I was unlocking things that I didn't know, like I didn't even realize what I was doing with my hands or with my face or anything like that, um, and and obviously she didn't give me any advice that's not, you don't do that in coaching. But she basically just said like you know, I invite you to go away and think about why. Why are you sitting doing that like? And for me, at that point then I was like, oh my gosh, this stuff is powerful, this is crazy, this is like life-changing. And then I remained in that role for maybe another year, went and went and worked as a head of primary and then we were relocating back to the UK and I thought, if I don't do this now, if I don't set my business up now I won't ever do it. So I got an extra qualification. So I went and got like a mental health coaching qualification as well, and so I am a trained mental health coach and psychotherapist, but I don't, you know, I don't really do that as part. I didn't do that as part of my business full-time, but I could. And then I went and got an IC at an extra coaching qualification with barefoot coaching and and I'm actually a professional coach, so I have professional coach status. So I think there's only 100 professional coaches in the UAE so I'm one of them and just I just absolutely loved it.

Speaker 3: 18:20

And the reason being my well-being wasn't great pre me going and do my business. I had social anxiety and didn't know. So I didn't know. I had social anxiety because I've always been this confident person and and so things like I would stay in work until really late so I'd miss my kids bedtime most nights just because I didn't want someone to say that I wasn't a very good head teacher. So I was so worried about what everyone else would say and think and do, and so when I was then gaining these extra qualifications to have on my tool belt of as a coach, pre sort of leaving my head teacher role, I had to go through the mental health course to be able to then train to be a mental health coach and the lady who took me through it I remember on the first day I was like, yeah, my mental health's like great, it's fine. And she was like, really. And I was like, yeah, like.

Speaker 3: 19:11

And as we dug deeper, oh my gosh, I didn't realize I had all of these limiting beliefs. I was carrying labels from childhood I didn't know about. I was a perfectionist, like honestly, you name it, I had it and I did not know. And I had been sort of a hyper achiever along the way and I was highly efficient. So every year at my old old job I used to get the award for the most efficient person. But it was all linked to the perfectionism and the hype for achiever and the social anxiety. You know I was probably working 16 hour days and not stopping and just keep, kept going, and for me that was like yeah, do you know what? There is such a need for this in education.

Speaker 3: 19:55

And then, as I was then coaching school leaders, what I found was that there are so many school leaders out there with limiting beliefs social anxiety, well-being, concerns mental health issues and you know I don't think there's much support out there at all because I think you know it's a tough job being a school leader. It really is. It's a tough job being a school leader. It really is. It's a tough job. And unless you have the tips and tricks up your sleeve to know how to support yourself with your mental health and well-being, it is really tough. And unfortunately, the Middle East hasn't got there yet with regards to properly having something in place, regular, something in place to support, properly having something in place, regular, something in place to support.

Speaker 3: 20:42

So, as an example, that when I was sort of based in the UK, I went to a special special educational needs school every Tuesday. Every Tuesday I went to a school in Chester and I worked with their middle and senior leaders and they didn't get coached every week but it was like on a fortnightly cycle. They knew they were having a session with me and they would look forward to it because they would. They would save up the things that they wanted to share or talk about or offload. At no point did I ever give advice, ever never gave advice, because I always said the answers are within. You just need that time to think. You need that safe space to reflect, process, think and you will walk away with all the right answers and people you know. You know I had a CEO of a charity, a special needs charity, who said you've saved my charity. People have said you know, you've saved my marriage, you've saved my life Like big stuff we're talking here and it's all down to having well-being at the centre of everything.

Speaker 1: 21:34

Yeah, what are those tips and tricks that we need to have in our toolboxes as teachers, as leaders? Give us some of those tips, since we're out here in the desert Help us out, let's go for it, ok.

Speaker 3: 21:47

so I suppose number one it's about it's really important You've got a person that you can offload to. It's like it's really important that you there's a person that you can say I'm not okay, or do you know what this is going on for me, or oh, my god, I'm so annoyed, or whatever. So that's on one side of things, but at the same time it's about not blowing too much air into your balloon. So, as an example, if something happens, we always choose. The person we always choose is the person who makes us feel safe and always tells us oh, don't be silly, it's fine or you're great or whatever. But be mindful that sometimes that's not always the best person to always go and see, because they'll never hold you to account and they'll never they'll. They very rarely get out of your will, get you out of your will and they'll drag you. You will drag them in. So I always say it's actually important to also have somebody that you can go and talk things through, who will just maybe ask you the odd question to help you just reprocess it and maybe look at it with a different lens, because we all wear lenses. So be mindful that every day you are wearing a lens.

Speaker 3: 22:51

Now that lens might be a negative lens, a positive lens, it might be a happy lens, it might be a catastrophic lens, it might be a critical lens. We all have one and we, I would say, it's like you're carrying a bag of lenses around with you and actually sometimes, if you're not feeling good or not feeling great, or the first thing to do is to stop and say what lens am I wearing right now? Because, as an example, if you're wearing your life's rubbish or your negative lens or whatever it is, whatever you want to call it, then you're you're going to really struggle to get get out of the pit that you're currently sort of sat in, because you won't ever, you won't be able to see anything better than what you're seeing. You'll only be able to see the negatives. And I always say that, like you know, I could walk around school with a negative lens on it and I could pick up on loads of course I could and then I can walk around with a positive lens on and see totally different stuff, and I think it's just really important. So I'll always say to people if they'll come in, if they come and chat to me, I'm like what lens are you wearing? Like, what are you seeing right now? So I think that's one one sort of tip and trick.

Speaker 3: 23:50

The other one is be mindful of what limiting beliefs you have, because a lot of our limiting beliefs will affect how we're feeling on a day-to-day basis. So I'm always you know, I think if you look at any of sort of my LinkedIn posts or anything from over the years, I've always been very open and honest about the limiting beliefs that I carried along with me along the way, so one that I can even still hear my dad saying it now, and it was you are, you're a clever girl. Like you're a clever girl. That sounds like a lovely thing for a parent to say to a child, but actually that's a hindrance to me along the way. Don't get me wrong. It's probably helped me along the way as well, but of the times where maybe I didn't pass my driving test first time, I couldn't cope with that because I'm a clever girl, so I'm not adhering to that label Maybe that I didn't get a job I went for oh my gosh, I can't cope because I'm a clever girl, so why have I not got that job? So you know, I'm not saying to any parents who are listening out there don't say things like that to your child.

Speaker 3: 24:47

But as an example, as me, as a parent, I would say to my boys well done, you got eight out of 10 on your spellings because you practiced and you put effort in. I never, I don't't I'll catch myself saying you're a clever boy and I'll pull it back in and give them a reason as to why I'm saying that to them. Because you're not. You're not just one thing, you're not a label.

Speaker 3: 25:07

I remember my dad always would, always would used to call me top of the class, you top of the class, which is great, but then it's like, oh well, you've got to be, you've got to have the best job out of all you and your friends, you've got to all of these things. You know, my 20s, early 30s oh, that was in the back of my mind all the time. And so when, before I could start to support other people with their well-being and mental health, I had to. You know, I had to go back and speak to my five-year-old self about these labels and I always say, when you're carrying labels, imagine you're walking around with loads of post-it notes stuck to you with all the things that either someone said to you when you were a child or you've given yourself that label.

Speaker 3: 25:46

So if I give you another example of a senior leader I worked with back in the UK, she carried a label she was a principal now and she carried a label of your type don't teach. So somebody on her teacher training had said your type don't teach. And so on her teacher training had said your type don't teach. And so and that came out in a coaching conversation. She was very happy for me to share that with others. That's why I'm sharing it today and she was so shocked because she she couldn't believe she'd been carrying that label around, so that was at the back of her mind the whole time, and that's that. I suppose that comes back to what I was saying earlier about it's really important that we listen to what our teachers are saying, because quite possibly there are teachers in our schools with labels similar to that and that's why they're spending five hours at night planning or second guessing themselves, because they're carrying a label that's stopping them from believing in themselves and their potential. So that's my other tip.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Yeah, yeah, give me, give me some more, give me at least one more.

Speaker 3: 26:40

Process your positives. So we are all very good at, like I was saying, looking at the negatives, moaning about the bad stuff, and I always say give as much airtime to the positives in the day as you do the negatives. So, as an example, if I I don't know if I walked out of here now and tripped over, I would totally go and tell loads of people I'd done it, I would talk about it at least for 10 minutes and I would be making it very well known that I've tripped over and hurt myself as an example. But if I walk out of here and maybe my little boy comes and gives me a hug, I will probably do nothing about that at all. I will let that nice moment just pass me by and do absolutely nothing about it. And and actually, as humans, our minds are wired to focus on the negatives rather than the positives from caveman times, whereby we need to know that there's a saber-toothed tiger stood outside and that our friends have just been eaten by one. So therefore we need to keep focusing on that and the negative, because that will keep us alive. But we're not in them days now. So I'm not saying don't acknowledge negatives or don't acknowledge the stuff that's not gone right, of course we have to acknowledge it, but we just have to give it a proportionate amount of time as we do the positives.

Speaker 3: 27:45

So some real top tips. So either like a positive jar, so you can have like a jar where you put your positives in a smile diary so you might want to note down all the things that have made you smile that day, or all the positives from the day. My favorite at the moment is the happy feed app. So every day I post three things on the happy feed app. You can put pictures on there or you can just put writing on there and it's just a diary of the things that I've been positive that day, because if I don't process them, they will literally just pass me by and go, but I'll basically end my day with the fact that I've tripped over, if that makes sense. So that would be my, I suppose, my top tip about processing your positives these are some really good tips.

Speaker 1: 28:28

What, what, what would you say to a teacher who's now listened or a school leader who's now listened and thought you know what, I'm not in a good place? How do they begin to get themselves out of that?

Speaker 3: 28:43

I think it's important to give yourself time to to think and reflect about. What is it? What you know? We could all say we're not in a good place, but what does that mean? Like, where? What is it that's not in a good place?

Speaker 3: 28:55

There's loads and loads of different well-being models out there. One of my favorites is the is the human givens model, so you can look that down. So it's called the human givens institute. It's nine areas of well-being and for me, working especially with people who work in schools, I found that that's a really good one to take people through. So, as an example, when I was working in in my role as a sort of as a performance well-being coach, I really missed the community feel of being in a school. Really missed it, even though I was going into schools and even do it, though I was doing the most amazing work in my business. Like when I look back now of of the clients I worked with and the people I supported, I actually can't believe I did it like it was. Every day was different and it was well. It was life-saving for some people some of the work that I did, but actually for me, I knew I was starting to have a wobble myself and I refused to take myself through the human givens model because I knew what the outcome would be. I, it's that powerful. I knew if I took myself through the model then I would see that my sense of community was down, and then I would knew that I would have to then make that choice to move, to get to work in a school, and, and I knew I'd wanted to be back in Dubai, I wanted to be back in a school, but it was obviously process takes time and and so I'd took myself through that model in my head and I was like I'm not putting pen to paper because it's that powerful, like it is that powerful. So I would say that's a good starting point.

Speaker 3: 30:31

Most definitely, I think it's really important to speak to school leaders as well, like, if there is something, that's, as an example, relationships. You might think you know what I'm really struggling with relationships in school at the moment. That's a real quick fix. You know people. People can help with that. They could put you in a different year group. You know they could move you somewhere else where maybe you've got friends or people you might get on with a little bit better. Some, a lot of things we can do. We can help ourselves, but we have to share, because if you keep it inside, if you keep it to yourself and don't do anything with that information, you are not going to feel any better. You are not going to get any better, you are just going to plateau, it'll get worse. And so they say sharing is caring. But actually it's just really important just to say it out loud. Say it out loud what is it that's getting you down? What is it that you feel don't feel good with?

Speaker 1: 31:16

because once you say it out loud, you're more likely to do something about it should schools have someone who is in charge of well-being, and what should that person do?

Speaker 3: 31:24

that's my last question well, actually, I think the KHDA framework is moving in the right way with regards to obviously now well-being's high on the agenda.

Speaker 3: 31:33

When you sort of from an inspection perspective, they are also looking at staff well-being as well as student well-being, which is great, and so I think schools probably can't now get away without anybody that's Dubai, though, but, but we are Middle East wide if you're looking, middle East, most definitely, most definitely, if you want, when I work, when I had my own business and I worked as a coach and I used to you know, gosh, I changed what type of coach I was so many times, but actually the work never changed, it was just the title.

Speaker 3: 32:04

And I got to the final thing of well-being and performance. Because actually, performance, I couldn't support anybody with their performance until I had to support, help them with their well-being and actually, if we're wanting our teachers to be the best versions of themselves and, you know, cater for the needs of all the learners in their class and, you know, be phenomenal, then we need to be there for their well-being because, at the end of the day, they're not robots, they are human beings who wear various different hats, and so it's very much well-being and performance is intertwined. Most definitely, absolutely great.

Speaker 1: 32:36

Thank you so much, Hayley. No worries at all. Thank you for being on the podcast.

Speaker 3: 32:40

You're welcome. It's been enjoyable.

Speaker 2: 32:43

Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle East podcast. Visit our website teachmiddleeastcom and follow us on social media. The links are in the show notes.