Donatella Fitzgerald is a teacher, teacher trainer, and trained to teach the MISP Mindfulness in Schools Project (from pre-school to teens) and has completed Module 1 on the Teacher Training Pathway with the Mindfulness Network in collaboration with Bangor University. Her specialist interest areas are Extensive Reading Projects, CLIL, Citizenship, Mindfulness, Plurilingualism and Artificial Intelligence in Education. ?In her current role as ELL Consultant at ÃÛÌÒapp in Italy she works with teachers and students every day to find solutions to help them achieve their teaching and learning goals. In 2024, she was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) in the King¡¯s Birthday Honours List for Services to English Education and Youth Engagement.
The first weeks back at school after a break can be both exciting and overwhelming. It¡¯s a time of new beginnings, fresh challenges, and opportunities for growth. Prioritizing wellbeing during this period is crucial for a smooth transition and long-term success. Students may be feeling anxious and unsettled due to starting a new school year, or even a new school. In today's fast-paced academic environment, maintaining mental, emotional, and physical health is more crucial than ever. Here are some tips to help your students stay balanced and thrive throughout the school year.
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Creating a consistent daily schedule can help you manage your time effectively. As well as study, include time for extracurricular activities, hobbies and relaxation. Keep your study area tidy as this can help you focus more. Having a consistent daily routine can reduce anxiety by providing structure and predictability.
Aim for 8-10 hours of sleep each night. A good night¡¯s rest is crucial for concentration, memory, and overall health. Lack of sleep can affect your concentration, focus, mood, emotional well-being and immune system.
How can you do this?
Use planners, calendars, or apps to keep track of assignments, tests and activities. Staying organized reduces stress and helps you stay on top of your responsibilities. Set achievable academic and personal goals. Break them down into smaller steps to make them more manageable and celebrate your progress along the way. Create a study plan to help you with your scheduling your homework and revision for tests so you don't leave things to the last minute. Make sure you schedule time for hobbies and relaxing. Don¡¯t forget to make time to read a good book.
Eating well?is essential for everyone. Fuel your body with balanced meals that include fruits, vegetables, proteins and whole grains. Avoid excessive junk food and sugary drinks. A balanced diet can make a big difference in your energy levels and overall health.
Incorporate physical activity into your daily routine to boost your mood and energy levels. Taking short breaks of 5-10 minutes every hour while studying, can help maintain focus and prevent burnout. ?Go on a mindful walk everyday, noticing what is around you and connecting with nature.
A mindful walk can significantly reduce stress by helping you stay present and focused on your surroundings. It also boosts mental clarity and creativity, making it easier to tackle daily challenges. Additionally, it promotes physical health by encouraging gentle exercise and improving overall well-being and is a wonderful way to connect with the present moment. Here are some steps to get you started:
Choose a peaceful location: Find a quiet place where you can walk without many distractions.
Engage your senses: Notice the sights, sounds, smells and textures around you. Feel the ground beneath your feet with each step.
Walk slowly and deliberately: Pay attention to each movement, from lifting your foot to placing it down.
Stay present: If your mind starts to wander, gently bring your focus back to your breath and surroundings.
You can also play an outdoor mindfulness game to have a mindful moment and really connect with nature:
Find a bench or a quiet place.
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Practicing gratitude daily can significantly boost your wellbeing, especially during the back-to-school season. It helps reduce stress by shifting your focus from worries to positive aspects of your life. Gratitude can improve your mood, making you more resilient to challenges. It also enhances your relationships with classmates and teachers by fostering a positive and supportive environment. Lastly, it promotes better sleep, which is crucial for maintaining energy and concentration throughout the school day.
Gratitude needs to be practiced and you can do this by incorporating gratitude into your daily routine. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Social support is vital for emotional wellbeing, especially during stressful times. Building a support network is important for your well-being. Positive social interactions can help reduce stress and improve your mood. Join after school/college clubs and take up a new hobby or sport. Have homework study buddies to study with.
Incorporate mindfulness or meditation practices into your routine. These can help reduce anxiety and improve your focus and emotional regulation.
An easy one to practice is the S.T.O.P. mindfulness practice: It ?is a great way for students to manage stress and stay focused.
S - Stop: Pause whatever you¡¯re doing. Just take a moment to stop what you are doing.
T - Take a breath: Take a deep breath in and out. Focus on your breathing to help center yourself.
O - Observe: Notice what is happening around you and pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations.
P - Proceed: Continue with your activity, but do so with a sense of calm and mindfulness.
This practice can be done in just a few minutes and can help students feel more grounded and present.
Guide your learners to use well-being apps, which can help with things like sleeping, focus, movement and waking up.
Set achievable academic and personal goals. Break them down into smaller steps to make them more manageable and celebrate your progress along the way. Create a study plan to help you with your scheduling your homework and revision for tests so you do not leave things to the last minute.
Adopting a growth mindset means believing you can improve through effort and learning. Embrace challenges as opportunities to grow. Learn from mistakes and see them as steps towards success. Stay curious and keep trying new things. Remember, your abilities can always develop with persistence and hard work.
How are you feeling about being back at school or college?
Explore our blog posts 'Using language learning as a form of self-care for wellbeing' and 'Supporting wellbeing using AI in the classroom'.
English is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world, but how much do you know about the language? Here are 11 facts about English?that you might not know.
Students all over the globe learn English for many reasons. Some of these motivations may come from the students themselves ¨C perhaps they are learning because they are travelling to an English-speaking area, or they want to be able to converse with English-speaking friends and colleagues. Other reasons for learning could include meeting school requirements, studying abroad, or progressing their careers.
As well as different reasons to learn English, there are also different goals. Many students are still focused on becoming fluent in English, and we are seeing an increase in people who want to learn the language for specific reasons. For example, immersing themselves in a particular culture or simply being able to order from a menu while travelling abroad.
Teachers are focusing on these personal needs to help students achieve their actual goals. It¡¯s likely you¡¯ve already spoken to your students about why they want to learn English. Understanding this is important as different motivations can influence a student¡¯s attitude towards learning the language ¨C and it may be necessary for you to adapt your teaching strategies for different groups of learners.
Let¡¯s meet some different groups of students, learn a little more about their motivations and explore whether different motivations alter how students learn English. You may recognise some of these learners in your classes.
These students are learning English for pleasure or personal reasons. It might be because of travel, social or family reasons or perhaps because a better grasp of English might assist them with their careers. There are also adult learners who could be learning English as an immigration requirement.
For example, 23-year-old Alice decided to learn English so she could meet people and have more meaningful interactions with her English-speaking neighbours. She says: ¡°I was very shy and not very confident in speaking to people, but learning English helped me connect with others and meet new people. I have changed a lot.¡±
A motivation like Alice¡¯s requires strong teacher support and peer motivation woven into structured learning. Alice can set her goals and with the GSE Learning Objectives map out what she needs to do to achieve them. Teacher encouragement and personal support ¨C and easy access to digital coursework, a social community of others all learning English, and small classes that emphasise conversation ¨C keep people like Alice engaged and motivated to achieve her language goals. ¡°I cannot do it without them¡±, she says.
These learners are typically in a more formal type of English programme and are learning the language to achieve specific career milestones, such as a promotion. Their employer might even be paying for their learning or they might be reimbursed for the cost of their lessons.
Vincenzo is 33 and works as a Product Manager in Milan for an international organization with offices around the world. He says: ¡°I asked to take English classes as part of my professional development. My company chose an English provider and gave me a choice of group or one-to-one classes. I chose one-to-one classes as I¡¯m easily distracted.¡±
Professional learners like Vincenzo succeed using a blended learning model of learning in class and at home that they can tailor around their lives. They have a strong motivation to succeed ¨C that¡¯s why learning at home works for them ¨C but step-by-step progress provided by the GSE Learning Objectives is also important to keep this motivation alive. ¡°I met with my teacher once a week where we would work on mistakes I would make while speaking English. He would also give me extra practice materials, like interesting games and videos to listen to in my own time, to help me really get a better understanding of the language,¡± Vincenzo says.
Learning English is a requirement for many school programmes and students will continue this at college or university. Many of these students will be learning English with a formal course that offers practice tests for high-stakes exams.
Seventeen-year-old Subra is from Malaysia and learns English at school. Some of her family live in Australia and she is considering studying abroad to attend a University that specializes in health care. When she was young, she learned in a traditional classroom backed with tests that helped her see how she was progressing. Now she uses technology, such as her Android Huawei phone to practise her English but still needs the validation of regular testing to know she is on track.
Subra?says: ¡°I am used to studying for tests as I prepared hard for exams to get into middle school and senior school, which was totally determined by test results.¡±
Academic learners like Subra need to see demonstrable results to help them stay motivated and guide them to the level of English they need to achieve to get the required score on high-stakes tests. With the clear GSE Learning Objectives and a placement test, academic learners can map out where they are right now and where they need to be in order to reach their academic goals. These learners need encouragement and validation of their progress from their teachers to help keep them on track.
Understanding student motivations will help you teach to their specific needs, thus helping them to stay focused and motivated in achieving their goals.
Kirsty Murray taught English for a year at a coll¨¨ge (the French equivalent of a secondary school) in Villers-Cotter¨ºts: a town in the north of France known for being the birthplace of Alexandre Dumas. She taught mixed-ability groups of 11- to 16-year-olds, with classes ranging in size from 10 to 35 students. Here, she shares the five lessons she learned from the experience.
