Delivering Inspirational Creative Arts Education Since 2012

The Stresses of Work for Teachers

Teacher traveling

As supply teachers, peripatetic teachers, and teachers that work different schools on different days, it can be very tiring and very stressful doing the commute. Not only do we have to deal with the everyday stresses that come with the teaching job itself, there are the added stresses of getting to work on time. I travel on the London underground quite a lot and I am forever wondering if my tube line is going to be delayed or out of action, forcing me to get to work on a different route. Will there be another tube that stops nearby? Is there a bus route there? What number bus do I need? How far is the walk to the school from the other end? … And more importantly… will I be there in time for my first lesson?

Of course, none of this applies to the car drivers, whom take on a slightly different travel stress‚Ķ What will the traffic be like? What if a road is closed? What if there is an accident? What if I run out of petrol, I get a puncture or the car breaks down? … Again leading up to the same question‚Ķ will I be there in time for my first lesson?

We, as teachers have a duty to turn up early, and set up ready for our lessons to begin as smooth as possible.

Solution

Plan your journeys carefully, look for the shortest route if possible and always have at least 2 back up routes available… buses and tubes could be useful. Info of local taxis near to your school can also get you out of tight situations if you are just out of reach.

Planning and Marking

Every teacher does planning and marking of work, it comes with part of the job description. As peripatetic teachers, the workload for marking and planning can be multiplied by the number of schools we teach in, that’s not even mentioning double entry plus schools and the various year groups that we teach.

Solution

Don’t leave everything until the last minute. Mark the work throughout the schooling year so that you are always on top of things… easier said than done I know! Filming or audio recording your students will give you exactly what they did, so that you can mark in a half term… or even better, you can watch and listen to the recordings with the children in the next lesson and peer mark it with them… saving you lots of marking time and, more importantly, giving the children a chance for self-evaluation and reflection. Again, with the planning, don’t leave everything until the last minute. Six weeks holiday is a long time and you don’t need the thought of planning hanging over your head throughout the break, or even having to cram it all in on the last week. Start it early, get it done, enjoy your holidays, and refresh yourself a couple of days before you go back to school. This works the same with the Christmas breaks and half terms too!!!

The Children

The children are what the job is all about and that is our main concern, both as passers on of knowledge and as pastoral figures… and because they are our main concern, this causes us a lot of worry… are they happy? Are they sad? Why are they sad? Do they understand? Are they bored? Is it too easy? Is it too hard? The questioning is endless. A class wouldn’t be a class without one or two children, sometimes the whole class, making teaching that slightly bit harder. I’m not saying that there are naughty children in classes by no means, however, there can be testing children, or children with SEN or children with EAL that are making a smooth lesson run rugged. There will be times when the whole class are off course, distracted, or just darn right hard work… all stresses for teachers!

Solution

Planning is key… make sure your differentiation caters for all learners. Test your students by making things tricky but plausible, rather than difficult and hard to obtain. Seating plans and group choosing by yourself always work well because you can break up chatters, or mischievous children when in the same company, and you can mix and match accordingly to suit every learner in the classroom. There have been classes, this was in my secondary PGCE teaching, that I have absolutely dreaded teaching because the children were just real hard work… year nines aggghhh!! But this was due to bad planning on my behalf and not differentiating enough… not to mention a few hormones in the class that were on super turbo!! You need to know how to make the children tick to get the most out of them. This doesn’t mean knowing their favorite football team or their favorite boy band, but how they learn. Do they prefer auditory, kinesthetic or visual learning to get the best results? Knowing your class can be the difference between good lessons and grades and outstanding lessons and grades. Also, be on top of your classroom management (view my classroom management blog for tips), to ensure that individuals do not run your classroom for you. You are in charge, and that is how it should be. Adding all of these solutions to your teaching style should hopefully make you less stressed whan tackling tricky pupils and classes.

Tiredness

This is the one that gets me the most. No matter how early you go to bed, or how late you try and leave it to get up, you always seem to be super tired. Or, if you are like me, just seem to be restless, tossing and turning all night until you fall asleep half an hour before your alarm clock sounds to wake you up… horrendous!! This stress (tiredness) relates to a blog I wrote earlier in the year. Lack of sleep can affect your teaching immensely. It can make you moody towards the children, it can make you forgetful, and it can make you feel like you just want to go home and sleep! Not so good when you’ve got 30 young minds to inspire and share your passion for music.

Solution

It’s hard to give advice or tell anybody how to sleep, especially when I struggle with it myself. But what I can offer is some sound (asleep) advice from the NHS website that offers tips on how to get a good 40 winks

If you have difficulty falling asleep, a regular bedtime ritual will help you wind down and prepare for bed.

Check out our 10 tips to beat insomnia

This ritual depends on what works for you, but the most important thing is working out a routine and sticking to it.

First of all, keep regular sleeping hours, says Jessica Alexander of The Sleep Council – a non-profit organisation that provides good sleep advice.

“A bedtime ritual teaches the brain to become familiar with sleep times and wake times,‚Äù she says. ‚ÄúIt programmes the brain and internal body clock to get used to a set routine.‚Äù

Few people manage to stick to strict bedtime routines due to life’s competing demands, be it work or family duties.

This isn’t much of a problem for most people, but¬†for insomniacs, irregular sleeping hours¬†are disastrous.

Most adults need between six and nine hours of sleep every night. By working out what time you need to wake up, you can set a regular bedtime schedule.

Winding down is a critical stage in preparing for bed. There are many ways of relaxing:

  • A warm bath (not hot) will help your body reach a temperature that’s ideal for rest.
  • Writing “to do” lists for the next day can organise your thoughts and clear your mind of any distractions.
  • Relaxation exercises, such as light yoga stretches, help to¬†relax the muscles.¬†Don’t exercise vigorously, as it will have the opposite effect.
  • Relaxation CDs work by using a carefully narrated script, gentle hypnotic music and sound effects to relax the listener.
  • Reading a book or listening to the radio relaxes the mind by distracting it.

“Everyone will have their own way of relaxing,” says Alexander. “If you don’t know how to relax, you can get help and advice from your GP.”

No TVs before bedtime

Your bedroom should be a relaxing environment. Experts claim there’s a strong association in people’s minds¬†between sleep and the bedroom. However, certain things weaken that association, such as TVs and other electronic gadgets, light, noise, and¬†a bad mattress or bed.

“It’s important to create an environment that helps you to sleep,” says Alexander. “Keep your bedroom just for sleep – and possibly for sex.”

Unlike most vigorous physical activity, sex makes us sleepy. This has evolved in humans over thousands of years.

The bedroom needs to be dark, quiet, tidy, smell fresh and be kept at a temperature of between 18C and 24C. “Fit some thick curtains if you don’t have any,” says Alexander. “If there’s ambient noise, consider investing in double glazing or, for a cheaper option, use earplugs.”

A comfortable bed is essential for a good night’s kip. Research by The Sleep Council suggests that a good-quality mattress and bed frame will give you an extra hour’s sleep.

Dr Chris Izikowski of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, who led the research, says that people benefit from changing their bed if it‚Äôs uncomfortable. ‚ÄúIt’s likely that long-term insomniacs and those with inadequate sleep habits would benefit the most,‚Äù he says.

Keeping a sleep diary

It may be a good idea to keep a sleep diary. It might uncover lifestyle habits or experiences in your daily activities that contribute to your insomnia.

A typical sleep diary should include the answers to the following questions:

  • What were your sleeping times?
  • How long did it take you to get to sleep?
  • How many times¬†did you¬†wake up during the night?
  • How long did each awakening last?
  • How long did you sleep in total?
  • Did you take any sleeping tablets?
  • How well do you feel today?
  • How enjoyable was your sleep last night?
  • How much caffeine did you have before and after 5pm?
  • How much alcohol did you have before and after 5pm?
  • Did you do any exercise shortly before going to bed?
  • Did you take any naps during the day or evening?
  • Has anything made you anxious or stressed?

Firstly, your GP or sleep expert will ask you to keep a sleep diary as part of diagnosing your sleeping problems.

“The sleep diary might reveal underlying conditions that explain your insomnia, such as stress or medication,” says Alexander.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/insomnia/Pages/bedtimeritual.aspx

I hope this blog has been helpful to you!

Andy T

Share This Vacancy

Other Posts

Vacancies

Primary Music/French Teacher – Enfield

Start Date: Summer Term Role: Part Time Location: Enfield EN1 Salary: Negotiable About Our Role We are looking for a French speaking music teacher to cover

Vacancies

Peripatetic guitar Teacher – Westminster

Start Date: Immediate Role: 1.5 hours per week Location: Westminster Salary: £30 per hour   We are currently seeking a specialist guitar tutor capable of delivering

Sign up to our Newsletter

Receive regular updates from 1st Note Education on the lastest news.

1st Note Education Website Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptance of terms

Your access to and use of www.1stNoteEducation.com (“the Website”) is subject exclusively to these Terms and Conditions.

You will not use the Website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms and Conditions. By using the Website you are fully accepting the terms, conditions and disclaimers contained in this notice. If you do not accept these Terms and Conditions you must immediately stop using the Website.


2. Advice

The contents of the Website does not constitute advice and should not be relied upon in making or refraining from making, any decision.

3. Changes to the Website

the Website reserves the right to:

3.1. change or remove (temporarily or permanently) the Website or any part of it without notice and you confirm that the Website shall not be liable to you for any such change or removal; and

3.2. change these Terms and Conditions at any time, and your continued use of the Website following any changes shall be deemed to be your acceptance of such change.


4. Copyright

4.1. All copyright, trade marks and all other intellectual property rights in the Website and its content (including without limitation the Website design, text, graphics and all software and source codes connected with the Website) are owned by or licensed to the Website or otherwise used by the Website as permitted by law.

4.2. In accessing the Website you agree that you will access the content solely for your personal, non-commercial use. None of the content may be downloaded, copied, reproduced, transmitted, stored, sold or distributed without the prior written consent of the copyright holder. This excludes the downloading, copying and/or printing of pages of the Website for personal, non-commercial home use only.

5. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

5.1. The Website is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy.

5.2. To the extent permitted by law, the Website will not be liable for any indirect or consequential loss or damage whatever (including without limitation loss of business, opportunity, data, profits) arising out of or in connection with the use of the Website.

5.3. the Website makes no warranty that the functionality of the Website will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected or that the Website or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or anything else which may be harmful or destructive.

5.4. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall be construed so as to exclude or limit the liability of the Website for death or personal injury as a result of the negligence of the Website or that of its employees or agents.


6. Links to third party websites

The Website may include links to third party websites that are controlled and maintained by others. Any link to other websites is not an endorsement of such websites and you acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the content or availability of any such sites.


7. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold the Website and its employees and agents harmless from and against all liabilities, legal fees, damages, losses, costs and other expenses in relation to any claims or actions brought against the Website arising out of any breach by you of these Terms and Conditions or other liabilities arising out of your use of this Website.

8. Severance

If any of these Terms and Conditions should be determined to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason by any court of competent jurisdiction then such Term or Condition shall be severed and the remaining Terms and Conditions shall survive and remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.


9. Governing Law

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and you hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

10. 1st Note Education Privacy Policy


Introduction

1st Note Education respect individuals’ rights over their personal data. We are committed to ensuring that people are treated fairly in everything we do. This Privacy and Cookie Notice (“Notice”) outlines:

Type of personal information held

Personal information collected by us usually falls into the following categories:

  • Temporary contractor information submitted and obtained from the temporary contractor and other sources in connection with applications for work
  • Work performance information
  • Information about incidents in the workplace
  • Staff information
  • Information submitted and obtained in relation to absences from work due to leave, illness or other causes

Information obtained to assist in managing client and business relationships 

How we may collect personal data about you

Where this Notice refers to ‘personal data’ it is referring to data about you (or other living people) from which you (or they) could be identified – such as name, date of birth or contact details.

This Notice applies to all personal data processed by 1st Note Education about its registered teachers and teachers contact dater base This includes data gathered via third parties, such as social media and job sites, and which is therefore also covered by their own Privacy Polices.

This policy was last updated on 18th May 2018. Any updates will be posted to this version of the policy. If you wish to see a previous version of the policy, or have any other questions, please get in touch.


1st Note Education may collect personal data from you via means such as:

  • In person, when you speak to one of our representatives
  • Through a telephone call, either where you call us or we call you
  • On paper, such as if you complete a registration form or send us information via post
  • Digitally, such as if you fill in a form on a website or interact with the us online
  • When you offer or ask about, or take part in company activities
  • When you enter into a transaction with 1st Note Education, such as registering, purchasing a product or paying for an event
  • Indirectly from other public records or sources, including Job Site register which 1st Note Education is legally entitled to.
  • On social media platforms, where you have made the information public, or you have made   the information available in a social media forum run by 1st Note Education.

We may collect personal data about you such as:

  • Name
  • Contact details (e.g. email address, address, telephone / mobile number)
  • Date of birth
  • Future communication preferences
  • DBS
  • ID
  • Other demographic information
  • Issues you raise

We may also collect information when you interact with 1st Note Education digitally, such as by visiting one of our websites or communicating with one of our social media channels. This may include additional data to that above, such as:

  • Your device, browser or operating system
  • Details of the links that you click and the content that you view
  • Your username or social media handle
  • Any other information you share when using third party sites (e.g. sending a tweet or using the Like function on Facebook). We may also place one or more cookies on your device. For further details on this, see below.
  • We may also collect information about you from other public sources, such as, Companies House or other commercially available sources. We only do so where those sources are lawfully permitted to share the data with us and where we have a legal basis to process data from such sources. This may include, for example, checking the eligibility to work in the UK and may include additional data to that above.


How we may use your personal data

We may use your personal data to further our objectives, we use and analyse your information to keep in touch with you and to supply and improve our services. We will also use your information to tell you about services that we think may interest you and/or contact you in future. Examples of the way we may use your data include to:

  • Tell you about policies, career opportunity’s that may be of interest to you
  • Respond to queries that you raise with us
  • Conduct training activities, including checking your eligibility to apply for vacancy’s
  • Manage our sites and services

For more specific information about how we use your data for these activities, and the legal basis on which we rely to process your data in this way, please see the ‘Why 1st Note Education is allowed to use your information in this way’ part of this Notice.

Why 1st Note Education is allowed to use your information in this way

If you have provided us with your email, mobile phone number or landline phone number and we have a legal right to use them for such purposes, we may use that information to contact you to promote causes and campaigns that we support, such as by sending you an email, online advert, or a text message.

We will respect any registration you hold with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) except where you have opted in to receive phone calls on that number from us.

You may opt out of communications from us at any time.

The circumstances under which we may share your personal data or disclose it to others.

Depending on how and why you provide us with your personal data it may be shared within 1st Note Education our representatives or with companies that provide services to 1st Note Education (“service providers”).

In addition, we may share your personal data with third parties when we are required to do so by law (for example, with the Police where they ask us to assist them with their investigations).

However, save for the limited circumstances noted above, we will never pass your personal data to any unrelated third parties unless you have given us your permission to do so.

For example, if you choose to register with us we will need to process your personal data to record that you have given us your support in this way. A contract will be put in place between you and us and we will process your personal data to the extent that we need to in order to fulfil our obligations under that contract.

Similarly, you may from time to time give us your consent to send you communications by e-mail (or similar mediums) which promote our work. Where you do that we will use your details to send you those kinds of communications until you tell us otherwise. Should you ever ask us to stop sending those kinds of communications we will hold your details on file to ensure that we respect that request – we justify that retention on the basis that we have a legitimate interest in holding your data in that way.

Finally, where we have received your personal data in the various ways described above, we may continue to hold it as part of our records after the relevant processing has stopped. We hold data in this way because we have a legitimate interest in doing so. Specifically, where you have registered (or have otherwise engaged with us such as by attending an event, or by responding to a survey or questionnaire) we have a legitimate interest in holding your personal data to help us to monitor the numbers and the diversity of people who engage with us, as well as a legitimate interest in making sure that we can follow up any complaints or grievances which you may raise (or which people may raise about you).

Additional details about cookies and technical information

A cookie is a small text file placed on your device when you visit a website. You can accept or decline cookies through your browser settings or other software. By using our sites, you are consenting to our use of cookies in accordance with this Notice. If you do not agree to our use of cookies, then you should set your browser or other software settings accordingly.

1st Note Education takes the protection of your information very seriously. We protect your personal data when appropriate, and all the information provided to 1st Note Education is stored securely once we receive it. People working or volunteering on behalf of 1st Note Education only have access to the information they need, and the web servers are stored in a high-security environment. 1st Note Education may store your personal data on secure servers either on our premises or in third party data centres.

Data retention policies

We only keep your personal data for as long as required to meet the purposes set out in this Notice, unless a longer retention period is required by law. For example, this may include holding your data after you have ceased to engage with 1st Note Education (such as by resigning with us) where we have a legitimate interest in doing so, such as to enable us to respond effectively to grievances that may arise after you cease to engage with us. Where we collect and hold your details as part of our public interest work, this may also include retaining those details for as long as you remain a registered.

Where permitted by law, we may also save personal data for archiving purposes in the public interest, including historical research.

Your rights over personal data

You have legal rights over any of your personal data that we hold.

Right of Access

You may, at any time, request access to the personal data that we hold which relates to you (sometimes called a subject access request).

This right entitles you to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you. It is not a right that allows you to request personal data about other people, or a right to request specific documents from us that do not relate to your personal data.

Right to rectification and erasure

You may, at any time, request that we correct personal data that we hold about you which you believe is incorrect or inaccurate. You may also ask us to erase personal data if you do not believe that we need to continue retaining it (sometimes called ‘the right to be forgotten’).

Please note that we may ask you to verify any new data that you provide to us and may take our own steps to check that the new data you have supplied us with is accurate. Further, we are not always obliged to erase personal data when asked to do so; if for any reason we believe that we have a good legal reason to continue processing personal data that you ask us to erase we will tell you what that reason is at the time we respond to your request.

Right to restrict processing

Where we process your personal data on the legal basis of us having a legitimate interest to do so, you are entitled to ask us to stop processing it in that way if you feel that our continuing to do so impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms or if you feel that those legitimate interests are not valid.

You may also ask us to stop processing your personal data (a) if you dispute the accuracy of that personal data and want us verify its accuracy; (b) where it has been established that our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where we no longer need to process your personal data (and would otherwise dispose of it) but you wish for us to continue storing it in order to enable you to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

If for any reason we believe that we have a good legal reason to continue processing personal data that you ask us to stop processing, we will tell you what that reason is, either at the time we first respond to your request or after we have had the opportunity to consider and investigate it.

Right to stop receiving communications

Wherever possible, we will provide you with a choice about how we can contact you to share information about 1st Note Education. You can opt out of communications at any time by emailing info@1stnoteeducation.com  It may take several days for requests submitted this way to become effective on our systems, or by the methods described below.

Email

If you provide us with your email address and indicate that we may do so (e.g. by subscribing to an email distribution list or by ‘opting in’ through the web site) we may send you further information about 1st Note Education in the future. These communications will take the form of e-mails promoting us and our work.

You can request that you cease to receive these kinds of communications from us at any time. The easiest way to do so is to use the unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of any e-mail messages that we send to you.

SMS Messages

If you provide your mobile phone number, we may call or send you text messages if you have given us permission to do so. You may request to stop receiving SMS messages at any point.

You can stop receiving SMS text messages by emailing unsubscribe to info@1stnoteeducation.com . It may take several days for requests submitted this way to become effective on our systems.

Online Advertising

If you provide us with your email address or telephone number we may use it to ensure online adverts you receive from us are relevant to you. These communications will take the form of online adverts promoting us and our work.

You can opt out of online advertising at any time by  emailing unsubscribe to info@1stnoteeducation.com . It may take several days for requests submitted this way to become effective on our systems.

General

While all of our direct marketing communications contain details of how you can stop receiving them in the future you can either follow those instructions (such as using the unsubscribe link in an email or telling a telephone caller), visit www.1stnoteeducation.com  or ask us directly using the contact details below. If you do the latter, please provide us with full details of the telephone numbers, postal addresses, email addresses and so on to which you wish us to stop sending communications to in order to help us deal with your request quickly and accurately.

We will process any requests to stop receiving communications as quickly and comprehensively as is practical although there may in some cases be further communications already on their way to you which cannot be stopped.

If you ask us to stop sending you information (e.g. by email, post, phone or SMS text), we may keep a record of your information to make sure we do not contact you again, up until the normal retention period for that type of data.

Please note that this right to stop communications does not apply to emails that we send to you that are a necessary part of us providing a service to you (such as messaging you about your status as a registered teacher or volunteer for example) or us notifying you about how your personal data is being used.