The Elephant in the (class)room

 Many teachers blame poor mental health on the stress on increasing workloads. Management blame it on Covid. Time to lobby for change.

Teachers do not enter the profession expecting to work 9 to 5, but workloads are spiralling out of control.

Struggling to maintain a healthy work-life balance is a big issue for many teachers who routinely sacrifice their lunch breaks, evenings and much of their weekends to planning, marking and what many deem unnecessary paperwork. 

Wessex County College teachers have seen their workload increase twofold in a matter of a handful of emails over the last few months. The number of forms to fill out, admin protocols to go through, safeguarding checklists etc has become an ever-increasing burden and an exponential work pace.

Time locked up in rooms filling out forms could be better spent in the classroom or on continuing professional development, both of which could have more tangible benefits for our students’ learning. As the paperwork mounts up, we know how it can lead to mental and physical illnesses as staff struggle to cope. 

A UK Education Staff Health Survey published in 2014, found that 91 per cent of school teachers have experienced stress in the past two years, while a further 74 per cent suffered anxiety and 47 per cent had depression. Ninety-one per cent blamed excessive workload as the major cause.

This is a rise of 13 per cent over the past six years, showing that workloads are unabating. Four in five teachers said that their mental health could be improved if managers worked with staff to reduce workload.

And what is the impact on their teaching? Around three in four told us they lost confidence, 59 per cent said their work performance suffered, while more than a quarter took time off as a result of mental health problems.

Wessex County College teachers have been asked repeatedly to perform last minute additional duties. These range from pastoral to extra-curricular to class practice. The mood in the school is heavy and the 'leadership group' seem unable or unwilling to acknowledge the increasing pressure or find practical solutions to it. A few links copied from the internet and pasted in the staff's Weekly Newsletter have been the limit of what management could - very intelligently - think of. One member of the newly appointed line managers told her teachers that they 'should consider themselves lucky to still have a job'. 

Teacher burnout can be costly and research already shows there could be a link between a teacher’s health and their students’ outcomes. 

Studies show how poor mental health at work and low morale, as a result of unsustainable workloads and a lack of support, is destroying the quality of teaching. 

Will Wessex County College management finally do something worthy of their titles and honour the responsibility that their positions come with? Or will they continue to hide in the Bunker buzzing around their 'Queen Bee' and wagging their tails ignoring their colleagues who taught by their side not long ago?