FEATURE FOCUS: MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING
Burn out and bad behaviour: building thriving school communities in the face of major challenges
burdens of the education system can soon pile up as teachers look to maintain high standards of teaching and learning within the classroom. A recent poll highlighted the stark reality of this, with over a thousand school staff identifying burnout and disruptive behaviour as the most pressing issue the sector is facing. As the profession experiences a mass exodus, schools grapple with low staff numbers and soaring teacher turnover rates, only exacerbating the situation for those continuing to work. This situation also raises questions of the system’s capacity to provide a high-quality education for today’s pupils.
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n our fifth feature this month examining the key issues of mental health and wellbeing in schools Lesley Moule, ex- headteacher and content creator for Access Education GCSEPod, looks at teacher burn out and the effect it has on the whole school environment.
It’s no secret that today’s educators face significant challenges, and teachers and school staff are under increasing amounts of pressure. Dealing with headaches like never-ending paperwork, resource shortages, the longer-term impact of the pandemic on pupil development and wellbeing, and Ofsted inspections - the
Mounting pressure and mental health concerns during school staff walkouts According to the National Education Association, teacher burnout can be defined as “a condition in which an educator has exhausted the personal and professional resources necessary to do the job.”
But, the repercussions of burnout are not limited to teachers alone, with wider school staff also experiencing significant strains in their day- to-day work. The most recent Teacher Wellbeing Index shows that a huge 78% of staff in schools have experienced symptoms of work-related poor mental health, with 21% of support staff saying they experienced burnout, and another 15% reported exhaustion. In the same report, over 59% of those surveyed considered leaving the
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sector due to associated mental health pressures. With education staff burnout reaching alarming levels, nearly 40,000 educators have been prompted to leave the profession in the past year alone. What’s more, this statistic fails to account for those who retired, retired early or are absent due to long-term sickness, further compounding the crisis.
In recent years, teacher strikes have also become more frequent, fuelled by heightened performance pressures, pay disillusionment and the need for action to be taken to reduce burnout. Despite workloads growing, salaries have, until recently, remained unaffected. As such, a vicious cycle is created. As mental health suffers, more people leave the profession, and as more people leave, the pressure increases, directly impacting mental wellbeing amongst staff.
The realities of behavioural challenges Alongside concerns of mental wellbeing, revelations from the government’s inaugural National behaviour survey have sent ripples of concern across the academic sector. According to the report, more than six weeks of valuable lesson time has been squandered on dealing with misbehaviour over the past year, with nearly 20% of precious school hours lost each day to disruptive conduct
While the impact on students is undeniable, the study also shone a light on those managing the class, with 60% of teachers saying their
September 2023
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