Guest Blog by Kathryn Lovewell – Founder of Kind Mind Academy, an award-winning international speaker, and author, creator of The Booster Way – specialising in Mindful Self-Compassion.
As Stress Awareness Month invites us to pause and reflect, I find myself thinking deeply about the emotional landscape within our schools, for children and for the adults leading them.
I’m Kathryn Lovewell, founder of The Booster Way®, and I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Viv Grant through our shared commitment to supporting sustainable, values-led leadership in education. Our work aligns closely in one key area: helping leaders create environments where both wellbeing and performance can truly thrive.
You are leading in a time of heightened emotional complexity.
The rise in children’s mental health needs is well documented and deeply felt within schools. Alongside this, the impact of stress, both acute and chronic, is showing up in younger and younger children, shaping how they learn, relate, and respond to challenge. At the same time, leadership itself carries increasing weight, often alongside a natural level of self-questioning that comes with caring deeply.
The Booster Way® exists to strengthen both ends of that bridge.
What is the Booster Way?
Our philosophy is simple: we help build the voice a child lives with for life. Because the voice in a child’s head shapes their confidence, resilience and relationships, and over time, the way they move through the world.
This is not about surface-level positivity. It is about creating a prevention culture rooted in honesty, emotional literacy and self-compassion. A culture where children, and the adults who support them, have a shared language for navigating difficulty.
One practical way we begin this work is through My Inner Detective Journal – Making Friends with Myself. It offers children a gentle, accessible way to notice their thoughts and begin to develop an inner ally, rather than an inner critic. In a world where stress can quickly tip into overwhelm, these small, consistent practices matter.
With suicide remaining the leading cause of death for under 35s in the UK, the importance of early emotional foundations cannot be overstated. And modelling those foundations, as leaders, is just as vital.
You might notice, at the end of a demanding day, a critical voice in your own mind. This is often when the inner critic is most active, when you are physically, mentally or emotionally worn out. The same mind that has been steady, supportive and encouraging for others can turn harsh when it speaks to you. If that feels familiar, you are not alone.
You deserve the same kindness and understanding you so freely offer your pupils and staff.
You are leading in complex times. And offering yourself the same understanding you extend to others is not stepping back from leadership, it is strengthening it. Fully human leaders build fully human schools.
Would you like to find out more?
Click on these links to find out more about Kathryn Lovewell and the work she does at the Kind Mind Academy.
Find out more about The Booster Way,
Order your copy of My Inner Detective Journal.
