September 2016 Newsletter

Newsletter September 2016

The early days of September are so evocative for anyone who has ever attended a school and/or worked in one. The hints of Autumn are subtle; one or two drifting leaves, a nip in the air in the morning - and a new school year comes to mind. My Russian friend who is in her 60s (so she left school over 40 years ago) says memories of her school days haunt her at this time.

Ideally, our students won't feel haunted! But I hope their memories in future years won't be solely of tests. Instead they will see school as the place that opened their minds; a place where they learned to question and explore the world. The start of lifelong learning.

Happy New Year!

How Well Do You Know the New Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening?

She is also the Minister for Women and Equalities
She is the first Education Secretary to have attended a mainstream Comprehensive School
She is the first openly gay Education Secretary
She is 47 years old
Her first job was in Morrisons supermarket
She worked as an accountant after university
She says the government will continue to raise standards in all schools while allowing parents to have the choice of sending their children somewhere where they would be academically stretched

She takes over at a time of crisis in schools. What education policies do you think Justine should prioritise? We would be very interested to hear from you.

Get in touch with us on info@vision-works.net

Staff Wellbeing & Building Resilience - Online Webinars

1. Are you super busy coping with mounting pressures of teaching?

2. Are you supporting stressed colleagues and/or struggling to maintain your own positive mental health, let alone teaching and modelling it to your students?

3. Does limited time, stamina and funding make attending trainings off site seem impossible? Then this is for you!

This year we offer webinars you can either join live, as they will happen early in the evening, or tune in to a recording later on, at a time to suit you.

Who is this for? - Everyone - teachers, managers, support staff

How long does it take? - 1 hour

What does it do? - Discover strategies for maintaining staff wellbeing and building resilience.

How will it help? You will better understand the value of wellbeing, not just as a concept but as a daily reality. With the skills you learn, you will improve self-awareness, resilience and working relationships amongst staff and students. Ultimately this will permeate the ethos of the school and benefit everyone.

FIRST WEBINAR - Staff Wellbeing: Tuesday Nov 8th 7-8pm

Register at info@vision-works.net and we will send you details of how to join online.

Sue Allen and Janet Grant are co-authors of

VisionWorks for Schools and are both ex-heads of year in comprehensive schools and trainers in emotional wellbeing.

Price: £10. First 5 people to sign up get it for FREE

Other topics:

Managing student behaviour - lasting, effective principles

Emotional wellbeing - a vital key to learning

Moving from blame to empowerment

School ethos and community

Is there anything else that you would like us to address? We welcome your suggestions for more topics that will support you.

This is Interesting

Peter Gray Ph.D., a research professor at Boston College, responds in Psychology Today to the findings of reliable research into increased anxiety and depression in students of all ages.

"We would like to think of history as progress, but if progress is measured in the mental health and happiness of young people, then we have been going backward at least since the early 1950s."

He explains, "The changes seem to have much more to do with the way young people view the world than with the way the world actually is." It appears that we are more likely to be depressed if we feel we have little or no control over what is happening to us. The research findings suggest that our cultural "shift from intrinsic to extrinsic goals represents a general shift toward a culture of materialism, transmitted through television and other media"

Gray argues that there is more to it than this.

"My hypothesis is that the generational increases in ... anxiety, and depression are all caused largely by the decline ... in opportunities for free play and the increased time and weight given to schooling."

He goes to explain why. And I think I agree with him.

Click on photo to read more

New FREE Download for September

Mental Health Matters is a PowerPoint presentation designed to highlight how looking after our mental health is equally important to taking care of ourselves physically. We hope you find it helpful.

More to come - always.

Click here

Extra Ideas Anyone?

Do you know about our inspirational and informative VisionWorks for Schools facebook page? Please like us for regular cartoons, comments and ideas on emotional wellbeing. Click here for FB page

Register with VisionWorks

Register at www.vision-works.net for a host of FREE downloadable resources, assembly ideas and sample modules from our programmes.

More information

If you'd like to find out how VisionWorks could work for you call Sue Allen or Janet Grant on 01249 409001, email sue@vision-works net or janet@vision-works.net or visit our website www.vision-works.net

VisionWorks for Schools now has its own Facebook page. All you have to do is like us and you will have regular updates of workshops, webinars, current EI news and more! We would love to hear from you too.