Newark-based mental health and well-being charity Shawmind to host well-being panel to help teachers

Mental health and well-being charity Shawmind, based in Newark, will host a specialist well-being panel as part of a week-long initiative to help teachers.

Beginning on World Mental Health Day, today, Shawmind will welcome a collective of education and well-being specialists from across the country to an online panel discussion, which will be chaired by the charity’s chief executive, Peter Wingrove.

The initiative is led by Teachers Come First and Positively Empowered Kids.

It will cover a range of topics, including having the courage to change the status quo, mindfulness as a strategy for teacher well-being, lessons learned from working with schools to implement well-being culture, finding the time for self-care, and teacher mental health training.

There will also be opportunities for attendees who register to participate to ask the panel questions.

Teachers, headteachers and teaching support staff have been invited to attend the free session, which will last for an hour after school, from 4pm.

Peter Wingrove said: “Our successful 2017 Headucation campaign ultimately resulted in children’s mental health education becoming mandatory in schools from this year, but teacher mental health appears to have been neglected.

“We are working hard to address this through a series of initiatives, including teacher basic mental health training.”

Teachers or teaching support staff who are interested in taking part in the panel discussion or asking a question can join the Zoom meeting at http://bit.ly/SMWellbeingPanel.

Anyone unable to take part in the discussion live will be able to watch a recording on the charity’s YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/ShawmindYouTube

The teacher well-being panel is the first event in a week of activities, which will also involve short videos from some of the panel plus other special guests from the wellbeing sector.

The videos will be hosted on the Shawmind YouTube channel.

The week culminates in the all-day online teacher wellbeing conference delivered by Teachers Come First and Positively Empowered Kids.