This week has seen some schools return to increased restrictions in response to concerns about the Omicron variant. For some this means a return to bubbles, and means less opportunities for mixing of both staff and pupils. Our Education Lead, Ben Harper has put together some ideas and practices which may help your staff team’s sense of connection in this time.
Here at Space to Breathe, we know connecting with others is important for human beings and supports a sense of wellbeing.
Restrictions which prevent this happening can lead to a sense of frustration, isolation and general ‘flatness’. This may be exasperated by a kind of ‘Covid climate induced fatigue’ that comes as a result of having to respond to this ‘thing’ for over 20 months now, not to mention all the disappointment that could be felt about cancelled Christmas events.
So, in this new climate, what simple things can we do to in some way mitigate against this? Here are a few of the best ideas we were able to gather together:
Get classes and staff to send pictures to one another of what they’re up to along with messages of good will.
Invite staff to be part of a WhatsApp group and then set regular fun challenges e.g. photos of learning a new skill, a daily fun puzzle, a random photo for a caption competition or ask people to share a photo around a theme.
If you’re gathering online for meetings, encourage people to have their camera on. Seeing a face is always much more connecting that seeing a blank screen.
Start meetings with a fun icebreaker slide e.g., display a selection of Christmas tree pics and ask ‘which Christmas tree says something about your day’.
Encourage people to meet regularly in their smaller teams and share 3 gratitudes or ‘something that made me smile today was…’. Ask them to put those up on their classroom door for people to see as they walk around school.
Put extra sensory things in spaces where staff can gather; flowers, chocolates, pics of nature, calming sounds. It will encourage people to make use of those spaces more and connect better with those they can connect with.
Set up ‘walking buddies’ from across bubbles; people go for a quick socially distanced walk around the school grounds just to say ‘hi’. Participation should be voluntary!
Invite people to submit their favourite Christmas recipe/joke/game and compile. Ideally people submit a pic of themselves to accompany their submission. Keep it light weight, low maintenance by simply copying and pasting from an email into a word doc and send out.
Make sure there’s a ‘shared narrative’ about school life so people feel part of the ‘bigger’, even when they don’t see it.
None of these things replaces the benefits of being together as a whole team, and as soon as we can get back to this, the better. Hopefully these ideas just take the edge off for now!
Take care during this time and we hope the coming few weeks as you approach the end of term are ones you’re able to manage and even to grow as teams, despite everything that is happening.
You can connect with Ben and continue the conversation via Twitter @wellbeingteach