Rewriting Wellbeing: The Teachers' Health Podcast

Charlie Burley • Charlie Thomas

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

  1. Sep 27

    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 themThe end of day brain dump, and why writing a to-do list before bed can help you fall asleep fasterThe planning fallacy, and how to build buffer time into your weekRestraint bias, and why "I'll just do another half hour" rarely stays at half an hourSetting a finish time, picking one to three finite tasks, and whether leaving your laptop at school could work for youAiming for an 8 out of 10 instead of a 10 out of 10The "to-da list", a record of what you have done instead of what is leftOne client's rule for emails outside working hoursBuilding boundaries slowly using graded exposure, starting with just 15 minutesHow long habits take to form, and what to do when you miss a day Research I mentioned: Smit (2016) Successfully Leaving Work at WorkScullin et al. (2018) The Effects of Bedtime Writing on Difficulty Falling AsleepBuehler, Griffin & Ross (1994) Exploring the "Planning Fallacy"Nordgren, van Harreveld & van der Pligt (2009) The Restraint BiasHill & Curran (2016) Multidimensional Perfectionism and Burnout: A Meta-AnalysisDfE (2025) Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders, Wave 4NASUWT (2025) Wellbeing at Work SurveyIf 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. Sep 22

    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 lessonsA two minute fact check to do in the car or on the commute homeSocial comparison, and why comparing how you feel inside with how colleagues look outside is a comparison you will always loseWhy being 10% more open with colleagues could help normalise wellbeing in your schoolAll or nothing thinking, the "I'll start again on Monday" loop, and the link between perfectionism and burnoutWhy aiming for a 6 out of 10 week often gets you further than aiming for a 10Confirmation bias, and why judging yourself from memory gives you a one-sided viewThe highlighter trick for spotting what your brain skipped overThe spotlight effect, the embarrassing t-shirt study, and why far fewer people noticed your bad observation than you thinkThe 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 GoodFestinger (1954) A Theory of Social Comparison ProcessesHill & Curran (2016) Multidimensional Perfectionism and Burnout: A Meta-AnalysisWason (1960) On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual TaskGilovich, Medvec & Savitsky (2000) The Spotlight Effect in Social JudgmentKahneman et al. (1993) When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better EndIf 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. Sep 13

    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 emotionListening to understand vs listening to respond, and the power of staying silentParking your own triggers in the moment, and why the reflection afterwards matters just as muchParaphrasing and reflecting: two counselling skills that work in any parent conversationTeacher, first aider, counsellor, parent, tour guide: the ever-growing job descriptionThe pressure on senior mental health leads, and why schools need qualified counsellors and proper supervisionThe route from Level 2 to qualified therapist, and how to get started if you're curiousThe 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

  4. Aug 31

    103. 6 Ways To Stop Your INSET Days From Making Wellbeing Worse

    It's here, the end of August, the start of a new academic year... For most of us, the first day back isn't a day with the children... It's an INSET day. And, let's be honest, INSET days have a bit of a reputation! So this episode is seven ways to stop your INSET day making wellbeing worse before the term's even started... None of them are big or even require any budget. But they will help your staff leave engaged, enthusiastic and energised rather than depleted and drained! If this episode is helpful, please share it with a colleague and help them too! About Us Charlie B is the founder of Rewriting Wellbeing and The Teachers' Health Coach. Having worked in schools, Charlie not only coaches staff 1:1, but also helps leadership teams take a diagnostic-first, preventative approach to staff wellbeing - moving beyond one-off gestures to the things that actually change how a school feels to work in!

  5. Aug 23

    102. Why I'm Going Back To Teaching After 4 Years

    "You got out. Why on earth are you going back?" This was the message I got when I announced the news: After four and a half years away, I'm stepping back into the classroom this September. In this episode, we sit down and properly unpack that decision: Why would someone who left teaching, who built a whole career helping teachers recover from it, choose to walk back in?! The honest answers might surprise you... A coaching call where, for the first time ever, the empathy didn't come. The worry about becoming one of those CPD presenters who taught for years... but left the classroom a decade ago. And underneath it all, genuinely missing the kids, the relationships, and that buzz when a lesson lands and the penny drops! We also get into what going back actually looks like: the new role, the nerves about how behaviour and attention have changed since 2022, and the surprisingly hopeful stuff: A school built on flexible working and job shares CPD mapped out for the whole year And a headteacher who said "keep doing the work" when a previous school once asked Charlie to stop posting about teacher wellbeing altogether!! Whether you've left teaching, you're thinking about leaving, or you're quietly wondering whether you could ever go back, this one is for you... If this episode struck a chord, share it with a teacher friend and leave us a rating. And send us your questions about returning to the classroom, we'll be checking back in after the first half term! — Charlie & Charlie

  6. Aug 16

    101. Lucy Powell: The 5 Things We All Really Want From Our New Ed Sec

    10 Education Secretaries in 10 years... We need better. In this episode, we dig into what Lucy Powell's appointment as Education Secretary means for teachers, leaders, parents and pupils. We look at her background (a family full of headteachers, years on the shadow education brief and the Education Select Committee), where she stands on the curriculum, academisation and testing, and why she might be more in touch with schools than most of her predecessors, even without ever having taught! We also talk out what we all want from her first few months: scrap the DfE's cringeworthy social media, get her feet on the ground in classrooms for a proper 7-till-6 week, and bring back "Lucy's Listening" for parents fighting for EHCPs, heads under Ofsted, and staff staring down a pay award their schools can't afford to fund! And we're honest about the harder stuff. A 3.5% pay offer that leaves schools covering the first 1% themselves. SEND reforms that need the handbrake pulling. And an inspection system that is costing school leaders their lives! You will hear about: Why we've had eight Education Secretaries in five years, and what that churn does to policyLucy Powell's record: family, state education, shadow briefs and the Select CommitteeWhy the DfE's TikTok-style comms need to stop, and the "Getting in Touch with Teaching" campaign we'd run insteadPay: 3.5% then 3%, £1.8bn of funding, and why asking schools to fund the first 1% could cost her the profession's goodwillSEND reform, "performative" consultation, and why parents just want a replyOfsted, the Big Listen that wasn't, and why we think inspection needs pausing and rebuilding from scratchThe curriculum: too narrow, too crammed, and why "minuend" has no business in a Year 1 classroomOur three-point watchlist: the pay award before 3 October, an Ofsted circuit breaker, and the brakes on SENDWhy workload might be more within schools' gift than we admit (a full episode on that is coming)Whether you're cynical, hopeful, or just exhausted by the churn, this one is for you... If it struck a chord, share it with a colleague and give the podcast a rating. And tell us: what's the one thing you'd want Lucy Powell to do first? -Charlie & Charlie

  7. Aug 1

    We got married! 🥳

    By the time you hear this, Charlie B will be a married man! In fact, we've timed it so he's quite possibly mid-first-dance as we speak! So, no full episode this week, for the best possible reason. So instead, here's a short and very special catch-up, recorded in the final week before the big day: the prep, the nerves, the surprises, and one very important question about a Gandalf costume... We'll be back with a full episode soon. And there may just be a wedding debrief later in the summer... - Charlie & Charlie

  8. Jul 26

    100. How To Switch Off And Really Rest This Summer: The Science Of Leisure Guilt & The Let Down Effect

    Have you ever experienced the dreaded "Summer Slump"? The crash into the holidays, followed by exhaustions, lethargy and an intense guilt for doing anything for yourself..? Possibly accompanied by a nice slice of self-imposed pressure to be productive? Welcome to our 100th episode! And what better way to mark it than tackling the thing every teacher knows but nobody quite explains: the summer crash. We recorded this one just as the holidays began, so wherever you are in week one, feeling poorly, restless, guilt-ridden or blissfully horizontal, this is for you! We dig into why you hold it together all term and fall apart the moment you stop, the "stress backpack" you've been carrying since September, why being busy can start to feel safer than resting, and how to have the summer you actually need , without a single "should" hanging over it. You will hear about:• The "let-down effect": how sustained stress suppresses your immune system, then lets everything surface the moment term ends• Allostatic load - the wear and tear of carrying heavy shopping and never putting it down• Why a year on high alert leaves your amygdala oversensitive, and why doing nothing can strangely feel threatening (featuring a perfectly timed fire alarm!)• The "ramp in, ramp out": easing into and out of the holidays instead of slamming the handbrake• Leisure guilt and the "should shadow" - and the research showing it's the guilt itself, not the activity, that ruins your rest• The "rest intolerant person": comparing yourself to others, ruminating on unfinished tasks, believing rest must be earned... sound familiar?• Why "I need this rest" lands differently to "I've earned it"• Starting small, savouring the little moments, and active rest that actually restores you• The "bamboo scaffold": just enough routine to stop the days dissolving• The genius trick of turning your smartphone into a home phone• Recreating those endless teenage summers - spontaneity, mates, and a pooled-money picnic• And a brand-new biscuit review, one week before Charlie's wedding! However your summer looks - kids, caring responsibilities, moving house, or doing gloriously little - it is your summer. We hope this one helps you rest without the guilt. Thank you for 100 episodes! If you'd like to celebrate with us, share the podcast with a teacher friend and leave us a rating, it genuinely helps more school staff find us. And let us know: mint chocolate, yay or nay? - Charlie & Charlie

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

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