Welcome and thank you

I don’t know about you, but I am very glad to be seeing the back of what seems to have been a long and challenging winter.

The last time I wrote to you, we were heading into that pretty bleak winter. Our grants team was seeing unprecedented levels of applications for financial assistance – the kind of volume we’ve never seen before.

I’m incredibly proud of the team who pulled out all the stops to respond quickly and efficiently to people who were in urgent need of help. They were only able to respond so positively because your donations ensured that we had sufficient funds to be able to meet those requests. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your support prevented some education staff from becoming homeless over those cold winter months.

Towards the end of last year, we also conducted our 6th Teacher Wellbeing Index survey. More details are inside the magazine, so I won’t say too much here. Suffice to say the picture of mental health and wellbeing in the education workforce is not improving year on year. As ever, we do what we can to influence and engage in conversations with the people in power who can address this incredibly important issue, but until things change at a higher level, we must continue to pick up the pieces.

When I talk to education staff, I continue to be amazed and inspired by the resilience and passion I see. Despite all the obvious challenges, teachers and support staff still believe that their career is a calling and that the learners come first. It’s really very humbling.

As you know, Education Support has been around for more than 140 years now. But we are continually evolving and moving with the times by looking for new and innovative ways to reach education staff throughout the UK who may be in need of our help.

The last thing I want to say once again is ‘Thank you’. Without you, we wouldn’t exist and I shudder to think where education staff would go at their most fragile times if we weren’t here to help. Every single gift we receive is appreciated and I do hope you realise how important you are to us.

I hope you enjoy this latest issue. With best wishes,

The

Sinéad Mc Brearty CEO, Education Support