Newham Learning NHS Therapy Sessions for School Leaders (subscribers only)

These are group therapy sessions for Head Teachers. They are intended to help senior leaders provide better support for school staff by helping address issues that are relevant.

This group is administered by the Director of Newham Learning.

If your school is a subscriber and you are a Head Teacher who would like to join this group, please email David Bailey.

What it is like to be involved?

The pandemic has been unlike any other disruption to our school system since the Second World War and it was accompanied by a staggering amount of top-down instructions and well-meaning requests for information that merely made the situation worse. This was at a time when those under the care of Head Teachers – pupils staff and families – were dealing with anxiety, ill-health and general chaos in their lives and relying on us for help.

Throughout this situation, the single most useful help I received/accessed was from the NHS therapy groups initiated through Newham Learning. Everyone ‘talked’ about our mental health, whilst simply adding to our workload and as a consequence often increasing anxieties. This initiative was the one action that ACTUALLY addressed our mental health, that kept us afloat and crucially allowed us to keep everybody else around us afloat. I could feel how important it was in keeping me sane and as a consequence, I purchased sessions from the same therapist for the members of my SLT as I knew they would benefit from it massively.

Now as we are emerging from the worst of the pandemic it remains so relevant to my mental health – it isn’t a policy, a chocolate bar or some other quick fix, it is health for rebuilding.

A Newham Learning Head Teacher