Teacher wellbeing has become a hot topic in the education system, as stress and mental ill-health have been reported as major factors in teachers leaving the profession.
Reports by the Education Support Partnership and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ALT) have both revealed significant statistics that portray an unhappy workforce.
Research by ATL found that 55% of teachers said work pressure is having a detrimental effect on their mental wellbeing.
In one study, 52% of teachers say that they have seriously considered leaving their current job role in the last 12 months. While 47% have seriously considered leaving the profession altogether.
Despite a huge decline in individuals entering the profession, little is being done to support those already teaching.
The current education system has seen a dramatic increase in the pressures on schools and teachers to perform, which means teacher wellbeing is often last on the list to gain any real investment.
The question is, who is responsible for maintaining and championing teacher wellbeing?
As we have discussed previously, the wellbeing of teachers is critical to provide a safe and healthy environment for students. Yet time and time again, it is not seen as the best investment for school budgets.
Senior Leaders
The first group to take on the responsibility of teacher wellbeing has to be the senior leaders within the school.
With the power to manage the budget and allocate spending across the school, there must be a more strategic approach in how teacher wellbeing can be increased.
The phrase, ‘thinking outside the box’ comes into play when implementing wellbeing, as many wellbeing strategies are not financially heavy, but time-heavy. It takes time to action them, and it takes time to embed them into the school environment.
Creating a culture of wellbeing must be seen as an investment for schools if they are to retain and attract teachers.
Attracting and retaining highly-skilled teachers has become a pain point for many schools, but by looking at wellbeing as part of the day-to-day running of the school leaders can not only improve teacher wellbeing but student wellbeing.
Senior leaders should look at school wellbeing as a whole. It needs to improve for both teachers and students, so it should be high on the agenda when looking at overall school improvements.
Ofsted
During an investigation by The Guardian, Ofsted was criticised for putting teachers under a punishing schedule of paperwork. Further research by ATL, found meeting targets and preparing for Ofsted inspections were two key factors affecting teacher’s mental wellbeing.
Even recent research conducted in July 2019 by Oftsed discovered that Ofsted itself is a major source of workload and stress for teachers in England.
While Ofsted won’t be changing their structure anytime soon, it begs the question if the current model is truly working in favour of teacher and student wellbeing.
More hours are spent on administration than teaching in the classroom.
As a cornerstone of the education system, it is Ofsted’s role to create positive and strong educational environments where students can thrive. But at present, the current model is seen as a box-ticking exercise rather than proactive support for effective teaching.
Their slogan, ‘raising standards, improving lives’, is not a vision that feels fully carried through in their processes.
The Government
From stories of parents donating items and their time to schools, to teachers working on their weekends to clean schools. Budgets are being cut and everyone is being affected within local communities.
In an investigation by the Guardian in March 2019, it was reported that schools across the UK are having to come up with inventive ways to raise funds just to remain open.
In North Yorkshire, one secondary school is raising funds by holding extra non-uniform days. Another school in Sussex has set up a crowdfunding page.
The government must take responsibility for the impact that these budget cuts are having on teacher wellbeing. There’s barely enough budget to run schools effectively, let alone to invest in additional wellbeing programs to support teachers and students.
The government continues to demand more from teachers, but do nothing in the way of providing the basic funding a school needs.
Alongside the budget, many believe the government must also change their attitude towards teachers.
Former CEO of the Education Support Partnership, Julian Stanley has been outspoken on the government’s impact on teacher wellbeing. In an interview with the Guardian, he commented, “It doesn’t help that language from the government changed radically since 2010. There’s been too much talk of ‘bad teachers’ and ‘bad teaching’. It’s not just that the system changed – the language has also changed so that teachers don’t feel supported.”
For teacher wellbeing to be fully embraced by senior leaders and embed into schools across the UK, support and responsibility must start with the government.
Teacher happiness and wellbeing has been proven to play a key part in school performance. Yet, in research conducted by the Education Support Partnership, 67% of education professionals described themselves as stressed.
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Having studied to be an educational psychologist Sharon worked as a supply teacher and then moved into education recruitment. She now has over twenty years experience within recruitment and has run Textbook Teachers for the last seventeen years.
She is extremely proud of the reputation that Textbook Teachers has and the position of trust it has in the local education community.
Her mission and that of Textbook Teachers is that we insist on high standards of integrity, care and compassion when dealing with our teaching staff.
We also promote fair, ethical and good practices when supplying all schools and we aspire to be held in high esteem by clients, agency staff and our competitors in leading the way in providing a more transparent, high quality and professionally reliable service.