For school leaders

Your staff are running on empty. Most leaders don't see it until it's too late.

The Staff Journal is a daily mental fitness check-in for teaching staff. Five minutes a day. Anonymous team data for leaders. No app store. No training day. No jargon.

Request your free copy of Chalk and Crisis See how it works
Tuesday · Week 14
"Before you left school yesterday, how present were you really?"
1
2
3
4
5
State
68%
Focus
54%
Habits
71%
Staff data · fully anonymous · private by design
1 in 5
teachers leave within five years of qualifying
75%
of school leaders report their staff are burnt out
£9,000
average cost of replacing one classroom teacher
5 min
is all The Staff Journal takes each day
Free diagnostic

See what's running beneath the surface of your school

Five questions. Two minutes. A personalised read on where the pressure is building in your staff body, before it becomes a problem you can't ignore.

Your name
School or trust

No pitch at the end. Just an honest picture of where you are.

The reality in schools

The data your absence reports can't show you

A member of staff goes off with stress. The cover costs hit. The workload falls on everyone else. Within six weeks, two more people are struggling.

You didn't see it coming. Not because you weren't paying attention. Because there was no system designed to show you.

Most wellbeing interventions reach the staff already asking for help. The Staff Journal reaches the 95% who never will.

Built on The SHIFT Code™ framework, developed over thirty years supporting thousands of people through crisis, burnout and breakdown. It works because it meets staff where they are. Not where you need them to be.

44%
of teachers say workload is their primary reason for considering leaving the profession
67%
of school senior leaders report stress-related absence has increased in the last three years
£2.5bn
estimated annual cost of teacher absence and supply cover to UK schools
The framework

Built on The SHIFT Code™

Five minutes each day. Five questions mapped to five stages. A pattern emerges before a problem becomes a crisis.

S
State
Honest diagnosis of where a person is right now. Without judgement. Without performance.
H
Habits
The invisible patterns running on autopilot. Sleep, movement, withdrawal, overwork.
I
Identity
Who your staff believe they are determines what they think is possible. This is the deepest level.
F
Focus
Energy flows where attention goes. The journal retrains the filter deliberately, daily.
T
Transformation
A new operating system. Not a one-off training day. Not a poster on the staffroom wall.
Built for school leaders

You see the aggregate. Never the individual.

No app store. Installs in under a minute.
Works on any phone. Works without signal. Staff check in from wherever they are, before they leave the building or on the drive home.
Anonymous team data for your dashboard.
You see patterns across your staff body. Which SHIFT stage is lowest this week. Where the pressure is building. Individual entries stay private.
Monthly report for governors and trustees.
A branded PDF each month showing engagement rates, SHIFT stage scores and recommended actions. Evidence of your wellbeing commitment, without the admin.
Scales from single school to whole MAT.
One licence per school. Or a MAT licence covering your entire trust. Same product, same data, one relationship with Dave.
Staff Journal · Weekly Overview · St. Mary's CE Primary
Staff engaged
34 of 41
Avg state score
6.4 / 10
Entries this week
162 total
State72%
Habits58%
Identity64%
Focus48%
Transformation61%
No individual data is ever visible. Entries are private to each staff member. Aggregates only.
Simple pricing

Less than the cost of one day's supply cover

No per-seat fees. No hidden costs. One licence per school, covering your entire staff body.

Single School
£85
per school, per year
  • Full staff access — no seat limit
  • Manager dashboard
  • Chalk and Crisis sector report
  • Email onboarding support
Get started
MAT Founding Licence
£595
for up to 8 schools · first 5 MATs only
  • All schools in your trust
  • Trust-level dashboard
  • Monthly governor report
  • Onsite launch session with Dave
  • Quarterly review call
  • Chalk and Crisis sector report
Claim a founding place
Large MAT / LA
Quoted
9+ schools or local authority
  • Bespoke trust-wide licence
  • Custom onboarding programme
  • Dedicated account support
  • Staff wellbeing keynote included
Talk to Dave
About Dave Heffernan

Thirty years supporting thousands of people through crisis.

I'm a Clinical Hypnotherapist, author and keynote speaker. I created The SHIFT Code™ after thirty years supporting people through burnout, breakdown and the moments when everything feels like too much.

I've worked in schools. I've run assemblies. I've sat with teachers who were two weeks from leaving the profession and watched them find their footing again.

The Staff Journal exists because wellbeing in schools deserves more than a poster and a yoga class. It deserves a daily practice. One that actually reaches the people who would never ask for help.

"Most leadership development works with the 5% already trying. I work with the 95% running the show."
Dave Heffernan · Creator of The SHIFT Code™
Dave's book
From Morphine to Match Fit
The story behind The SHIFT Code™. Homeless at 16. Terminal diagnosis at 40. Paralysed diaphragm. Off 36 tablets a day including morphine. The methodology in The Staff Journal was forged in the hardest possible conditions.
Clinical Hypnotherapist
Published author · KDP
Keynote speaker
School assembly and workshop facilitator
Creator of The Resilient Teacher programme

Start with the report. Not the pitch.

Request your free copy of Chalk and Crisis. A sector report on the ten pressures breaking school staff right now, and what The SHIFT Code™ does differently.

Send me Chalk and Crisis
Or email dave@daveheffernan.com directly. No forms. No funnels.