A Fresh Look: Reframing Wellbeing as Professional Resilience
by Amanda Stevens, Head of Education People Services
Topic outline
With the pace and complex demands of the world of education, the wellbeing of those who lead and support them has never been more vital. Yet, for many school leaders, the concept of wellbeing can feel elusive, or even indulgent, when the to-do list is long and the stakes feel high.
Let’s be honest - leading a school isn’t for the faint-hearted. Between safeguarding concerns, curriculum changes, increasing demands, dealing with parents, budget pressures, and the daily whirlwind of school life, it is easy to become exhausted and overwhelmed. Perhaps it’s time to reframe the conversation - using the term professional resilience supports that this isn’t just something nice and fluffy or extra to squeeze in, but rather something that quietly underpins everything else.
For school leaders and their teams, resilience isn’t just about bouncing back - it’s about sustaining purpose, navigating complexity, and maintaining a sense of agency in the face of relentless change. It isn’t a luxury - it is the foundation of a thriving school. When leaders and staff feel supported, valued, and energised, the ripple effect can reach every pupil, parent, and classroom.
While the term “wellbeing” often conjures images of yoga mats and mindfulness apps, professional resilience speaks more directly to the realities of school life. Wellbeing refers to a holistic state of health and happiness encompassing physical, mental, emotional and social aspects of life. Professional resilience is about the having the ability to remain effective under pressure or during challenges in a work context and having structures and systems to support this. It’s about the capacity to lead with clarity and compassion, even when the pressure is on - and to support others in doing the same. We need to move beyond the occasional or token wellbeing intervention and build a culture that genuinely puts the resilience of the whole school community - pupils, school staff and leaders - first.
Professional resilience through the leadership lens
The role of a headteacher is both a privilege and a pressure. Headship can be exhilarating, but it can also be isolating. School leaders carry a unique weight. The sense of responsibility - for pupils, staff, outcomes, and community – can be intense and all consuming. The emotional labour of leadership is often underestimated. It’s easy to fall into the rhythm of relentless giving, often at the expense of one’s own reserves. In this context, resilience becomes less about stoicism and more about sustainability.
Governing bodies have a key role to play here. Beyond strategic oversight, they can act as a sounding board - not just for school performance, but for the human experience of leading. Strong governing bodies create space for reflective dialogue, encourage professional coaching or supervision, and modelling a culture of care, even if there are difficult conversations to be had, contributing to a more resilient leadership environment.
It starts with the simple act of asking questions and holding space for dialogue around leadership wellbeing. But it must involve really listening to open the door to more honest and supportive relationships and ultimately develop a culture of open dialogue.
Governors need to model with care and curiosity with regular check ins that are genuine conversations and to encourage boundaries to ensure there is space to take time out and recharge. Governors must discuss and support professional coaching or supervision - this isn’t about leaders being indulgent - it’s essential. It provides leaders with a safe space to reflect, vent and grow and ultimately supports the school to be successful.
Building collective strength
"Everyone’s experience deserves equal attention."
Resilience isn’t a solo pursuit. It’s cultivated in community. Within the wider staff team, it is shaped less by grand gestures, such as cakes on a Friday (although lovely), and more by the everyday climate.
Within staff teams, the conditions that support resilience are often rooted in professional trust, autonomy, being heard and a shared purpose.
- Autonomy and professional trust allows staff to exercise judgment and feel ownership over their work. Micromanagement kills morale – where possible staff should be given room to breathe and make decisions about their work.
- Clarity around expectations helps prevent overload and fosters a sense of control. Workload remains a perennial challenge. While there’s no silver bullet, regular reflection and genuine engagement on policies and practices - from marking expectations to meeting schedules - can help ensure that systems are serving their purpose without becoming burdensome.
- Recognition and appreciation, even in small ways, reinforce a culture where people feel seen and valued. This will include celebrating success - whether a quick shout-out in a staff meeting, a handwritten note or a thank you email - these positive affirmations can make someone’s week. Many individuals will just quietly get on - constantly doing a good job - and affirmation is important.
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It is important that this is about leaders, teachers and support staff – this is one staff team that holds everything together. Everyone’s experience deserves equal attention. A culture that values every role fosters a stronger, more cohesive team.
Mental health – let’s talk about it
Resilience doesn’t mean being unaffected by stress or challenge. It means having the tools, support, and space to respond proportionately and constructively. That includes acknowledging the emotional demands of the job and ensuring that mental health is part of the professional conversation. Creating an environment where it’s safe to speak up and it is stigma-free is key. Schools should be places where it’s okay to say, “I’m struggling.”
This might involve training staff to recognise signs of distress, clarifying support available or ensuring access to support services such as Health Assured, keeping the topic visible via posters in the staff room, training mental health champions, simply normalising conversations about emotional wellbeing or making space in staff meetings or INSET to acknowledge the emotional demands of the job.
This conversation has to includes leaders. Vulnerability isn’t weakness. It’s leadership. Modelling vulnerability and self-care can be a powerful signal that it’s okay not to be okay - and that seeking support is a strength, not a weakness. Demonstrating openness and self-awareness can help shift the culture from silent endurance to shared understanding.
We do also need to recognise that for some individuals their mental health may need to lead to them developing a medical condition. This may require additional support to enable them to remain in the workplace or they may require time away to support their medical condition. Conversations about such conditions need to be open, supportive and focused on supporting successful performance at work, accessing guidance and advice from specialist services where necessary. We recognise that for some staff a mental health condition will make it difficult to sustain their current role and where necessary, challenging conversations will need to take place, but they should do so with compassion and transparency.
Time, space and flexibility – structures that support sustainability
Time is one of the most precious - and scarce - resources in schools. Protecting it is essential for maintaining energy and focus.
Whether it’s ensuring PPA time is genuinely protected, exploring flexible working options, or carving out meeting-free zones, small structural shifts can have a big impact. These structures may need to flex and move with the life of the school and it is clear that school budget has an impact here but these areas should be considered as fundamental to support leaders and staff to have sufficient time to plan, to think and to breathe.
PPA time should be protected under teacher’s terms and conditions – teachers should not be expected to cover for others during their PPA time and should not be interrupted. The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document was amended a few years ago to indicate to school leaders that it is ok for it to also be undertaken away from the school site. For leaders, the equivalent here is ensuring that you have sufficient time and space to think and work strategically, away from operational interruptions.
Flexible working arrangements can make a big difference, supporting staff through different life stages and challenges. Flexible working may be for longer term changes such as alternative hours or work patterns; or can be more ad hoc, needing to start later or working from home on the odd occasion. Even small and ad hoc adjustments can make a big difference. All requests for flexible working need to be appropriately considered with genuine open thinking and dialogue about the art of the possible.
Meeting schedules in schools can take up a lot of the time available outside of the classroom. Taking time to really thoughtfully consider the school calendar, thinking about what you actually need to meet about, considering other ways of dealing with tasks, creating meeting-free spaces, and/or enable realistic deadlines for new and emerging work can reduce unnecessary pressure.
These aren’t about lowering standards or reducing ambition. They’re about creating the conditions in which people can do their best work and sustain it - thriving over time. They are practical ways to reduce the likelihood of burnout.
Culture is everything - the resilience engine
"At its core, professional resilience is shaped by culture."
At its core, professional resilience is shaped by culture. It’s not a programme or a policy, but a way of being that is lived day to day - it is how people treat each other when no one’s watching. It’s in the tone of conversations, the way feedback is given, the assumptions we make about each other, the space people feel they have to be themselves and the way we respond when things go wrong.
Leaders set the tone. When leaders prioritise their own wellbeing - not in a performative way, but with quiet integrity, modelling balance, reflection, and compassion - not just for others, but for themselves - it gives others permission to do the same. When leaders prioritise their own resilience, it can lead to a shift in culture - structures and systems are considered and the output can impact everyone’s resilience.
When governors ask the right questions and listen with curiosity - asking not only how the school is doing but also how individuals are doing it reinforces that people matter as much as performance.
A positive culture doesn’t mean avoiding hard conversations. Those conversations still need to be had but they can still be held with care. It doesn’t work if we preach wellbeing and say we have the structures and systems for professional resilience and then fail to engage and explain and discuss clearly, listening to each others’ viewpoints and simply pile on pressure. We need to walk the talk.
A shared responsibility
There’s no single formula for building professional resilience. Each school is different with its own challenges, and each leader brings their own values. But what’s clear is that building professional resilience isn’t a bolt-on. It’s needs to be woven into the fabric of how schools operate - and how they thrive.
It needs to be a shared responsibility - among leaders, governors, and staff - to create environments where people can sustain their energy, purpose, and passion for the long haul.
Perhaps the most important step is to keep the conversation alive. Not as a tick-box, but as a genuine, ongoing inquiry: What helps us stay grounded, connected, and effective in our roles? And how can we support each other to keep showing up - not just surviving, but leading with heart? What might we do differently?
What is the county council’s role?
The County Council, like governing bodies, has to walk a fine line. The responsibility of the authority is both structural, providing governance frameworks, guidance and standards to support governing bodies to hold leaders to account whilst also being relational, seeking to ensure that headteachers feel valued, listened to and supported.
There are key areas that the County Council has a particular role to play, including:
Strategic Governance Support
The County Council has a role in supporting governance in maintained schools, seeking to help ensure that governance is effective, respectful of boundaries, and supportive of headteachers. Good governance reduces stress by clarifying roles and responsibilities, avoids micromanagement, fosters trust as well as enabling courageous conversations. We are currently reviewing and refreshing a number of governor courses and are currently developing a new offer for governors on headteacher professional resilience.
Headteacher Appraisal
The county council through supporting Headteacher Appraisal processes with external advisers, is in a unique place to prompt governing bodies in relation to professional resilience discussions. All staff from Hampshire Improvement and Advisory Service (HIAS) acting as external adviser had training in early autumn in relation to the appraisal policy changes and this included a focus on supporting governors to have dialogue on headteacher professional resilience as part of appraisal.
Facilitating space and time through events to discuss professional resilience
In recent years the County Council, through HIAS and EPS have offered sessions for leaders focused on Headteacher professional resilience. In 2024, a conference brought together a number of speakers to develop understanding and encourage dialogue in relation to professional coaching and supervision as well as understanding burnout. This was followed up in early 2025 with a workshop on psychological flexibility. In January 2026, a further workshop will focus on anxiety, how it can impact and tools and resources to support.
Offering supervision, coaching support and work discussion groups
The Education Psychology Service offers supervision, coaching and work discussion groups to support headteachers with their professional resilience and development. To find out more, please visit: Staff support and development | Educational psychology | Hampshire County Council
Championing reflective practices
When considering wellbeing and resilience, schools must consider their own local approaches and practices and whether the value they add is worth the workload they may create and/or whether other practices can be discontinued or altered so that an overall workload increase can be minimised by any new approach or initiative being introduced. Leaders can engage with their HIAS officers to discuss these issues and use colleagues to provide a sounding board or critical challenge to their thinking.
A focus on complaints and managing crisis situations
We are incredibly mindful of the fact that a crisis situation or a significant complaint where individuals are repetitively not following the appropriate processes or taking processes inappropriately outside of the school can have a significant impact on leaders and school staff. Whilst it is challenging due to the legal frameworks surrounding schools, work is underway, in partnership with HIAS, EPS, Legal and Communications and Engagement on a number of strands, including a new “Zero Tolerance” policy to seek to support schools to be clearer with complainants about the potential consequences of their behaviour. This will include a route, in some circumstances, for Governing Bodies, to seek support from the County Council to write to complainants to support the school’s position on a matter.
Supporting peer engagement and sharing of practice
Whether through your district or area headteacher meetings or other means, HIAS are keen to ensure collective dialogue and sharing of practice. To support sharing, we are currently developing the Leadership Moodle further and will be encouraging leaders to share appropriate resources, think pieces or exemplar documents which may be of interest for other leaders.
Development of new resources
Work is currently underway by EPS to develop a new section of the Manual of Personnel Practice, focused on Managing Culture and Climate. This will include many new resources including but not limited to guidance on holding difficult conversations; guidance on stress risk assessment and how to apply it at an individual, team and whole school level and a model wellbeing policy.
Final thoughts
Schools are people places. And our people need to feel safe, supported, and seen. Whether you call it wellbeing or professional resilience, it isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the heartbeat of a healthy school.
So, to every headteacher who has taken the time to read this: you matter. To every governor: your support can change not only the lives of pupils but the lives of staff across our schools. Let’s all work together to build schools where wellbeing isn’t a tokenistic initiative but is grounded in ensuring professional resilience is a way of life.