Rewriting Wellbeing: The Teachers' Health Podcast

About Rewriting Wellbeing: The Teachers' Health Podcast

The show that discusses all things health and wellbeing to help you thrive, and not just survive, in teaching!

Publisher

Charlie Burley • Charlie Thomas

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

26 Aug 2021

Latest episode

27 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

107 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   27 Sept 2026

   106. School Slipping Into Home Life? Struggling To Switch Off? 5 Small Strategies To Help!

   Do you tell yourself you'll just finish one more thing, then look up and it's nine o'clock? Maybe you check your emails first thing in the morning and last thing at night? Maybe you finally close the laptop, then lie in bed going over the school day again and again? In this episode, I share five small strategies I use with my coaching clients to help them take less work home and find it easier to switch off in the evenings. Full-time teachers in England are still working around 50 hours a week on average and 43% of teachers say their school has no clear policy on switching off or replying to emails outside working hours... A lot of this comes down to the boundaries we set for ourselves, one small step at a time! You will hear about: Why unfinished tasks stay in your head, and how making a plan for them helps you park them The end of day brain dump, and why writing a to-do list before bed can help you fall asleep faster The planning fallacy, and how to build buffer time into your week Restraint bias, and why "I'll just do another half hour" rarely stays at half an hour Setting a finish time, picking one to three finite tasks, and whether leaving your laptop at school could work for you Aiming for an 8 out of 10 instead of a 10 out of 10 The "to-da list", a record of what you have done instead of what is left One client's rule for emails outside working hours Building boundaries slowly using graded exposure, starting with just 15 minutes How long habits take to form, and what to do when you miss a day Research I mentioned: Smit (2016) Successfully Leaving Work at Work Scullin et al. (2018) The Effects of Bedtime Writing on Difficulty Falling Asleep Buehler, Griffin & Ross (1994) Exploring the "Planning Fallacy" Nordgren, van Harreveld & van der Pligt (2009) The Restraint Bias Hill & Curran (2016) Multidimensional Perfectionism and Burnout: A Meta-Analysis DfE (2025) Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders, Wave 4 NASUWT (2025) Wellbeing at Work Survey If work has started following you home this term, pick one of these five to try this week. And if this episode helped, send it to a teacher friend, give the podcast a rating and let me know which strategy you're trying first! - Charlie

2. 

   22 Sept 2026

   105. 6 Ways Your Brain Is Making Teaching Feel Even Harder Than It Is

   Why does one email at quarter past five outweigh an entire good day? Why does everyone else in the staff room seem to have it all together? And why do so many teachers finish Friday feeling like the week was a write-off, even when plenty went well? In this solo episode, I talk through six shortcuts your brain takes that can make an already difficult job feel harder than it needs to. All six are normal, all six are well researched, and none of them are your fault. This is not a "just think positive" episode. For each one, I share a practical thing you can do to give your brain a fairer picture of your day, your week, and your year. You will hear about: The negativity bias, and why one bad email can outweigh a morning of good lessons A two minute fact check to do in the car or on the commute home Social comparison, and why comparing how you feel inside with how colleagues look outside is a comparison you will always lose Why being 10% more open with colleagues could help normalise wellbeing in your school All or nothing thinking, the "I'll start again on Monday" loop, and the link between perfectionism and burnout Why aiming for a 6 out of 10 week often gets you further than aiming for a 10 Confirmation bias, and why judging yourself from memory gives you a one-sided view The highlighter trick for spotting what your brain skipped over The spotlight effect, the embarrassing t-shirt study, and why far fewer people noticed your bad observation than you think The peak end rule, and why the end of your day, week and term matters more than you might expect Research mentioned: Baumeister et al. (2001) Bad Is Stronger Than Good Festinger (1954) A Theory of Social Comparison Processes Hill & Curran (2016) Multidimensional Perfectionism and Burnout: A Meta-Analysis Wason (1960) On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task Gilovich, Medvec & Savitsky (2000) The Spotlight Effect in Social Judgment Kahneman et al. (1993) When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End If you finish most weeks drained and feeling like you got nothing done, this episode will help you look back at those weeks more fairly. And if it helped, send it to a teacher friend, give the podcast a rating, and let me know which of the six you spot in yourself the most! - Charlie

3. 

   13 Sept 2026

   104. Should Teachers Be Expected To Be Counsellors Too?

   "I was doing so well this week... and then I cried." That's what a coaching client said recently. And it says everything about how teachers are taught to treat emotion: a good week means holding it all together, and crying means failure! In this episode, we dig into why that thinking is so common, and what counselling has to teach the classroom. Charlie has just completed his Level 2 in Counselling Skills alongside his role as an advisory teacher supporting pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs, and he shares what the course actually involves, what surprised him, and what he thinks every teacher could take from it. We talk about listening to understand rather than listening to respond, why silence is so uncomfortable and so powerful, and what to do with your own triggers when a pupil, parent or colleague says something that lands close to home. And we get honest about the limits... One mental health lead with a short qualification cannot be a school's answer to grief, self-harm and crisis, and we talk about why "limits of ability" might be the most important phrase in the whole course. You will hear about: Why "I was doing well until I cried" reveals how teachers think about emotion Listening to understand vs listening to respond, and the power of staying silent Parking your own triggers in the moment, and why the reflection afterwards matters just as much Paraphrasing and reflecting: two counselling skills that work in any parent conversation Teacher, first aider, counsellor, parent, tour guide: the ever-growing job description The pressure on senior mental health leads, and why schools need qualified counsellors and proper supervision The route from Level 2 to qualified therapist, and how to get started if you're curious The Biscuit Review returns with a twist on a classic If you've ever felt like an unqualified counsellor in a classroom, this one is for you. If any of it resonated, share it with a colleague and leave us a rating. And if you have questions about the counselling course - Level 2, Level 3, any of it - come and find us on Instagram and ask away! - Charlie & Charlie

Who has been a guest on Rewriting Wellbeing: The Teachers' Health Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dr Emma Kell
• Olly Layton
• Dr Bernadette Dancy

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

13 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 21 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

42

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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