Dear Julie

Thank you for the recent newsletter and valuable information.

I wanted to share my principal wellbeing story with you: I visited my GP of 6 years in the holidays experiencing an asthma spike, voice loss and pneumonia. I asked him about a ‘long appointment’ as a principal wellbeing check as I had decided to use my own GP rather than a DET nominated provider.

This is a Country Doctor who is often ‘matter of fact’, very pragmatic and has a focus on wellness and an active life style.

He told me that I was the 4th Principal he had seen in the holidays – it was only Thursday week one, and that he was happy to do the ‘wellbeing’ checks. He spoke about the role of a principal being similar to living in an ‘abusive relationship’. We love the job, were committed to students, yet the unreasonable abuse and demands from the multiple stakeholders keeps coming at all hours, no matter how hard we work. He then went on to say that it is the broad and frequent nature of the abuse that is stressful and impacts on our wellbeing.

This was a rare emotive statement from my Country GP.

I know this is reflected in the Principal surveys however I found it enlightening coming from my Doctor.

Thanks for your commitment to our work.