Theo headed to a North London school for a surprise visit to see whether he could help instill some lessons from the boardroom to a teacher battling with stress.
Low retention rates among teachers and a sharp increase in mental health issues in the profession has caused concern, with 75% of teachers reporting suffering symptoms of stress.
The teacher in question was led to believe that she was filming for a day-in-the-life of a maths teacher, however, she was very shocked when Theo walked into her lesson to chat to her about stress and managing workload!
At school, Theo had always enjoyed maths, so joined her lesson, helping children with their equations and even being put in his place by a few of them! He then sat down with the teacher to talk through how she felt about work, the pressure she put on herself and how she deals with stress.
A self-confessed perfectionist, she struggles not to constantly be on the go as she cares deeply for her class and year group. Theo spoke to her about managing stress by taking a step back, looking for the end goal rather than focussing so much on the here and now. He read out comments from her fellow teachers which were all fantastic, showing she needed to believe in herself more and ask others for help when needed.
Theo’s lessons from his time in business were a way of looking at her situation differently and at the end of the day she had decided to make changes to the way she approaches her workload and how she manages her stress – result!
To see the full video see the link below to the BBC Teach website:
https://www.bbc.com/teach/teacher-support/back-to-school-with-theo-paphitis/z4vvxyc
Do you put to on much pressure on yourself to be the perfect teacher all the time?
Talia Houri, a maths teacher and head of year 7 at Totteridge Academy in North London is a self-confessed perfectionist. She says: “That can be really exhausting because with teaching you can always do more.”
“When you don’t deliver something that goes perfectly well or your lesson isn’t brilliant. Well for me it’s really difficult. I find that really hard to not be delivering an outstanding lesson all the time.”
In this short film she receives a surprise visit from business entrepreneur and owner of Ryman, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue, Theo Paphitis.
The former Dragons’ Den investor is a firm supporter of teachers: “A brilliant teacher is absolutely priceless and, like many professions today, it is getting harder to keep talent due to the pressures of red tape and lack of resources. Education is so important and we must help teachers realise the good in what they do, to keep them in the profession through support and recognition.”
He shares advice with Thalia based on his own successful career: “Perspective is great word. I would take a couple of seconds just to assess the thing that you’re stressed about. How important is it in the overall scheme of your plan what you’re trying to achieve? The likelihood is that it’s minuscule and shouldn’t take energy from you…”
This is the second in a new series of short films in which celebrity mentors go back to school to give teachers a helping hand.