Of Primary Importance Podcast by ReallySchool: Ep. 27 - Putting teaching back into its job box

In this episode, I am joined by Kimberley Evans to talk about ‘Giving your staff a voice.’

Kimberley Evans set up Nourish the Workplace in 20128 to make a difference to the profession that she loves. She is an experienced teacher and after seeing many people leave education due to unhappiness and workload, she made a commitment to show schools how easy it is to improve staff wellbeing.  

Nourish the Workplace gives schools the tools it needs to prioritise and celebrate staff wellbeing. The survey gives every member of staff a voice and helps the school recognise their staff and their particular needs. She has worked with every type of school; primary, secondary, private, PRU and International, giving her a unique view of staff wellbeing from the ground. This provides a bespoke service to enable schools to improve the way staff feel about the school and improve retention and recruitment.

Here are some of the questions I asked Kimberley: 

1.  Could you please introduce yourself to our listeners? 
2.  Can you talk a little bit about Nourish the Workplace and why you set it up? 
3.  Why do you think sometimes leaders will make decisions to ‘try this’ or ‘try that’ to make an improvement without asking staff their thoughts? 
4.  How can school leaders give opportunities for staff voice? 
5.  How can they let staff know that they hear them? 
6.  Why is it so important for leaders to listen to staff voice? 
7.  What are some of the benefits you have seen in schools that have used your surveys?
8.  Is there a difference between surveys and meetings for how comfortable staff feel about giving feedback, and if so, do you think this differs the kind of feedback given?
9.   How can schools use staff feedback as part of their school development plan?
10.  Where can educators get further support and how can they best get in touch with you?    

You can connect with Kimberley on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. 

You can also check out her website. 

You can follow me (Kat Cauchi) on Twitter at @ReallyschoolK. 

Check out #OPIP and #OfPrimaryImportance for more content and see all our previous episodes here. If you are interested on coming on the show or have a topic suggestion, send me a DM on Twitter or email contact@reallyschool.com !   

Kat Cauchi is NetSupport’s Community Engagement Manager, the Editor of R.I.S.E. Magazine and the Product Manager of ReallySchool. She is also a former Primary School Teacher, Member of the Global Equality Collective, a Technocamps GiST Role Model, an innovate <her>  role model and a Global EdTech Author.