Co-creating menopause support to foster wellbeing and retention

Case study

School details

School name: Greenside School

Location: Stevenage, Hertfordshire

Phase: Special school (ages 2–19)

Number of pupils: 200

Impact and outcomes

The school’s proactive approach has led to greater awareness, improved support, and practical adjustments that help staff stay well and remain in work. Staff are encouraged to seek support without stigma and now feel more confident discussing symptoms and accessing help.

Simple adjustments like time-out breaks and cooler classrooms have made a big difference. More importantly, the culture has shifted: “Before, no one talked about menopause. Now, it’s normal.”

One of the menopause champions helped a colleague recognise symptoms and seek treatment: “She told me, ‘I wouldn’t have thought about it without you.’ That’s why this matters—it changes lives.”

Background

Headteacher Alex Tomkins leads Greenside School, a large special school with 145 staff across three sites. In a special school, where work can be both highly emotional and physically demanding, menopause support is especially important. With over 80% of the workforce being women, Alex recognised the need to address menopause support as a key wellbeing and retention issue.

Alex drew on his previous headship experience to lead a collaborative approach to develop a menopause policy and staff support.

Building school policy through collaboration

Alex researched existing resources online as a basis to work from and found these to lack the breadth of information around symptoms that he expected.

Acknowledging his limitations of lived experience, Alex felt it important to invite others to co-write the policy. The volunteers included a mix of ages and experiences: post-operative, perimenopausal, and menopausal.

The initial menopause policy draft was then co-developed through open listening sessions and staff feedback to gather lived experience and feedback. There was broad and welcome interest across the school: “Refreshing—no one has talked about this before.”

The draft was refined by a core working group of 10 staff to help shape the final policy and was shared with and approved by governors.

The policy reflects that menopause is very much an individual experience, and one individual’s experience can look very different to the next. There are a broad range of symptoms that may or may not be experienced and at a range of varied ages.

Launching Peer Support through Menopause Champions

Five staff members volunteered as menopause champions, representing a range of experiences including surgical menopause and perimenopause.

The champions provide informal, confidential support and help normalise conversations and break the stigma surrounding menopause.

Champions act as a bridge between staff and leadership, helping staff feel ready to speak up and take steps to manage symptoms.

Maria Saville, a Teaching Assistant at Greenside School, volunteered to became a menopause champion after experiencing severe symptoms herself. “Before this, there was nothing in place. Now, we have a policy co-created by staff, posters around school, and a team of champions offering confidential support. We’re visible, approachable, and here to listen.”

Wanting others to feel less alone, Maria uses her lived experience to help colleagues recognise symptoms, seek medical advice and access adjustments.

Implementing practical and visible support measures

The policy has been made available for all to access on the school website.

Posters are displayed in staff areas to help raise visibility and signpost support available through the champions.

Staff are encouraged to speak with doctors and seek medical support. In school, risk assessments now include menopause-related adjustments tailored to individual needs, such as:

Access to cold drinks and time-out breaks
Flexibility to open windows in classrooms

The school has a wellbeing team that operates independently of leadership, giving staff choice and autonomy. Wellbeing activities such as yoga and outdoor sessions are inclusive of menopause needs.

Acknowledging a gap in training in existing leadership programmes, Alex ensures that leadership coaching provided in-house includes awareness of the potential for menopause-related impacts on performance and wellbeing.