As teachers in England are returning to schools from 8th March, me and my Acta colleagues want to raise as much money for Education support as we can!

My challenge is to run 25km a day on top of a normal work day, Monday - Friday from 8th March.

To put that into context our challenge of 25km a day is more than a half marathon a day! That's nearly 3 marathons in 5 days!

50 Years of Marking in 5 days?!

If all exams marked in the UK were laid out in a line, my week’s running distance of 125km would equate to 50 years of marking, or London to Southampton! So we are trying to do 50 years of marking in 5 days - and we need your help!

Our thinking behind this totally horrible challenge is to shed light on the following areas:

1. Anxiety - waking up with a feeling of dread about the challenge ahead.

2. Workload - teachers have gone above and beyond - on top of their working day they have a huge and fearsome list of things to do: people don't always realise this.

3. Feeling overwhelmed - the size of the task, uncertainty, lack of training time etc.

4. Communication, community and support networks - We want to show that it is ok to struggle sometimes. By fitting something so hard during the work week, we can generate support, and help people unite around a cause. We want to show the value of a support network, and help teachers feel connected.

5. Work Life balance - It’s going to be pretty hard to balance my trainers on my feet after Day 1 - let alone work life balance.

Many teachers have voiced their concerns about the stress they’re under and how a return to school is affecting them and we want to thank them for going above and beyond this year and raise as much money for Education Support as we can!

Education Support is the UK's only charity providing mental health and wellbeing support services to all education and organisations.

They proudly support anyone working in education, at any level and in any institution.

Some key findings from their 2020 Teacher Wellbeing Index (an annual survey of over 3k teachers and education staff):

• Rocketing stress levels since schools returned in September
  Since schools re-opened in September staff have struggled to implement Covid-19 measures, with limited resources or support causing rocketing stress levels.
• Since schools fully reopened in September 84% of teachers and 89% of school leaders describe themselves as feeling stressed or very stressed. 
• A sharp increases in symptoms associated with poor mental health 52% said they had suffered from insomnia in the last year (compared to 37% in the last 2 years)
• 41% tearfulness (compared to 26% in the last 2 years)
• 40% had difficulty concentrating (compared to 23% in the last 2 years)
• Staff retention 51% of teachers and 59% of senior leaders told us they had considered leaving the profession during this year due to pressures on their health and wellbeing. Workload is the
  main reason for considering leaving.

This is simply an act of support and awareness, not a statement on whether teachers should or shouldn't be returning to school :)

We want to say thank you to our teachers and shed some light on the amazing work Education Support do - lets remove the stigma around asking for help.

Your money will really help those who have gone above and beyond this year to keep the children of the UK safe and learning :)

I'll be filming a daily video update each day to keep you in the loop! 

Follow my journey on twitter using the hashtag #SupportEdSupport