'Rest is a responsibility': Jersey headteacher shares motivational message to tackle winter blues

A Jersey headteacher who shared a motivational video on social media says "rest is a responsibility" for her members of staff at a time when some islanders may be feeling the winter blues.

Vicki Charlesworth, who is the headteacher at Les Landes School in St Ouen, shared a video inspired by film Love Actually to send an uplifting message to those heading back to work after Christmas.

Her video has been viewed thousands of times on social media already.

Speaking to ITV News about why she felt it was the right time to share the video, Vicki said: "[In the winter] You're leaving home in the dark, you're getting back in the dark.

"Christmas has often been a really nice time for families to be together and I wanted to send that message in quite an informal way to staff to say 'I'm feeling like that too' and reconnect with them with a message of strength and support and we can't control the fact that we've got to go to work but we do have control over how we approach it.

"Keeping that healthy perspective was something I wanted to do in quite a light-hearted way."

Vicki added: "The reason I shared it was that I thought that it would resonate with people, even people that don't work in schools.

"People who are going back to work, who are part of a team.

"We [must] keep that healthy perspective that it's just work. I want the staff to feel like, when they go home, they feel proud of what they've achieved but they know that I expect them to take a break because you can't be good at work if work is all you do and I expect them to know that rest is a responsibility."

People across the world feel the affect of fewer daylight hours during winter, and it is normal for some to feel low during the season.

In recent years, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) has been attributed as the cause of this winter melancholy.

However, Jersey nutritionist and lifestyle coach Joanne Reid Rodrigues told ITV News that the SAD label can make feeling down in winter seem inevitable, and says we can all do things to make ourselves feel more upbeat.

Joanne said: "Begin with nutrition. Making sure that, not only are we having healthy foods but from October till March, I think it's essential to supplement with vitamin D3 - and I say vitamin D3 because that is the sunshine vitamin, that's the active form of vitamin D."

She added: "If you go into it with a 'blue sky mentality', then you're going to be fine but if you go into the changing of the clocks and the fewer daylight hours already feeling pretty low, that's going to be pretty hard to handle."

"Always remember, the grey sky will clear and above the clouds, the sun is always shining."

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