SET24 Q&A – Helen Wood

How do you look after your own wellbeing? 

For me, having regular opportunities to be outside in nature is fundamental to my health and wellbeing. There is a growing amount of credible evidence about the positive impact of blue and green spaces. You won’t find me in a gym (although arguably it’s something that would benefit me). I am happiest with camera in hand at a nature reserve or meandering along a riverbank hoping for that electric flash of blue when a kingfisher whizzes by. You could say that I am a lazy mindfulness practitioner – nature and photography is grounding, slows my (at times) frenetic work pace and connects me with something present. I am fortunate to live in an area where access to nature is easy but that’s not the case for everyone – that’s one of the reasons that I offer wellbeing walks for our staff team to give everyone who wants to the opportunity to get out and about and connect with nature in an informal and supported way. You can’t impose wellbeing strategies on people – what one person finds relaxing, the next person finds unhelpful or even stressful –, but it’s about creating a diverse offer that meets a variety of needs and allowing people to opt in. 

What do you hope attendees will take away from your talk at the SET24 conference? 

Whenever I attend a conference, I am hoping to take away a few nuggets of information and practical ideas to implement within my own practice and setting. I hope that attendees will gain a sense that establishing a wellbeing culture at work is achievable with a small group of people who are invested, energetic, have a little resilience and wish to support positive change.  

Change comes from us as individuals and evolving a culture takes a momentum shift – it can be a slow burn and it’s almost impossible to engage everyone, particularly in a large organisation, but the overall impact for recruitment, retention and employees feeling valued, and therefore even more motivated, at work is worth the effort. As a practitioner, I’m hoping to provide realism. If people leave the session thinking “I’m going to try that”, whether it’s a strategy for themselves or others, I’ll be happy! 

What are you most looking forward to about the conference? 

I’ve been a member of SET for many years, have completed QTLS and ATS, and am a member of the Practitioner Advisory Group (PAG), and I have really valued the connections that I have made with other professionals working in similar and different settings. The post-compulsory education sector is a diverse beast, and we can all get a little insular when engaged with the daily grind. I have found past SET conferences provide an opportunity to stop, reflect and at times recalibrate. I would encourage people to go and chat to others – you’ll find like-minded colleagues as well as those who can challenge and stretch your thinking by presenting a different perspective.  

In my experience, we’re a friendly bunch who share a set of values and want the best for our learners, and that often means that we are at the back of the queue when it comes to our own professional development. So, it’s an opportunity to focus on ourselves and our own professionalism and indulge just a little bit. I’m not going to lie, the food is pretty good too.