Teacher awarded for looking after wellbeing of peers over pandemic

A Fife teacher has been recognised by the Queen for looking after the wellbeing of peers during the pandemic.

Claire Lavelle set up The Hive of Wellbeing to help educators take care of their mental health and saw an upsurge in demand for her services when the country went into lockdown in 2020.

She is made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the wellbeing of students, teachers and staff.

Former head teacher Claire, 48, based in Kirkcaldy, provides coaching for teachers, early years practitioners, school leaders and support staff, and was recently appointed assistant director for wellbeing and international at St Andrews University.

She said: “During the pandemic particularly, I appreciated school teachers were carrying on

“They were working tirelessly and selflessly

the incredible work they were doing and they were working tirelessly and selflessly and with utmost professionalism.

“When I set up the Hive of Wellbeing in 2017 it was always with the view of supporting the emotional wellbeing and mental health of those practitioners in schools.”

There was already a real need for such services, she said, but when Covid-19 closed schools teachers had to quickly transform how they worked.

“Our teachers were working right around the clock and it wasn’t always to educate the children, it was to feed them, to clothe them, to care for them,” she said.

“I offered my services and there was a lot of uptake.”

As well as providing one-to-one, group and school coaching sessions, she worked with Education Scotland and the General Teaching Council for Scotland to help raise morale and reduce isolation.

Delighted to be recognised, she said: “Really, I’m receiving this on behalf of all the educators who have done this tireless work.”

Claire began teaching in 1997 and has taught in Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian and Abu Dhabi, including as head teacher of St Martin’s RC School in Tranent and assistant head teacher of Al Shohub School.