While incredibly rewarding, your teacher training year can also be demanding and challenging at times. And so, from your very first day, we focus on teacher training wellbeing and support to make sure that you have a fantastic experience on the programme.
Helping children and young people to progress and reach their full potential in life is an amazing gift. It’s our responsibility to make sure that our trainee teachers are protected, supported and take care of themselves on this incredibly selfless journey.
“Lift Schools want you to succeed and will give you all the necessary support to ensure you do.”
Selima, Secondary Trainee
We’re dedicated to the welfare of our trainees. The teacher training year is an immensely busy one and looking after ourselves is key to avoiding burnout.
All the wellbeing support that you receive during your teacher training year is based on the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’. We help you to practise and embed proven methods and strategies (such as mindfulness, resilience building, emotional self-assessment, and identifying personal early warning signs of emotional overload) to not only improve wellbeing in the workplace but also in your daily lives.
Wellbeing is a key feature of the one-to-one check-ins you’ll have with your tutor. You’ll be asked to reflect on how you’re doing emotionally and mentally and share the challenges you face. Trainee welfare is also an important discussion point when your tutor meets with in-school Teacher Training Leads.
If there are any concerns about your wellbeing, your tutor will work with you to create actions that you can take to help to address these issues. These actions form a Wellbeing Plan, which you will discuss every fortnight with your tutor to reflect on your progress.
We have a dedicated Wellbeing Curriculum strand that begins with a wellbeing session on your very first day of Summer School before you start your life as a teacher trainee. We recognise the link between wellbeing and personal organisation so our curriculum supports you with organisation over the course of the training year.
The curriculum provides practical strategies that you can use to support your own wellbeing and develop positive personal organisation habits. You’ll be given a focused curriculum booklet, which you’ll use throughout their year to complete tasks and guide your practice. It is designed to support your workload, and share upcoming tasks and deadlines to allow you to organise and manage your time.
Tutors work together with in-school Teacher Training Leads to design teaching timetables that reflect the progress of the individual trainee. Your teaching load will gradually increase over the course of the year as you become more confident leading lessons.
At the beginning of the training year, each training group is assigned a Wellbeing Representative. They will be responsible for organising social events for your training group so you can bond with other trainee teachers over shared experiences, starting to build a supportive network of teachers across schools. Trainees on our course find that these social interactions and shared experiences help them stay more connected with their peers.
