Supporting science teachers with personal needs and challenges

Your science colleagues will each have different support needs at different points in their lives and careers. Understanding the short term and long term personal and professional needs of individual teachers can help them succeed in their role. Teachers may have to unexpectedly manage situations or may have ongoing situations that they continually manage. 

There are nine ‘protected characteristics’: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. There are legal requirements to protect these characteristics and your school, academy or local authority will have its own policies on all of these characteristics, which you should be aware of to help support your colleagues. We focus on four areas here: parents and carers, underrepresented groups (women, ethnic minorities and LGBT+ identity), those with disabilities or long-term health conditions and those experiencing transitions in life and career.

The key techniques to support well-being – listening, modelling, signposting and self-care – can be applied to supporting these groups. Understanding their specific challenges can help you, as their science leader, support their well-being at work.