3-2-1: Your staff wellbeing journey

If you work in a classroom, you might already be familiar with the 3-2-1 exercise, or perhaps it is a prompt you have used during your own learning. The idea of this quick exercise is to help you reflect on where your education setting is on their wellbeing journey, to focus on areas for development and to help your organisation with the ‘what next?’.

Before you get started, it might help to look at our Psychological Safety in Schools guide which offers a range of expert-led information to help you with staff mental health and wellbeing.

Or perhaps you have spoken to a member of our team about your wellbeing journey so far and would like to do some reflection following that conversation?

How do you support teachers and education staff in your school?

Often we find schools are already taking actions to support staff wellbeing, but they are not always recognising and communicating them as effectively as they could. It can help to reflect on and celebrate what you are already doing, however big or small, before moving on to the next stage of your journey.

Ideas for staff wellbeing in your school 

Wellbeing practices might look like:

• Talking through your schools staff mental health and wellbeing plan or policies during staff inductions.

• Talking about mental health and wellbeing regularly e.g. at meetings, CPD.

• Sharing any signposting information about support available to staff i.e. Education Support helpline poster.

• Focusing on wellbeing as well as work during 1:1’s.

• Showing appreciation to staff - this isn’t just a case of saying thank you! Take a look at our resource 5 ways schools can show appreciation for staff and improve wellbeing on ways this might be done.

Support our charity 

Education Support is the only UK charity dedicated to supporting the mental health of teachers and education staff. We only provide free resources thanks to the generosity of our community of donors. If you’ve found these resources helpful, please consider making a donation today.

About the author 

Emily Kenneally is a UK-based communications specialist working across teacher mental health, social prescribing, and workplace wellbeing in education. She has over 10 years’ experience in the charity sector.

She is a trauma-informed mindfulness practitioner, trained in non-clinical Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) at NHS Sussex Mindfulness Centre, and holds a Master of Design from the University of Brighton.

Since 2019, she has delivered wellbeing workshops to 1,400 adults and children across education and healthcare, including at the University of Surrey and NHS Sussex.

She joined Education Support as Content and Media Manager in 2022, co-producing 100+ teacher wellbeing resources with educators and partners, including The Mental Health Foundation and NAHT, contributing to BBC News reporting of the Teacher Wellbeing Index.