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2019
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The Compassionate Teacher
(2019: John Catt)
Andy Sammons
Description on Amazon: 'When your mental health goes: that's everything gone- it's your lens on the entire world.'
It happened to this author, and it's happening to teachers everywhere.
Modern educators are faced with the constant juggling act of keeping hold of the passion for their subject and nurturing the young people in front of them, as well as ensuring the best possible measurable outcomes. Some would have us believe that these are obviously the same thing, and to suggest otherwise is a professional and personal failure. They're wrong.
It's a balancing act that is leading many down a path of poor mental health; spiralling workloads - not all of which is entirely necessary - and our desire to serve young people and their communities is unquestionably forcing the profession into a crisis. It's a crisis that is expressed in the number of teachers walking away from schools, as well as the increasing waves of teachers reporting mental health issues which are directly linked to their job.
This book argues that with compassion, we can absolutely find a way through the quagmire.
It begins with a frank and honest discussion of the author's own struggles; it then makes sense of our modern educational context, and offers a range of practical solutions to improve mental health in school contexts- both in terms of the relationships we have with colleagues and students, as well as offering practical means of minimising workload and maximising our effectiveness in the classroom.
It's time we reclaimed our mental health, for the sake of everyone in education.
This book is the start.
Making it as a Teacher: how to survive and thrive in the first five years
(2019: David Fulton)
Victoria Hewett
Description on Amazon: Teaching is a delightfully rewarding, wonderfully enlightening and diverse career. Yet, at present, teacher recruitment and retention are in crisis, with some of the most at risk of leaving the profession being those in their early years of teaching. Making it as a Teacher offers a variety of tips, anecdotes, real-life examples and practical advice to help new teachers survive and thrive through the first 5 years of teaching, from the first-hand experiences of a teacher and middle leader.
Divided into thematic sections, Making It, Surviving and Thriving, the book explores the issues and challenges teachers may face, including:
- Lesson planning, marking and feedback
- Behaviour and classroom management
- Work-life balance
- Progression, CPD and networking
With the voices of teaching professionals woven throughout, this is essential reading for new teachers, those undertaking initial teacher training, NQT mentors and other teaching staff that support new teachers in the early stages of their career.
Lift!: Going up if teaching gets you down. (2019: Critical Publishing)
David Gumbrell
Description on Amazon: This could be just the LIFT you need in your teaching career! Teachers are a workforce under pressure and many are leaving the profession due to stress and anxiety. This practical, strategy-led book is suitable for trainees, teachers and school leaders, and can be used to promote both individual reflection or a wider staff discussion around the themes of resilience and well-being. It offers a sustainable and manageable approach in bite-sized chunks to help you regularly nurture yourself and change those perspectives or daily habits that can be unhelpful for you and your pupils. By proactively managing moods, emotions and situations you can make a real difference to your day and to the outcomes of your teaching. The book can be dipped into and can be used time and again to refresh your outlook and boost your resilience with regular inputs of positive, constructive advice.
A Practical Guide to Teacher Wellbeing
(2019: Learning Matters)
Elizabeth Holmes
Description on Amazon: Teacher wellbeing, or a lack of it, is a major concern for the teaching profession. Research shows that there is a recruitment and retention crisis with over a third of the school, FE and HE profession expecting to leave by 2020.
This is a practical guide that will help trainee teachers prepare for what is, undoubtedly, a demanding job. It supports new teachers to be aware of themselves and to understand the schools and teaching sector so they better anticipate pressures and find their own way forward. With solutions and strategies that can be taken into practice, this guide will help new and early career teachers establish that all-important work/life balance and avoid burn out.The Wellbeing Toolkit: sustaining, supporting and enabling staff
(2019: Bloomsbury)
Andrew Cowley
Description on Amazon: The Wellbeing Toolkit is an invaluable resource for promoting wellbeing among all school staff, thereby improving staff attendance and retention, and helping all teachers fall back in love with teaching.
In this thought-provoking book, Andrew Cowley, co-founder of Healthy Toolkit (@HealthyToolkit), draws on his own experiences as a school leader to unpick the myths around wellbeing and set out a practical, authentic and values-driven model that will enable leaders to foster a positive atmosphere for the benefit of the whole-school community. With a focus on developing a culture of positivity, effectively enabling all staff members to take ownership of the wellbeing strategy and supporting and promoting healthy lifestyles, this practical guide also considers scenarios arising from potentially more stressful incidents such as a bereavement.
Staff wellbeing needs to be a strategic consideration for all primary and secondary school leaders, not something delivered on an ad hoc basis. Emphasis must be placed on really knowing staff, what motivates them and what may affect their confidence. The Wellbeing Toolkit offers effective strategies for addressing staff wellbeing from a whole-school perspective with particular reference to reducing workload, managing stress and supporting teachers in challenging circumstances.The Mental Health and Wellbeing Handbook for Schools
(2019: Jessica Kingsley)
Clare Erasmus
Description on Amazon: This book lays out an intuitive and practical approach to mental health and wellbeing that any school can adopt to transform their mental health support for students. With a focus on providing staff with practical tools on a limited budget, the book helps schools make a real difference to student mental health. It sets out a roadmap for staff to create robust mental health support for students without requiring qualifications in psychology or counselling. It covers key areas including staff training, creating safe spaces for wellbeing and how to harness the support of parents and the local community. It also includes practical advice for addressing concerns such as stress, self-harm and body image. From small, everyday improvements that foster a culture of mental wellbeing to whole school campaigns, this book shows how to embed mental health at the heart of a school's philosophy.
Just Great Teaching
(2019: Bloomsbury)
Ross Morrison McGill
Description on Amazon: Ross Morrison McGill, bestselling author of Mark. Plan. Teach. and Teacher Toolkit, pinpoints the top ten key issues that schools in Great Britain are facing today, and provides strategies, ideas and techniques for how these issues can be tackled most effectively.
We often talk about the challenges of teacher recruitment and retention, about new initiatives and political landscapes, but day in, day out, teachers and schools are delivering exceptional teaching and most of it is invisible. Ross uncovers, celebrates, analyses and disseminates best practice in teaching. This is supported by case studies and research undertaken by Ross in ten primary and secondary schools across Great Britain, including a pupil referral unit and private, state and grammar schools, as well as explanations from influential educationalists as to why and how these ideas work. Ross explores the issues of marking and assessment, planning, teaching and learning, teacher wellbeing, student mental health, behaviour and exclusions, SEND, curriculum, research-led practice and CPD.
This book inspires readers to open their eyes to how particular problems can be resolved and how other schools are already doing this effectively. It is packed with ideas and advice for all primary and secondary classroom teachers and school leaders keen to provide the best education they possibly can for our young people today.2018
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A Practical Guide to Teacher Wellbeing
(2018: Sage)
Elizabeth Holmes
Description on Amazon: Teacher wellbeing, or a lack of it, is a major concern for the teaching profession. Research shows that there is a recruitment and retention crisis with over a third of the school, FE and HE profession expecting to leave by 2020.
This is a practical guide that will help trainee teachers prepare for what is, undoubtedly, a demanding job. It supports new teachers to be aware of themselves and to understand the schools and teaching sector so they better anticipate pressures and find their own way forward. With solutions and strategies that can be taken into practice, this guide will help new and early career teachers establish that all-important work/life balance and avoid burn out.The Teacher Gap
(2018: David Fulton)
Rebecca Allen and Sam Sims
Description on Amazon: Teachers are the most important determinant of the quality of schools. We should be doing everything we can to help them get better.
In recent years, however, a cocktail of box-ticking demands, ceaseless curriculum reform, disruptive reorganisations and an audit culture that requires teachers to document their every move, have left the profession deskilled and demoralised. Instead of rolling out the red carpet for teachers, we have been pulling it from under their feet.
The result is predictable: there is now a cavernous gap between the quantity and quality of teachers we need, and the reality in our schools.
In this book, Rebecca Allen and Sam Sims draw on the latest research from economics, psychology and education to explain where the gap came from and how we can close it again. Including interviews with current and former teachers, as well as end-of-chapter practical guidance for schools, The Teacher Gap sets out how we can better recruit, train and retain the next generation of teachers.
At the heart of the book is a simple message: we need to give teachers a career worth having.
Is your Job Making you IIl?
(2018: Piatkus)
Dr Ellie Cannon
Description on Amazon: What happens when the effects of work are far more detrimental to your wellbeing than a simple case of Sunday-night blues?
Whether you're suffering from work-induced high blood pressure, depression, migraines, or panic attacks, Dr Ellie Cannon has the answer - and it's not quitting your job.
We all have a moan about going to work: groaning about getting on the bus in the rush hour, counting down to the weekend. A gripe here and there is understandable and expected, but what happens when your job is making you mentally or physically unwell?
When you are in this situation, it can be very difficult to know where to turn, who to speak to or where to find good quality help and advice. In Is Your Job Making You Ill?, Dr Ellie Cannon uses her decade of experience treating patients to create an essential resource for anybody suffering from job-related ill-health.
Part one of the book lays out the key causes of job-related illness - from the pressure of an unmanageable workload to the challenges of an emotionally-draining job - and identifies the most common illnesses and symptoms which can occur as a result, including stress, anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure and IBS.
Part two will help you to find a way out. It includes a practical, self-directed programme that can be tailored to your individual circumstances, covering everything from where to find help, when (and if) to seek professional advice or take time off work, to micro-actions like improving your commute and adjusting your diet to support a healthy lifestyle.
Work-related ill health can happen to anyone. This book is all about how to survive and thrive when it happens to you. Don't let your job rule your life any more.
Talent Architects: how to make your school a great place to work
(2018: John Catt)
Mandy Coalter
Description on Amazon: Mandy Coalter draws on her extensive HR experience in the schools sector and beyond to support you to build a great place to work where everyone can excel in the interests of the children.
She provides practical tips and support that will help to improve staff retention, performance and engagement, while tackling topics such as addressing teacher workload, what really motivates and retains staff and the crucial role that leaders play in ensuring great people management in schools.
Insightful, captivating and authentic, Mandy suggests fresh and practical new ideas and opportunities to strengthen your school and teachers, better equipping them to support their pupils.
A Beginner's Guide to Being Mental
(2018: John Catt)
Natasha Devon
Description on Amazon: Mandy Coalter draws on her extensive HR experience in the schools sector and beyond to support you to build a great place to work where everyone can excel in the interests of the children.
She provides practical tips and support that will help to improve staff retention, performance and engagement, while tackling topics such as addressing teacher workload, what really motivates and retains staff and the crucial role that leaders play in ensuring great people management in schools.
Insightful, captivating and authentic, Mandy suggests fresh and practical new ideas and opportunities to strengthen your school and teachers, better equipping them to support their pupils.
An Educator's Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools
(2018: John Catt)
John Hollinsley
Description on Amazon: A brilliant and practical collection of essays by educators, psychologists and counsellors, highlighting the critical importance of mental health and wellbeing of students in our schools.
The book has been collated and edited by James Hollinsley, Head of the Longwood Primary Academy in Essex, highly respected and awarded for their proactive approach to child mental health. An absolutely critical read for all those involved in the education of young people, the book offers: a range of best-practice case studies; searingly honest anonymous stories from survivors of poor mental health who have also been (or are) practitioners in schools; and advice from experts and specialists, including psychologists, counsellors and SEN specialists.
How to Survive in Teaching: without imploding, exploding or walking away
(2018: Bloomsbury)
Dr Emma Kell
Description on Amazon: Drawing on years of research and first-hand experience, How to Survive in Teaching offers support, advice and practical suggestions to help you and your colleagues stay flourishing, positive and most importantly, stay teaching!
Recent statistics show that not enough teachers are entering the profession and that too many are leaving. Teaching is facing a genuine crisis. But why is this? In this thought-provoking book, experienced teacher and leader Dr Emma Kell examines workplace stress and anxiety, conflict and 'toxic politics', and the other factors which lead teachers to ultimately decide to walk away.
Emma firmly believes there are ways to survive the increasing pressure teachers are under. This book offers a realistic, unflinching and positive perspective on the challenges and rewards of teaching. It includes successful models and strategies where a combination of support and challenge, accountability, and a sense of being valued have encouraged teachers to enter and remain in the profession.Live Well, Teach Well: a practical approach to wellbeing that works
(2018: Bloomsbury)
Abigail Mann
Description on Amazon: Stressed? Overworked? Drowning in marking? This book has it covered. In order to secure the best possible outcomes for your pupils, you must look after your own wellbeing, and Live Well, Teach Well is jam-packed with 90 practical ideas and strategies to help you do just that.
#Teacher5aday advocate Abigail Mann provides advice, activities and techniques that any primary or secondary teacher can use to support their own mindfulness, wellbeing, and physical and mental health, and that of their colleagues too.
The ideas will help you to stay energised, focused and positive throughout the school year, and to work more efficiently and effectively, so you can maintain a healthy work-life balance. There are also tips on building constructive, fulfilling relationships with the community you are serving, on supporting pupil wellbeing (because a happy class means a happy teacher!) and on making wellbeing a focus at a whole-school level.Wholesome Leadership: the hearts, hands and health of school leaders
(2018: John Catt)
Tom Rees
Description on Amazon: Spanning the comprehensive perspective of self, school and system, this tour-de-force is both well-informed and uplifting whilst at the same time being full of practical advice and guidance, rooted in the author's front-line role leading a school. Tom Rees's depth of thinking and knowledge of leadership, and his ability to translate that into both a structure and tone that will be relevant to leaders in schools today, will resonate with leaders at levels. The book is brilliantly supplemented with the thoughts and views of colleagues spanning the whole educational spectrum, including: Sir David Carter, Clare Sealy, Daisy Christodoulou, MAT CEOs, Julia Kedwards, Stephen Tierney and Andrew Morrish, plus his very own actual dad!
The Trainee Teacher's Handbook
(2018: Learning Matters)
Carol Thompson and Peter Wolstencraft
Description on Amazon: This book helps trainees to build skills and focus on developing their professional practice through understanding, reflection and experimentation. It's practical structure and learning features help readers to recognise their own learning needs and set their own targets. The book takes the Teachers' Standards as a base and covers:
- planning
- creating teaching resources
- inclusive practice
- assessment and progress
- classroom management
- pastoral care
Mental Health Daily Tracker and Journal
(2018: www.iam1in4.com)
Tom Wavre
Description on Amazon:
What the Book is About
The contents of the book approach tracking and aiding your mental health from a number of angles. These include tracking of your mood, sleep habits, achievements, journals, practising gratitude and setting daily, achievable goals. By engaging with the material, you are able to set a solid and positive foundation to your day. This will in turn help shape your day in the way you would want. It will help avoid being pushed and pulled by the various demands and distractions provided by modern day living.
Achieving the Biggest Benefits
As with anything of this nature, it is important to engage with the content as much as possible to achieve the biggest benefits. However, it is important to not scold yourself for not completing a section or missing a few days. It should help concentrate the mind and give you a focus at the start and end of each day. It will help guide you and keep you focused on the things you want to be focused on rather than the inevitable day to day distractions. In those times when we need the most help, it is beneficial to have already listed out some things that can help you. Feel free to use these as work best for you. As an example, if quotes just don’t have any impact, substitute something that does. For the ‘things and activities’ this can be photographs, songs, mindfulness, swimming, reading etc absolutely anything that you find helpful. When you are next in a depressive state, reminding yourself of these things can be of great help.
Daily Guide
The majority of the book is made up of 12 weeks worth of daily entries. These daily entries are split into two halves. – Firstly those that are to be completed first thing in the morning, ideally before you even look at your phone. By delaying using your phone, you begin the day on solid footing based on your own wishes and desires. We also do not start the day by seeing some bad news, or something else on social media that has the ability to put us in a bad mood right from the off. – Secondly, those that are to be completed later in the day, ideally at bedtime. This can help to clear the mind ready for bed and be part of a proactive bedtime routine that increases your chances of a good night sleep. As stated above, if you skip one, or a day or you don’t achieve a goal etc, please do not worry about it. Nobody ever achieved all of their goals every day.
Making a Long Term Change
The science tells us that if you practice a new habit for 21 days straight, it begins to become part of our natural routine. So, whilst some of this may seem difficult to begin with, if you stick with it, it will become easier over time. Then it becomes a set part of your day.
I hope you find the book helpful and I hope you see a sustained improvement in your mental health. – Tom Wavre Founder, iam1in4.com
Toxic Schools: how to avoid them and leave them
(2018: John Catt)
Helen Woodley
Description on Amazon: Helen Woodley's critically-important action research is an investigation into the effect of working in a toxic schools on teacher mental health and wellbeing. Five teachers share their experiences of working in toxic schools across a variety of settings. Strategies for coping in such schools are shared, including a wider look at how school culture can be developed to better support staff.
"Toxic Schools takes what others might wish to hide away and brings it centre stage. It shines a bright light on how some schools create and sustain cultures that damage individual teachers and the profession as a whole. It is a call-out which we all need to hear. And it is also a call to arms. Reading this book, reflecting on its content and discussing the insights helps us to generate a language and a conceptual framework for change. Schools can change for the better from the inside out, and this book might be a major contribution to creating that change." -- Professor Rachel Lofthouse, Professor of Teacher Education, Founder of CollectivEdStand Tall, Little Girl
(2018: Trigger Press)
Hope Virgo
Description on Amazon: "This honest account of Hope’s struggle with anorexia is both insightful and an inspirational story of recovery. Her openness tackles the stigma around mental health. This is a must read book." - Dame Kelly Holmes
"Hope writes with incredible honesty and openness, her journey is truly inspirational, not just to those with mental health struggles but to all humankind." - Jonny Benjamin, MBE
'I know how anorexia makes you feel: you think she is your friend, you think she can solve everything and make you feel amazing … but she will destroy you and everything around you, piece by piece.’ - Hope Virgo.
For four years, Hope managed to keep it hidden, keeping dark secrets from friends and family. But then, on 17th November 2007, Hope's world changed forever. She was admitted to a mental health hospital. Her skin was yellowing, her heart was failing. She was barely recognizable. Forced to leave her family and friends, the hospital became her home. Over the next year, at her lowest ebb, Hope faced the biggest challenge of her life. She had to find the courage to beat her anorexia.
In Stand Tall Little Girl, Hope shares her harrowing, yet truly inspiring, journey. Through her letters and diary entries, Hope tells us how she fought from rock bottom to beat the ‘friend’ that had controlled and nearly destroyed her life. The story of Hope's recovery will inspire countless others.
Trigger are proud to announce The Inspirational Series partner to their innovative Pulling the Trigger range. The Inspirational Series promotes the idea that mental illness should be talked about freely and without fear. Find out more at www.triggerpublishing.com
Ten Traits of Resilience: Achieving Positivity and Purpose in School Leadership
(2018: Bloomsbury)
James Hilton
Description on Amazon: In an increasingly complex and ever-changing education landscape, school leadership is a rewarding but multifaceted profession. In order to survive in the job long term, school leaders need to understand how they can lead with positivity and purpose, all the while avoiding stress, coping with adversity, and taking better care of themselves physically and mentally. With teacher wellbeing and retention a growing concern, it is essential school leaders pass on this confidence and optimism to their staff members too.
In this thought-provoking book, James Hilton explores ten traits of resilience and demonstrates to school leaders how they can embed these traits into their own practice and into their school to create a climate of resilience in every classroom. Ten Traits of Resilience is packed with practical advice, tips and reflective questions to help school leaders evaluate and improve their current practice, and threaded throughout are also perspectives from a number of education experts, including Ross Morrison McGill, Patrick Ottley-O'Connor, Viv Grant and Kim Johnson.
With a foreword by happiness expert, Dr Andy Cope, this book is ideal for all school leaders and aspiring school leaders looking to promote and maintain a culture of resilience in their schools, in order to improve their own mental health and wellbeing, and that of their staff and pupils too.Elizabeth Holmes
Description on Amazon: In an increasingly complex and ever-changing education landscape, school leadership is a rewarding but multifaceted profession. In order to survive in the job long term, school leaders need to understand how they can lead with positivity and purpose, all the while avoiding stress, coping with adversity, and taking better care of themselves physically and mentally. With teacher wellbeing and retention a growing concern, it is essential school leaders pass on this confidence and optimism to their staff members too.
In this thought-provoking book, James Hilton explores ten traits of resilience and demonstrates to school leaders how they can embed these traits into their own practice and into their school to create a climate of resilience in every classroom. Ten Traits of Resilience is packed with practical advice, tips and reflective questions to help school leaders evaluate and improve their current practice, and threaded throughout are also perspectives from a number of education experts, including Ross Morrison McGill, Patrick Ottley-O'Connor, Viv Grant and Kim Johnson.
With a foreword by happiness expert, Dr Andy Cope, this book is ideal for all school leaders and aspiring school leaders looking to promote and maintain a culture of resilience in their schools, in order to improve their own mental health and wellbeing, and that of their staff and pupils too.How to Build Communication Success in your School: a guide for school leaders
(2017: David Fulton)
Karen Dempster and Justin Robbins
Description on Amazon: This book provides a step-by-step guide to achieve best practice communication within schools. Communication is a critical component in building strong partnerships with parents, attracting and retaining the best teachers, building and protecting a school’s reputation and, ultimately, in ensuring that students can be at their best.
Aligned to the National Standards of Excellence for Headteachers (2015), as well as Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate requirements, it provides an ‘inside out’ approach to create and communicate a compelling vision, building leadership communication skills and supporting the day-to-day management of communication in schools.
Full of practical strategies, audit tools and planning materials to help develop your communication approach, this guide covers key topics such as:
- attracting and retaining the best teachers;
- improving the effectiveness of leadership and management;
- building the reputation of the school;
- working with parents; and
- knowing what to do in a crisis.
How to Build Communication Success in Your School is essential reading for headteachers, school leaders and all those interested in education management and leadership.
First Aid for Teacher Burnout
(2017: Taylor and Francis-Routledge)
Jenny Grant Rankin
Description on Amazon: Offering clear strategies rooted in research and expert recommendations, First Aid for Teacher Burnoutempowers teachers to prevent and recover from burnout while finding success at work. Each chapter explores a different common cause of teacher burnout and provides takeaway strategies and realistic tips. Chapter coverage includes fighting low morale, diminishing stress, streamlining grading, reducing workload, leveraging collaboration, avoiding monotony, using technology to your advantage, managing classroom behavior, advocating for support from your administration, securing the help of parents and community, and more. Full of reflection exercises, confessions from real teachers, and veteran teacher tips, this accessible book provides easy-to-implement steps for alleviating burnout problems so you can enjoy peace and success in your teaching.
Supporting the Emotional Work of School Leaders
(2017 Paul Chapman)
Belinda Harris
Description on Amazon: 'I thought the book was excellent... it has provided me with the means to begin to explore and analyse a range of challenges that are presenting themselves on a daily basis. The book provides a very accessible means of exploring a complex topic. There is no doubt in my mind that exploration of these issues should feature in the training for senior and middle leaders' - Rick Jolley, Deputy Headteacher of West Exeter Technology College
'This book provides a useful lens through which school leaders can reflect on their practice. Combining theory and practice, it places relationships and learning at the centre of educational change, going beyond previous work on emotional intelligence to the essence of emotional awareness and the beneficial effect that it can have on leadership style and substance. It deserves to read by all school leaders and will have a beneficial effect on the way they relate to everyone associated with the school' -John Dunford
'What a delight it is to read a book on educational leadership that does not perseverate on tests, targets and other technocratic approaches to educational improvement. Instead, Belinda Harris passionately engages with the human side of educational change that really makes a difference to children's learning. Drawing from her own extensive experience with successful change efforts, and a broad research base, Harris has focused on the emotional lives of children, teachers and school leaders as the key to effective school leadership. Cogently and clearly written, each chapter unfolds seamlessly into the next, and step by step and layer by layer unravels the mysteries and myths of the emotional side of children's, teachers' and leaders' learning. This is a must read for potential and practicing leaders and an important text for all leadership training courses' - Dean Fink
This practical book deals with the emotional and moral dimensions of school leadership. The author sets out the intra-personal and interpersonal attributes, attitudes and behaviours necessary to develop emotional and moral leadership within the school community. The book provides a range of person-centred strategies for building communities of professionally committed, relationally competent, collaborative individuals.
Mindful Teacher, Mindful School: improving wellbeing in teaching and learning
(2017 Sage)
Kevin Hawkins
Description on Amazon: "This is a book clearly written by an educator who knows mindfulness in schools from the inside. The strongest evidence for this is that Hawkins never gets carried away. He recognises that mindfulness is not a panacea, that to implement it successfully in schools is a slow and steady process, and that above all it must begin with the teachers themselves. But Hawkins also recognises how transformative mindfulness can be, having experienced it so profoundly himself as an educator in many different contexts. His anecdotes give it plenty of colour (my favourite is ‘Billy and the Mosquito’), whilst the practical guidance – Chapter 7 on implementation for example – makes it of tremendous practical value." - Richard Burnett, Co-founder and Director, Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP)
Former school teacher turned mindfulness consultant Kevin Hawkins truly understands the joys of teaching and the desire to make a real difference in the lives of students, as well as the challenges and risks of burnout that most teachers experience on a daily basis.
With this guide to mindful practice, teachers new and experienced can learn how to use mindfulness in their own professional and personal lives as well as how to incorporate it in their teaching to support student wellbeing. Combining theory with practice and illustrated with real life stories, this guide will show readers:- what mindfulness is
- the research and scientific evidence behind it
- how changing the way you approach situations can transform the way you feel
- how to manage stress, and look after yourself
- how teaching mindfully can help your students
- what mindfulness can do for the culture in your school
Packed full of DIY exercises, activities to use in the classroom and links to resources and further reading, this inspiring book will support experienced and new teachers to maintain a healthy work-life balance and thrive as a teaching professional.
Leaders Eat Last
(2017 Penguin)
Simon Sinek
Description on Amazon: Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled.
This is not a crazy, idealized notion.
Today, in many successful organizations,great leaders are creating environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.
In Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek, internationally bestselling author of Start With Why, investigates these great leaders from Marine Corps Officers, who don't just sacrifice their place at the table but often their own comfort and even their lives for those in their care, to the heads of big business and government - each putting aside their own interests to protect their teams.Sinek argues that this is what it means to be a leader and asks are you a leader?
'As refreshingly simple and easy to follow as it is thought-provoking' Management Today
Happy Teachers Change the World
(2017 Parallax Press)
Thich Nhat Hanh and Katherine Weare
Description on Amazon: Happy Teachers Change the World is the first official, authoritative manual of the Thich Nhat Hanh/Plum Village approach to mindfulness in education. Spanning the whole range of schools and grade levels, from preschool through higher education, these techniques are grounded in the everyday world of schools, colleges, and universities.
Beginning firmly with teachers and all those working with students, including administrators, counselors, and other personnel, the Plum Village approach stresses that educators must first establish their own mindfulness practice since everything they do in the classroom will be based on that foundation. The book includes easy-to-follow, step-by-step techniques perfected by educators to teach themselves and to apply to their work with students and colleagues, along with inspirational stories of the ways in which teachers have made mindfulness practice alive and relevant for themselves and their students across the school and out into the community.
The instructions in Happy Teachers Change the World are offered as basic practices taught by Thich Nhat Hanh, followed by guidance from educators using these practices in their classrooms, with ample in-class interpretations, activities, tips, and instructions. Woven throughout are stories from members of the Plum Village community around the world who are applying these teachings in their own lives and educational contexts.Flip the System UK: A Teacher's Manifesto
(2017 Parallax Press)
Lucy Rycroft-Smith & J L Dutaut
Description on Amazon: This brave and disruptive book accurately defines the problems of low teacher morale and offers systemic, future-proof, and realistic solutions to bringing hope, energy and joy back to the profession. The simple answer is staring us in the face: increase teacher agency. Our rallying cry: our profession needs a return to values of humanity, pride, and professionalism.
From research literacy to a collective voice, better CPD to smarter accountability, contributors to this book demonstrate the huge scope for increased teacher influence at every level of the education sector. Education voices including Sam Twiselton, Alison Peacock, David Weston, and Andy Hargreaves, supported by a broad range of academics and policy makers, vouch for increased teacher agency and stronger, more powerful networks as a means of improv- ing practice, combatting teacher disillusionment, and radically improving UK education. This text offers an exciting and hopeful perspective on education, urging teachers to work together to ‘flip the system’ and challenging policy makers to help … or get out of the way.
Change your Mindset, Change your Life
(2016 Crown House Publishing)
Jackie Beere
Description on Amazon: In GROW, Jackie Beere demonstrates how we can all change our mindsets, learn to learn and chose to think on purpose. Our thoughts and beliefs lead us to develop habits that can predict our success or failure. We can all choose to grow and coach our loved ones to do the same by fostering and sustaining a mindset that will keep us healthy and happy in future years. Jackie Beere believes the key to this is thinking on purpose and metacognition. Jackie shows you how you can understand yourself and others so that you can be flexible, fearless and happy.
Jackie shares observations, stories and practical tools to help you, and others you care about, grow. Jackie offers a personal perspective, but one that is informed by wide reading and research in the fields of psychology and cognitive therapy. She has been particularly inspired by Daniel Goleman s work on emotional intelligence, Carol Dweck s research on the power of developing a growth mindset, the founding principles of neuro-linguistic programming, and the latest discoveries about our brains and how they work.
Life is full of changes and challenges but by thinking on purpose, we can all become more resilient, adaptable, self-confident and successful. Jackie s refreshing and personable approach means this is a personal development book for everyone even if you think that s not usually for you. Honest and to-the-point, Jackie takes a pragmatic approach to useful mind management techniques, putting the theory into practice through numerous case studies.
As Jackie shows us, thoughts really are amazing things. Thoughts can make you feel happy or sad, clever or stupid, beautiful or ugly despite all the physical or other evidence to the contrary. But you can understand and manage your feelings by growing the emotional intelligence (EQ) you need to become happier, wiser, kinder and more successful. Do you see mistakes as failures, or opportunities to learn? Are your beliefs limiting you, or helping you grow? Do you control your negative thoughts, or are they controlling you? Are you aware of how your moods are contributing to your sense of wellbeing and overall happiness? This book gives you the tools to change your mindset and so transform your life.
Are you ready to grow?
Chapters include:
Chapter 1 Why we need to grow
Chapter 2 The human condition
Chapter 3 Know yourself
Chapter 4 The fragile powerhouse
Chapter 5 If you believe you can, or believe you can't, you're right
Chapter 6 Thinking on purpose
Chapter 7 Growing others
Chapter 8 Helping our children choose to grow
Chapter 9 Tools for growth
Managing Teacher Workload
(2016 John Catt & ATL)
Nansi Ellis
Description on Amazon: It is acknowledged that the quality of teaching is the critical factor in raising standards of learning. And yet teachers' workload has rocketed in recent years, leaving morale for many at rock-bottom. Recent DfE analysis shows that primary teachers work around 60 hours a week and school leaders even longer. This is not sustainable. Teachers need an end to excessive working hours.
Edited by Nansi Ellis, then assistant general secretary at leading teaching union ATL, Managing Teacher Workload brings together leading educationalists to discuss real, practical ways to solve the biggest problem in the profession.
Contributors: Mary Bousted, General Secretary, ATL; Emma Knights, Chief Executive of the National Governors' Association (NGA); Heath Monk, Executive Director of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, former CEO of the Future Leaders Trust; Julian Stanley, chief executive, Education Support Partnership; Mary Myatt; Joe Pardoe; Lee Card; Toby French; Judith Vaughan; Collette Bradford
Teacher Wellbeing and Poetic Inquiry
(2016 ESRC Project)
Sian Ephgrave
Description on Amazon: This is a collection of poems written by and for teachers. The poems are centred around wellbeing but cover many different topics in a variety of poetic forms. The book is part of an exploration of the use of poetic inquiry in social science research.
Mark. Plan. Teach
(2016 Bloomsbury)
Ross Morrison McGill
Description on Amazon: There are three things that every teacher must do: mark work, plan lessons and teach students well. This brand new book from Ross Morrison McGill, bestselling author of 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding Lessons and Teacher Toolkit, is packed full of practical ideas that will help teachers refine the key elements of their profession. Mark. Plan. Teach. shows how each stage of the teaching process informs the next, building a cyclical framework that underpins everything that teachers do.
With teachers' workload at record levels and teacher recruitment and retention the number one issue in education, ideas that really work and will help teachers not only survive but thrive in the classroom are in demand. Every idea in Mark. Plan. Teach. can be implemented by all primary and secondary teachers at any stage of their career and will genuinely improve practice. The ideas have been tried and tested and are supported by evidence that explains why they work, including current educational research and psychological insights from Dr Tim O'Brien, leading psychologist and Visiting Fellow at UCL Institute of Education.
Mark. Plan. Teach. will enable all teachers to maximise the impact of their teaching and, in doing so, save time, reduce workload and take back control of the classroom.The Elephant in the Staffroom
(2016 Routledge)
Chris Eyre
Description on Amazon: The Elephant in the Staffroom is the survival guide that every busy teacher needs for practical advice on teacher wellbeing. Written in an informal, conversational style, the book is divided into 40 bite-size chunks, covering a range of essential topics from understanding and avoiding burnout, to successful working patterns, and even surviving the school holidays!
Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons
(2015 Independent Thinking Press)
Nina Jackson
Description on Amazon: Education is like a sherbet lemon: we need the structures and systems the hard exterior but we can easily lose sight of the magic that is at the heart of this; the teaching and learning the fizz in the centre. Nina Jackson's mission in Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons is to put the fizz back into classrooms by solving some of the toughest dilemmas facing teachers. You know the child in the class who never asks that burning question because they worry it might make them look silly, even if everyone else is thinking the same thing? Sometimes teachers can be like that child. And they don t know where to turn to get the answers. That is where Nina comes in. The teachers questions in Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons have been anonymised, but Nina s answers will resonate with teachers everywhere, offering support and practical advice.
Topics covered include:
learner engagement and motivation
group work
spoon feeding
feedback
dyslexia
ADD and ADHD
self harm
pushy parents
bereavement
music in the classroom
the transition from primary to secondary school
action research
school councils
and INSET days.
Suitable for all teachers from NQTs to experienced teacher across all subject-specialisms and phases; from primary to higher education.
Teacher Toolkit
(2015 Bloomsbury)
Ross Morrison McGill
Description on Amazon: Ross Morrison McGill, aka @TeacherToolkit believes that becoming a teacher is one of the best decisions you will ever make, but after more than two decades in the classroom, he knows that it is not an easy journey!
Packed with countless anecdotes, from disastrous observations to marking in the broom cupboard, TE@CHER TOOLKIT is a compendium of teaching strategies and advice, which aims to motivate, comfort, amuse and above all reduce the workload of a new teacher. This beautiful high-spec paperback includes humorous illustrations, photocopiable templates, a new-look 5 minute plan, QR codes to useful videos and flaps with a detachable bookmark.
As anyone who has followed him on Twitter knows, Ross is not afraid to share the highs and lows of his own successes and failures. He strives to share great teaching practice, to save you time and to ensure you are the best teacher you can be, whatever the new policy or framework. His eagerly-awaited new book continues in this vein and is a must-read for all new teachers.
Vitruvian teaching will help you survive your first five years:
Year 1: Be resilient (surviving your NQT year)
Year 2: Be intelligent (refining your teaching)
Year 3: Be innovative (take risks)
Year 4: Be collaborative (share and work with others now your classroom practice is secure)
Year 5: Be aspirational (moving towards middle leadership)
Start working towards Vitruvian today.This Much I Know about Love over Fear: creating a culture for truly great teaching
(2015 Crown House Publishing)
John Tomsett
Description on Amazon: 'This Much I Know about Love Over Fear' is a compelling account of leading a values-driven school where people matter above all else. Weaving autobiography with an account of his experience of headship, Tomsett explains how, in an increasingly pressurised education system, he creates the conditions in which staff and students can thrive. Too many of our state schools have become scared, soulless places. Tomsett draws on his extensive experience and knowledge and calls for all those involved in education to find the courage to develop a leadership-wisdom which emphasises love over fear. Creating a truly great school takes patience. Ultimately, truly great schools don't suddenly exist. You grow great teachers first, who, in turn, grow a truly great school.
Beyond Engagement
(2015 BPS Books)
Brady G Wilson
Description on Amazon: After twenty years of trying to get it right, precious few organizations have cracked the code of employee engagement. Why? Because few could have anticipated the unbending nature of what Brady G. Wilson calls "the engagement paradox": the more companies focus on engagement, the more disengagement they produce.
What causes this paradox?
As shown in this clear, concise, and compelling book, it is simply this: managing engagement turns out to be just another drain on the most precious resource in business today -- energy. In today's exhaustion era, employees are simply struggling to make it to the weekend. Lacking energy, they resort to quick fixes, workarounds, and reactive firefighting, thereby hardwiring depletion into the system.
As a result, employees come to perceive engagement efforts as a management con game. A high percentage of the employee population believe no meaningful outcomes will occur as a result of the engagement survey. And this crisis of belief causes acute pain inside well-intentioned leaders who are doing their best to unlock employee engagement. They feel caught.
Now Beyond Engagement shows how to get beyond this kind of self-defeating engagement: by managing energy rather than engagement. The book offers a chapter each to ten leadership principles based on the findings of brain science:
1 Manage Energy, Not Engagement
2 Deliver Experiences, Not Promises
3 Target Emotion, Not Logic
4 Trust Conversations, Not Surveys
5 Seek Tension, Not Harmony
6 Practice Partnering, Not Parenting
7 Pull Out the Backstory, Not the Action Plan
8 Think Sticks, Not Carrots
9 Meet Needs, Not Scores
10 Challenge Beliefs, Not EmotionsLeadership Laid Bare
(2015 Success Online)
Brady G Wilson
Description on book cover: Up to now, there hasn't been a leadership system in one place. Graham Wilson has used his 21 years of teaching outstanding leaders to bring it all together in an easy-to-use format that will transform your results. The handbook strips away all the psychological nonsense and removes the academic pomp to give you a clear framework and path to your leadership success.
Leadership Laid Bare is for those who want to abandon outdated ways of leading and develop new ways that work!
Workplace Wellness that Works
(2015 Wiley)
Laura Putnam
Description on book cover: Laura Putnam's book provides a fresh perspective on how to promote employee well-being in the workplace. Based on the latest research and backed by real-world examples and case studies, this book provides the tools needed to start making a difference in employees' health and happiness, and promoting an overall culture of well-being throughout the organization. Readers will come away with concrete, actionable takeaways for tackling the massive obstacle of behavioural change, and will learn how to design and implement an approach that can most benefit their organization. In ten steps, readers will learn how to assess their organization's needs and craft well-being programs that actually benefit leaders, managers and employees.
Unhomework: How to get the best out of homework without really setting it
(2014 Independent Thinking Press)
Mark Creasy
Description on Amazon: In a dynamic and ever changing education climate it is important to re-evaluate practice in schools on a regular basis in order to ensure that we are doing the right thing for our children. With questions being raised over the value of homework, Mark Creasy advises teachers and parents on how to get the most out of homework without letting it get in the way of their lives. This book questions the necessity of homework while recognising that most teachers have a statutory duty to provide it. The author provides suggestions for how teachers can make homework more effective, applicable and less pointless; organising classroom learning to allow children to set their own homework and creating opportunities for learning out of everyday situations.
Founded on over 10 years' of Mark's real teaching practice in both primary and secondary schools Unhomework is entertaining as well as informative, being underpinned by personal anecdotes from his teaching career. It challenges the current status quo of traditionally set homework and provides an insight for parents and educators about how homework can be done differently, for greater effect as an extension to classroom practice.
Unhomework is based on the 5Rs and these are detailed for teachers to implement to secure Unhomework successfully. With practical ideas for teachers across year groups and subjects to use Unhomework is for teachers (Year 3-13) at all stages of the profession, senior managers in primary and secondary phases, independent and state sectors, parents, teacher trainers.
Burnout at Work
(2014 Psychology Press)
Michael Leiter, Arnold Bakker, Christina Maslach
Description on Amazon: The psychological concept of burnout refers to long-term exhaustion from, and diminished interest in, the work we do. It’s a phenomenon that most of us have some understanding of, even if we haven’t always been affected directly. Many people start their working lives full of energy and enthusiasm, but far fewer are able to maintain that level of engagement.
Burnout at Work: A Psychological Perspective provides a comprehensive overview of how the concept of burnout has been conceived over recent decades, as well as discussing the challenges and possible interventions that can help confront this pervasive issue. Including contributions from the most eminent researchers in this field, the book examines a range of topics
including:
- The links between burnout and health
- How our individual relationships at work can affect levels of burnout
- The role of leadership in mediating or causing burnout
- The strategies that individuals can pursue to avoid burnout, as well as wider interventions.
The book will be required reading for anyone studying organizational or occupational psychology, and will also interest students of business and management, and health psychology.
Staying a Head
(2014 Integrity Coaching)
Viv Grant
Description on Amazon: Staying A Head is a book about overcoming the stresses of school leadership. The book identifies key strategies that school leaders must adopt if they are to rise successfully above the challenges of their roles and maintain their ability to lead and inspire others.
"This book is wise, timely and very well needed by the profession; it is reassuring, re-affirming and motivating. It's so rare to have the human experience of being a school leader really explored in a perceptive and emotionally intelligent, but equally incisive and challenging way." Kathryn Pugh, Head teacher, The St Marylebone CE School, London.
"Viv Grant has written a book of deep honesty and authenticity. She has opened the closed world that many school leaders inhabit. But rather than leave the world 'exposed she offers new and experienced school leaders practical and effective methods that nurture inner understanding to bring out the best in others and foster organisational transformation. I highly recommend this book to anyone in, or aspiring to senior leadership." Mike Jones, Head teacher, South Failsworth Primary School, Oldham
Staying A Head is a must read book for those school leaders who are brave enough to admit that they are not super-human and that in their endeavours to shape better futures for our children, it is OK to admit to self doubt, worry and anxiety and to ask for help. It is for school leaders who want to know how to:
• Let go of the stresses of their roles
• Develop greater emotional resilience
• Uncover solutions for helping them to achieve greater personal and professional fulfilment
• Maintain their moral compass and stay connected to their purpose
• Achieve their vision without sacrificing their own health and personal well being.
Six Reasons to Read Staying A Head:
• Because our children need you
• Because you have a vision
• Because you need to know how to deliver your vision without sacrificing your own well being
• Because you need to be the leader you want to be
• Because you have your own unique story. You need to be the author of the next chapters and not other people
• Because you haven't got this far in your career to give up now!
The Chimp Paradox
(2012: Vermilion)
Prof Steve Peters
Description on Amazon: Do you sabotage your own happiness and success? Are you struggling to make sense of yourself? Do your emotions sometimes dictate your life?
The Chimp Paradox is an incredibly powerful mind management model that can help you become a happy, confident, healthier and more successful person. Prof Steve Peters explains the struggle that takes place within your mind and then shows how to apply this understanding to every area of your life so you can:
- Recognise how your mind is working
- Understand and manage your emotions and thoughts
- Manage yourself and become the person you would like to be
The Chimp Mind Management Model is based on scientific facts and principles, which have been simplified into a workable model for easy use. It will help you to develop yourself and give you the skills, for example, to remove anxiety, have confidence and choose your emotions. The book will do this by giving you an understanding of the way in which your mind works and how you can manage it. It will also help you to identify what is holding you back or preventing you from having a happier and more successful life.
Each chapter explains different aspects of how you function and highlights key facts for you to understand. There are also exercises for you to work with. By undertaking these exercises you will see immediate improvements in your daily living and, over time, you will develop emotional skills and practical habits that will help you to become the person that you want to be, and live the life that you want to live.Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world
(2011: Piatkus)
Mark Williams and Danny Penman
Description on Amazon: MINDFULNESS reveals a set of simple yet powerful practices that can be incorporated into daily life to help break the cycle of unhappiness, stress, anxiety and mental exhaustion and promote genuine joie de vivre. It's the kind of happiness that gets into your bones. It seeps into everything you do and helps you meet the worst that life can throw at you with new courage. The book is based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). MBCT revolves around a straightforward form of mindfulness meditation which takes just a few minutes a day for the full benefits to be revealed. MBCT has been clinically proven to be at least as effective as drugs for depression and it is recommended by the UK's National Institute of Clinical Excellence - in other words, it works. More importantly it also works for people who are not depressed but who are struggling to keep up with the constant demands of the modern world. MINDFULNESS focuses on promoting joy and peace rather than banishing unhappiness. It's precisely focused to help ordinary people boost their happiness and confidence levels whilst also reducing anxiety, stress and irritability.
NOTE:CD is in a plastic wallet inside the back cover
Leading with Teacher Emotions in Mind
(2008: Corwin Press)
Kenneth Leithwood and Brenda Beatty
Description on Amazon: This research-based study helps administrators create a school environment that responds to teacher emotions and results in higher teacher retention, instructional effectiveness, and student achievement.
Banishing Burnout: six strategies for improving your relationship with work
(2005: John Wiley)
Michael Leiter and Christina Maslach
Description on Amazon: In this book Michael P. Leiter and Christina Maslach, the leading experts on job burnout prevention and authors of the landmark book The Truth About Burnout , outline their revolutionary new program for helping everyone in the workplace overcome everyday stress and pressures and achieve their career goals. Banishing Burnout includes the authors' unique and highly effective Work Life self-assessment test and a customized plan for action that will help transform the individual's relationship with work and overcome job burnout. The authors outline their proven action plan, which shows how to establish core values, set a personal direction, engage other people, initiate a realistic plan of action, make an impact, and achieve career goals. The book is filled with illustrative case examples from a wide variety of organizations, including corporations, health care institutions, universities, and nonprofit organizations. Each case demonstrates how the use of the Work Life self-survey and the individualized action plan can result in dramatic changes in the daily workplace experience and advance career development.
The Truth about Burnout: how organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it
(1997: Jossey-Bass)
Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter
Description on Amazon: Today's workforce is experiencing job burnout in epidemic proportions. Workers at all levels, both white- and blue-collar, feel stressed out, insecure, misunderstood, undervalued, and alienated at their workplace. This original and important book debunks the common myth that when workers suffer job burnout they are solely responsible for their fatigue, anger, and don't give a damn attitude. The book clearly shows where the accountability often belongs...squarely on the shoulders of the organization.
