Welcome back to Of Primary Importance!

In this podcast series we are exploring all things EYFS and primary with different topics and special guests each fortnight. 

In this episode, we are joined by Penny Whelan. Penny Whelan is a Primary Assistant Headteacher and SENCO. She has a BSC Psychology degree and a PGCE. Penny works part time and is also EAL coordinator, an SLE, Coach and the Operations Manager for the Schools Linking Network in her Local Authority. She is passionate about SEND, inclusion, community and diversity.

In this episode we discussed how to maintain a work-life balance when working in education. 

Here are some of the questions I asked Penny:

• Why is work-life balance an important topic to you?
• You have a lot of different roles within education, how does this effect your work-life balance?
• What is your advice for balancing priorities when you have multiple roles?
• Do you think that those working in education have more challenges in maintaining a good work-life balance? 
• How can organisations support their staff in getting this balance?
• What pressures do organisations have that can impact on supporting their staffs work-life balance?
• You mentioned in your blog for Nexus Education that it is important to use the time you have wisely- could you tell us more about that please?
• Do you use any tools/resources that support you with this?
• You also mentioned a lesson you learnt was work is not your whole life. I thought this was a really important point so could you explain this further.
• What do you do to help you switch off from work?
• What are the benefits and challenges of working part time when it comes to maintaining your work-life balance?
• Where can educators get information, support and resources?

You can follow Penny on Twitter at @pennywpennyw 

You can also check out her blog post It's all about finding a balance

If you are a SENDCO are you are looking to join one of Penny’s DM groups please contact her via Twitter.