Focus on Wellbeing

Wellbeing at work by Sarah Mayo (JS-CW 1986–1994)

Sarah co-founded POINT3 Wellbeing (point3wellbeing.com) in 2018 after 20 years in corporate marketing. She wanted to bring greater balance into her work-life and to help others. She retrained as a mental health and wellbeing workplace specialist and now delivers training to busy professionals looking to “stress less and smile more”.

Forgive me if I state the obvious to start but we are working and living in extraordinary times and we as individuals and teams in the workplace (and at home) have been stresstested to the max, and continue to be so as we adapt to a post-pandemic world.

And to back this up with research, Gallup’s 2021 Global Emotions Report stated that more people reported feeling stressed, sad, angry and worried in 2020 than at any point in Gallup’s global tracking. Yes, you might expect that during the worst pandemic in more than a century but the report goes on to say that while 2020 set a record for negative emotions, the trend actually started 10 years before. Little wonder that the World Health Organisation dubbed stress the health epidemic of the 21st century back in 2016.

So, yes we are more stressed than ever before, and the pandemic has contributed to this, but actually this is a societal issue that has been building over time.

I’m not going to demonise stress! As I’m sure many of you will agree that not all stress is bad stress. We need the right amount of stress to perform to our best. That said, it is about bringing greater awareness to our stress levels, knowing when the stress we’re under reaches its tipping point and keeping it in check by having helpful daily strategies in place to cope and thrive.

And it’s worth sharing the cost of not having good strategies in place – either as an individual or as a business. If we don’t… and I share another grim statistic, it’s thought that up to 80% of doctor consultations are directly linked to stress (chronic physical and mental illness). And if that’s not a case for having stress management techniques in place, then know that the cost of mental ill health on the UK economy is £15.1 billion per annum in presenteeism (people showing up for work but not being productive) and £8.4 billion in absenteeism.

The company that I co-founded back in 2018 with a couple of my friends are committed to helping people “stress less and smile more”. We partner with organisations to create a culture of psychological safety around mental health and wellbeing, where people feel comfortable being themselves at work and are able to thrive.

And everyone has a role to play. Culture change around workplace mental health requires both a top down and bottom up approach to succeed. But it does start with leaders and managers leading by example and modelling the right behaviours, and then it’s up to individuals to take personal responsibility for the good coping strategies that they put in place to cope with the inevitable stresses of life.

To end I share one of the practical tools that we share in our training. This is about identifying your wellbeing nonnegotiables… the good coping strategies that you prioritise day to day and week to week to keep your stress levels in check. To make these really powerful, it’s good to align these to your values. Two of my values are health and friendship, so many of my wellbeing non-negotiables are specific to these things. One of my wellbeing non-negotiables is going outside for a walk for at least 60 minutes every day. Another is around socialising – I aim to have at least two social plans in my diary a week.

The key with this exercise is to be as specific as possible when it comes to adding a frequency and duration – I’ve specified 60 minutes of walking, every day. This helps me to be more accountable to myself and to ensure I plan when I will build this into my schedule each week. Know that these may have to change, depending on what’s going on in your life, so we have to be flexible too.

I end by encouraging you to spend some time now thinking about your wellbeing non-negotiables. A final tip when defining these is to think little in terms of duration and often in terms of frequency, as a little really goes a long way. This will encourage you to prioritise them, ensuring you are supported through the ups and downs of work and life.

Wellbeing at Fettes by Sue Bruce, Houseparent of College West (Staff 2000–present)

Fettes wants every student to be happy.

At Fettes, student wellbeing is at the heart of school where everyone matters. We want Fettesians to be happy because happy students flourish.

Our pastoral care is sector leading and central to our supportive community of students and staff. Our House structure is at the core and, as well as the strong bonds made with fellow housemates, it is the commitment and dedication of Houseparents, their Assistants and Matrons which leave a lasting impression. They advise, help and encourage, simply being there for the students whenever needed. We are committed to all aspects of student wellbeing from healthy eating and physical activity to mental health. By doing this each of our students can thrive and embrace all that a Fettes education has to offer whilst making friends for life.

We know there may be times when our students need someone to talk or need help with a problem.

There are many people both in House and the school community who can offer help, support and advice. Alongside our friendly Houseparents, Matrons, Tutors, Prefects, Friends, other staff members we have include: Revd Tony Clark, Chaplain (Staff 2012–present), Carolyn Harrison, Deputy Head (Pastoral Care) (Staff 1992–present), Clare McDonnell, Child Protection Officer (Staff 2016–present), a member of the School Medical Centre, The School’s Independent Counsellor or Life Coach and The School’s Clinical Psychology Team

The Hub is our dedicated safe space at school. It is staffed by our PSE (Personal, Social and Emotional) Prefects and Listening Team and is used for some 1:1 sessions with the Life Coach or Counsellors.

Our peer-to-peer mentoring is a vital aspect of support to our students wellbeing. Peer mentoring is a relationship between our Sixth Form students who have more lived experience than younger years and can provide support as well as knowledge and skills transfer, whilst offering the mentors to develop their leadership and teamwork skills. Peer mentoring may be a one-on-one relationship or experienced in a group.

Our School Welfare and PSE Prefects are appointed to assist in the welfare and wellbeing of the school. In addition, two members of the Lower Sixth Prefect team in each boarding House help deliver PSE sessions in the Third Form and are there to talk to. They are also trained MVP Mentors (Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme) which aims to support young people to positively influence the attitudes and behaviour of their peers, by looking at a range of issues and approaches to prevent all forms of bullying and stereotyping and raising awareness of the bystander effect.

Mental Health Ambassadors are students who have undergone more specific mental health training. They are visible points of contact for the student body to speak to and are part of our Pscyhceity (Mental Health and Psychology society).

Our Bold Voices Ambassadors empower our young people to recognise and tackle gender inequality and gendered violence. They lead sessions to develop and change the language to support inclusivity and diminish bias.

Our staff are trained in the mental health issues that affect young people. We also have a friendly Listening Team who are located in key places across the campus at key times so that anyone can pop in for a chat. The Listening Team is made up of staff members from both the Teaching and Operational areas of the school who have a listening ear to hear any issues. Sharing your problems is the best way to get a resolution.

The PSE programme runs a specific Health and Wellbeing Strand looking at nutrition, mental health, wellbeing and mindfulness with interactive sessions for small tutor groups, classes or tailored year group sessions on topics such as: Healthy eating – nutrition for success/healthy eating habits/healthy snacking, How to appreciate sources of stress and develop techniques to manage stress, Mindfulness – we run a 10-week block in 4th Form with drop-in mindfulness sessions twice-a-week for the whole school, Importance of sleep, Techniques on how to help your friends, Resilience, Taking a tech break – Fettes now has ‘phone-free-Friday’, Self-belief/self esteem, Self-checks (cancer) and much much more!

Our brilliant Medical Centre, Matrons, Support for Learning department, Counsellors, Life Coach and team of Psychologists are on hand to provide their professional help to the students and staff when appropriate.

The Fettesians of today develop healthy habits and coping strategies so that they can have strong mental fitness for their adult lives ahead.