National Literacy Trust, a charity working with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed, were awarded £70,000 to fund their 12-month campaign to offer online resources for teachers and school staff to improve their wellbeing and encourage mindfulness.
Tim Judge, Head of School Programmes at the National Literacy Trust, has been leading on the Wellbeing programme:
“The funding from Wesleyan has developed our teacher wellbeing area on our website, this supports teachers and school staff across the UK in their wellbeing, such as improving social connections, physical activity, healthier eating, we also have free mindfulness and yoga courses.
“There’s lots of resources on our website and we’ll also be running a series of webinars and events with authors, such as a book club. Since it’s launch we’ve had lots of engagement from teachers with 40 starting their first mindfulness course.”
Janie, a teacher benefitting from the online resources, shared:
“It’s important to take time away from our jobs because it’s actually not just about us, it’s about our families, friends and, of course, the children we teach. It’s about having the energy to do the job with the same enthusiasm despite the expectations and pressures that we face which multiplied over the past 18 months.
“Looking through the site I’ve found it easily accessible, concise and quick to use. It’s been compiled with teachers in mind, there’s a range of resources and support. I’ve set myself a small challenge to spend 10 minutes each week on the site to see if there’s anything I could be doing differently to make life a bit easier. After all, it’s the little wins that often end up being the biggest victories.”
The funding also extended to their ‘Take 10’ project, Tim continued:
“The Take 10 challenge took place on the 8th October where we asked everyone to stop what they’re doing and read for 10 minutes every day to encourage daily reading habits and celebrate the positive effects of reading for pleasure, including its power to help relax and escape from the pressures of everyday life. It was a huge success with 165,000 people taking part.
“Schools and families were invited to our Take 10 events with authors Tom Percival and Louisa Reid, followed by 10 minutes of reading. Local organisations and businesses, and our publisher partners also took part in the challenge and dropped everything to read in their workplaces. Wesleyan got involved and shared what they were reading, it was great!”
Tim concluded:
“If we didn’t have the funding from Wesleyan we wouldn’t have been able to support the wellbeing of our teachers.”
Click here for the Take 10 challenge impact report.
