Teacher wellbeing is a shared responsibility. Using Visible Wellbeing and the SEARCH Framework, we empower educators to take charge of their wellbeing while building a thriving school community.

It is easy to feel that the wellbeing of staff has never been challenged as much as it is currently. Schools are facing demands on staff to help cope with the changing community guidelines and parental requests for how to best serve the children in their care. From online learning to face to face delivery or even the creation of a hybrid model, teachers are continually exploring ways for students to maintain both an academic and emotional connection. Creating a bigger challenge is the fact that student numbers continue to rise and fall in their classes making consistency in learning programs and modes of delivery difficult. With these additional factors in classrooms, it is understandable that now, more than ever, we need to prioritise teacher wellbeing. But what is important here, is to understand the responsibility everyone plays in wellbeing. We cannot ignore that our wellbeing starts with ourselves – it shouldn’t be something that is done to us or for us.

Having a whole school approach to wellbeing, such as we do with the evidence-based Visible Wellbeing, means that we can take responsibility for our own wellbeing all the while partnering each other on a journey to create a flourishing community. By using the scientifically informed SEARCH Framework, we can focus energy on:

S (Strengths) – providing opportunities for teachers to use their signature strengths as they deliver academic, physical and social-emotional programs

E (Emotional Management) – an understanding of how to recognise and regulate our own emotional state

A (Attention and Awareness) – paying attention to our emotions and being aware of when we are feeling them

R (Relationships) – maintaining a connection with those around us

C (Coping) – having ways of dealing with situations by developing resilience strategies

H (Habits and Goals) – re-establishing realistic and achievable goals

While staff have a responsibility to their own wellbeing, School leadership and structures need to create an environment that provides opportunities to embed these practices into their culture based on their context. Only then can we truly role model to our students ways to see our own and other's wellbeing.