Topping Up On Well-Being
#Toppingup, as a tag line represents Mayflower's commitment to staff and their wellbeing. Its sentiment is heavily influenced by experts in the field of motivation and wellness such as, Daniel Pink, Simon Sinek, Jamie Smart, Tim Ferriss, Professor Steve Peters, Seth Godin, Gavin Oattes and Andy Cope. Gavin and Andy's book, Shine, and their, The Art of Being Brilliant workshops have opened up many discussions between staff, pupils and their parents about how to stay well and live a fulfilled life.
Staying well and living a fulfilled life are two important factors that we consider when designing school systems. We value our role as professionals and take these seriously when using them to look out for each other and stay well.
David Hieatt's 'Stress Report' sites stress as an area that business owners should address.
"We have been taught that the only way to be successful is to work harder. And sure, this can lead to success. To building great businesses. But, it will certainly lead to burnout".
David Hieatt
Mayflower's own tag line, 'Together we can...', represents our desire to avoid burnout by working in teams to solve problems. We believe that together we can create the conditions for people to thrive. We want our community to experience a dynamic synergy between work and home. We want this synergy to be fuelled by energetic and adventurous opportunities to recharge, study, gain new perspectives and to play. To top up. Ultimately, we would like there to be fluidity between home and work. We know that this can fuel as well as drain energy if not managed carefully. Mary Mayatt keep us in check with her often used quote,
"We are humans first. Professionals second".
Mary Myatt
We work hard at staying connected to collectively building a better future. We believe in valuing people and continuously developing better ways of celebrating our community's talents and interests. We see #Toppingup as a fundamental part of our creative process. We view taking time to pause, recharge or enjoy exploring new experiences, as fuel for better outcomes. We see #Toppingup as a way of recharging each other's psychological, intellectual, physical and relational energy.
We believe that if our community arrives at school feeling fulfilled and topped up with positive energy, they will be more content, more inspired, better able to solve problems and sustain school development.
We believe that each person involved in learning at Mayflower has a personal approach to #Toppingup. We want people to know that we value them spending time being themselves and flourishing in their chosen form of energy production. Ultimately, we believe that we all perform better when we have a more balanced approach to life at work and at home.
"We believe that staff who make time for #Toppingup perform better. We can't yet prove this, but we can see a brighter sparkle in their eyes when they do so".
Headteacher David Sammels
Our community is encouraged to share how they best like to do generate energy and stay well. As leaders, we see our #Toppingup profiles as a mechanism for doing this. We see them as a window into people's lives, a window into what makes them tick. We see these posters as a privileged vantage point to view life through their eyes. We see these posters as a way of getting to know our community better.
Anyone who has chosen to make a #Toppingup profile has opened themselves up to feedback. They have been brave and shared examples of their passions. Often this type of information might be seen as private and off bounds to the professional world. We are grateful that our culture at Mayflower enables our community to feel safe and supported enough to share these personal insights. We have been trusted to sensitively use people's #Toppingup information to influence working practice. We work hard to shape the conditions for synergy between work and home to thrive.
"When focusing on staff wellbeing, staff know that we take seriously the process of them making their #Toppingup profiles. We take them having time to live out their #Toppingup passions just as seriously. We tune into staff's personal preferences. What makes them tick".
Headteacher David Sammels
We study how best to cater for their wellbeing wants and needs. We relish the challenge of trying to build a more holistic education system that unapologetically values wellbeing. We value the challenge of creating a better education system full stop. We value time for continued #Toppingup. We believe any time spent recharging in this way helps us to collectively deliver a more enlightened, playful, and sustained service to our community.
I love the images below. They are of an away day for staff as they spent time together, mastering their interests and re-charging with much-needed energy. The images depict...
...our kind of 'Board Meeting'.
We promote this type of adventure. Adventures where time slows down and health speeds up. Days like these bring us closer together and re-align our purpose.
Feel free to download a #Toppingup poster template via the link below. Share it back with us and celebrate what makes you tick.
Feel free to tag us online with #Toppingup @Mayflower_MCA (Twitter) @MadeInMayflower (Instagram). Staff #Toppingup posters can be found here. Take a look and get to know our team.