"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 emotion
• Listening to understand vs listening to respond, and the power of staying silent
• Parking your own triggers in the moment, and why the reflection afterwards matters just as much
• Paraphrasing and reflecting: two counselling skills that work in any parent conversation
• Teacher, first aider, counsellor, parent, tour guide: the ever-growing job description
• The pressure on senior mental health leads, and why schools need qualified counsellors and proper supervision
• The route from Level 2 to qualified therapist, and how to get started if you're curious
• The 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

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!

"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

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 policy
• Lucy Powell's record: family, state education, shadow briefs and the Select Committee
• Why the DfE's TikTok-style comms need to stop, and the "Getting in Touch with Teaching" campaign we'd run instead
• Pay: 3.5% then 3%, £1.8bn of funding, and why asking schools to fund the first 1% could cost her the profession's goodwill
• SEND reform, "performative" consultation, and why parents just want a reply
• Ofsted, the Big Listen that wasn't, and why we think inspection needs pausing and rebuilding from scratch
• The curriculum: too narrow, too crammed, and why "minuend" has no business in a Year 1 classroom
• Our three-point watchlist: the pay award before 3 October, an Ofsted circuit breaker, and the brakes on SEND
• Why 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

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

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

Why are you still exhausted after a full night's sleep? It's not just your workload...

This week I'm joined by neuroscientist Nicole Vignola, author of Rewire and her new book Mental Currency.

This conversation started life as a research interview for my next book, Rewriting Teacher Wellbeing, and it was too good to keep to myself!

So with Nicole's sign off, you're getting the whole thing: recorded on her birthday, fresh off a tennis court, Pepsi Max in hand! Thank you so much Nicole.

Less a polished podcast episode and more a front-row seat to the book research - and yes, I was fanboying!

We get into the real reasons teachers feel so drained: the mental loops quietly running in the background, why your attention genuinely runs out as the day goes on, the kind of tiredness that sleep doesn't seem to fix - and what's actually happening in your brain when you still can't switch off at 9pm!

You will hear about:
• "Background subscriptions": the quiet mental loops draining more energy than your to-do list
• The tiredness that sleep can't cure - and what it's really telling you
• Nicole's own research on why a phone break isn't actually a break
• Why your attention genuinely runs out as the day goes on — and why overwhelm nudges you towards crisps and scrolling
• How saying "I'm so stressed" can add to the load, and the power of checking your narrative
• What loneliness actually does to the brain - and the chemical that might explain staffroom snappiness
• Emotional contagion: how a leader's mood, and their beliefs about their team, spread without a word being said
• The brain as a prediction machine, constructing reality before you've even seen it (featuring an accidental puppy rescue)
• Why "Can I see you later?" fills us with dread, and why your first reaction to bad news is almost always negative
• The invisible load, the blazer left on the chair, and giving staff real permission to switch off
• What the strongest leaders do differently: admitting weaknesses, staying patient, and thinking in decades

If you're heading towards the summer break running on empty, this one will help you understand why, and what you can actually do about it.

If this helps, share it with a colleague who's always shattered too - and tell me your biggest lightbulb moment!

You'll find Nicole's books, Rewire and Mental Currency, wherever you get your books.

- Charlie B

Could your school's wellbeing strategy actually be making wellbeing worse..?

In this solo episode, I share the five mistakes I see schools and leaders make every single year when it comes to staff wellbeing - usually with the very best intentions.

The idea is simple: by shining a light on these pitfalls now, before you finalise your plan for September, you can avoid the well-meaning traps that undermine the thing you're trying to protect!

Because here's the truth I keep coming back to: wellbeing is the first foundation of everything in our schools! Not results, not parent reviews. Wellbeing. And it deserves more than a seasonal mention!

You will hear about:
• The "wellbeing walrus" - why we avoid the awkward, ugly stuff, and why we can't afford to
• Why niceties (ice cream trucks, fancy hand soap, staffroom cake) aren't a wellbeing strategy - and how they can backfire
• "Leadership laundry": the trap of designing wellbeing for staff instead of with them
• Why asking for staff voice and then doing nothing damages trust more than never asking
• Workload: why it isn't the whole picture, but why you ignore it at your peril
• What 15 years of NASUWT data and the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre tell us
• Why wellbeing needs consistency, not intensity - and how to avoid the "September sprint"

Whether you're a class teacher, a team or phase leader, a SENCo or a head, there's something here to take into your planning for next year!

If this was helpful, share it with someone who's shaping wellbeing in their school - and send me the word "PAPER" on any platform for the free Leadership white paper and roadmap mentioned in the episode!

- Charlie B

Staff struggling this Summer term? Want to improve wellbeing without adding to anyone's plate? Here's where to start...

Whether you're SLT, a class teacher, an LSA or part of the pastoral team, there's something here you can act on this week!

In this episode, we talk through the small, no-cost things that staff and leaders at every level can do right now to make this term feel more manageable!

And we start with a finding that surprised us: a five-year study found that not feeling appreciated hits staff wellbeing harder than workload, poor work-life balance and student behaviour combined.

So much of what follows comes back to helping people feel seen...

With reports, transitions, sports day, residentials, classroom moves and assessment data all landing at once, the "so what window" is shrinking fast. We talk through what's actually worth pushing through it - and what isn't!

You will hear about:
• Why appreciation matters more than the "big three" wellbeing factors - backed by five years of research
• The displays plea: giving staff time before the summer instead of stealing their holiday
• Minimising classroom and year-group moves - and why just asking the question goes a long way
• Smoothing out pinch points so the calendar doesn't cause carnage
• The "price vs prize" test for anything extra you're tempted to add
• Focusing on what you want more of, not just less of - and modelling it from the top
• Why venting feels cathartic but leaves you more stressed an hour later
• The case for transparency: telling all staff their year group at once, instead of breeding gossip
• Practical asks for leaders: spare staff meetings, mapping the calendar together, explaining the why

And if it helped, share it with a colleague and tell us: what's one small thing a leader did that you genuinely appreciated?

- Charlie & Charlie

What if the most exhausting part of teaching is a part you weren't trained for..?

In this very special episode of The Rewriting Wellbeing Podcast, we're joined by Daniela Nicol, a qualified therapist working across the UK and Ghana, whose work in schools is helping teachers understand the emotional and neurological toll of the job, and what to do about it!

Daniela shares her journey from training in the UK to bringing her practice to Ghana, the surprising shift she's seen in how younger generations approach mental health, and what working with teachers has taught her about the invisible weight they carry every day.

This is a warm, honest conversation about why teaching costs so much more than knowledge, and why looking after yourself isn't selfish, it's self-first.

You will hear about:

• Why teachers make an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 micro-decisions every single day
• Co-regulation and self-regulation, and why you can't pour from an empty tank
• Mirror neurons, and why staying calm around a dysregulated child is harder than it looks
• The vagus nerve, breath work, and a simple humming technique you can use between lessons
• Empathy fatigue, and how chronic stress quietly erodes the compassion that drew you to teaching
• Why supervision, a space to be asked "how are you, really?", could transform schools
• Tying your worth to your work, people pleasing, and the trap of performance-based self-esteem
• "Self first, not selfish", and how to bring your own wellbeing back onto the radar

If you've ever come home from school running on empty, this episode will help you understand why, and give you practical, realistic ways to look after the one tool you can't teach without: yourself.

If this episode helped, share it with a teacher who needs to hear it, and leave us a rating.

You can find Daniela on Instagram @mind.matters.live or at www.mindmatters.live.

— Charlie & Charlie