“Coaching and cultivating a community of lifelong professionals. The best investment you can make is the one you make in yourself.”

At Aspire People we are working with Suneta Bagri who is on a mission to help teachers, senior leaders and all staff in education to lead fulfilling lives and encourage a positive mindset. Suneta is extremely passionate about helping teachers to navigate their way to having a fulfilling lifestyle.

In this overwhelming arena of education, it can be difficult to manage your mental, physical, and emotional health. As an award-winning Coach, Speaker, and former Head Teacher, with over twenty years’ experience, Suneta offers specialised coaching and training that relates to personal and professional performance and development.

Suneta has created the Every Teachers Matters Project in order to support teachers with their personal and professional growth, the project enables teachers to take control of their wellbeing, look after their mental health and be truly effective in the classroom as well as happier in their personal lives.

The aims of the Every Teacher Matters Project are to:

• Support the well-being of teachers and educational staff so that they can be well enough to do the important job at hand.

• Enable personal growth and development to ensure self-empowerment for teachers

• Provide teachers with practical ways and modern mind tools to withstand the challenges of the profession

• Contribute to the retention of teachers amidst a recruitment and retention crisis

The Every Teacher Matters project has three aspects:

• Bespoke Coaching; individual clients & school based

• Training and Well-being workshops

• The Every Teacher Matters Network

 Benefits of the Coaching:

Teachers, senior leaders and school staff can be coached via one to one coaching or through self-awareness sessions, leading people to be empowered and move towards the best version of themselves. The coaching can lead to improving teachers’ confidence, enjoyment and overall well-being within the education sector. 

“At the core of what I offer is a young girl with a fierce passion for learning and education. As a youngster I saw education as a gift and loved to learn. That hunger for education has stayed with me. Being able to support teachers and school staff allows me to honour my values and mission of serving within education. Education is really important to me and this project gives me a great sense of purpose. Being of service to others is where my true values lie and being in education keeps me connected to that passion and purpose. Teaching is a profession in which we can have a significant influence and impact upon the lives of children. This is truly a privilege. To give our best we have to be our best, and this is where my coaching comes in.” – Suneta on being a well-being coach.

What Are the Well-being Network and the Well-being Workshops?

The Every Teacher Matters Network is a safe and confidential space in which educational staff come together and focus on well-being. There are inspirational speakers, tips and practical advice and strategies given to take away from each meeting.  It’s about sharing, learning and growing within a community of like-minded professionals who understand the challenges but also find practical solutions. The network serves as a platform to bring professionals together to inspire, motivate and support.

The workshops offer solutions and practical strategies at whole staff level within CPD sessions.  The purpose of each workshop type is to help teachers prevent burnout and understand themselves as well as how they can take responsibility for their own well-being. 

Workshops include:

• Avoiding Burnout & Responding to Change with Greater Self Awareness

• Managing Anxiety & Combatting Stress

• Time Management & Life/Work Balance

• Effective Communication & Building Positive Relationships

• The Healthy Teacher - How food affects your mood

• The Mindful Teacher - How Meditation, Mindfulness and Spirituality Can Support Emotional Well-Being

We Asked Suneta Some Questions about Her Previous Successes, Challenges and Main Inspirations for Starting Her Project!  

Thinking back over the last 12 months, what are you most proud of?

Winning an award for the Startup Category at the Woman Who Solopreneur Awards was a great achievement. Knowing that my Every Teacher Matters project is receiving the recognition it deserves fills me with pride and joy. I’m also so humbled by all the support I have received from colleagues. Everyone has been overwhelmingly positive about the project and this encouragement has driven me further in my quest for championing our profession. 

What are the biggest challenges facing teachers right now, and what are the best ways you’ve found to overcome them?

There are so many! Pay, conditions, life-work balance, pressures of Ofsted, pressures from parents, colleagues, leaders, getting it right for the children, dealing with the diverse issues that children enter the classroom with, feelings of overwhelm, workload, marking, data, assessments – it really is a never-ending barrage! If you have read the Education Support Teacher Well Being Index 2019 (released on the 11th November) you will know that teachers stress levels are at the highest.  There are some staggering statistics within that report which are simply terrifying. We must respond to this as a profession and start to address the issues that are being raised. This problem will not just go away! 

Overcoming these challenges is not for the faint-hearted. It takes a special type of person to be a teacher. Conquering your mindset and ensuring it is galvanised to remain strong and bounce back from set backs, really is essential! The teachers’ standards are exceptionally high and of course they are expected to be met. The Every Teacher Matters Project is about accepting the challenge and taking responsibility for yourself with an attitude of “bring it on!”

Who or what inspired you to do what you are doing now?

Over the past 4 years I have worked in some very challenging schools that have been in need of strong leadership. Often, in these situations, I found that staff were struggling with their own well-being and mental health and in need of a huge boost of morale. They were capable but needed coaching. I spent more and more time coaching, supporting and investing in my relationships with the staff. This was received very well and gave me the encouragement to know it was positively influencing the standards within the schools. I love empowering others to be their best. I found the impact of coaching to be incredibly powerful, which resulted in Teaching and Learning being enjoyable. Staff morale improved and school improvement work became an inevitable part of the process with strong evidence of improvement across all areas within school. Through coaching and focusing on well-being the whole ethos and culture of the school was productive. I enjoyed this aspect of my role so much that I was inspired to train as a Master Coach and share the significant impact on a much wider scale. My love for personal development and education culminated and the Every Teacher Matters project was born!

To find out more about Sunetas project you can visit her website or email her directly at contact@sunetabagri.com. Join other educators and visit the Aspire Blog where we can also support educators who may be struggling with their mental health battles.

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