The government has been urged to “act now” on a “crisis in teaching” after an education charity warned that it is receiving around seven calls a day from school staff judged to be at risk of suicide, Tes can reveal.
The Chartered College of Teaching has joined forces with charity Education Support in a call to the education secretary, demanding that he urgently “acknowledges” a “teaching crisis”.
In a letter, sent yesterday and shared with Tes, Dame Alison Peacock, chief executive of the Chartered College of Teaching (CCT), and Sinéad Mc Brearty, chief executive of Education Support, said the organisations had come together to warn education secretary Kit Malthouse about the “persistent state of stress and burnout among teaching professionals, and the inevitable impact this has on teacher retention and ultimately pupils’ educational attainment”.
The letter warned that it is “very clear” that a “stressed and burned-out workforce cannot deliver the highest-quality education for young people”.
The letter said that teacher and student wellbeing were “two sides of the same coin” and while it was right to focus on students, the “challenges...cannot be viewed as distinct from the mental health and wellbeing of those responsible for their education”.
It added that the two organisations looked forward “to meeting to discuss how we can work together to make meaningful improvements for schools in England”.
Dame Alison told Tes that teachers are “essential in student recovery post-pandemic, but no one can do their best at work if they are mentally and emotionally depleted”.
“The government has been on pause throughout the summer, but now it needs to act,” she added,
Teacher mental health ‘will get worse’
Ms Mc Brearty said: “We are experiencing a crisis in teaching that will have a huge impact on entire school communities, including the quality of children’s lives and education. The government must acknowledge the scale of the problem and act.”
She said it was not a “choice between prioritising children’s futures or the wellbeing of school and college staff”.
“We are seeing a rise in teachers who are at risk of suicide when they contact us for help, which is deeply worrying. We expect this to get worse as the cost-of-living crisis deepens, and we urge the government to act now to address the drivers of distress,” Ms Mc Brearty added.
Alongside the letter, the CCT is also publishing a research brief today on teacher wellbeing, based on a survey of 1,020 teachers, exploring what puts them under “particular strain”.
Nearly half (45 per cent) of survey respondents said that preparation for Ofsted inspections was an issue that caused such stress, while non-student learning-related admin, a lack of support staff and the introduction of new initiatives and expectations during an academic year without proper planning and support were also highlighted.
The brief says that the School Workload Reduction Toolkit, created by the Department for Education, is a “step in the right direction”, but that it is “unlikely to have much of an impact” because there is low awareness of its existence and schools don’t have the “necessary funding to dedicate time and resources to its implementation”.
The brief adds that “frequent amendments and constantly changing goalposts” over the past two years “have had a substantial negative impact on the mental health of teachers and school leaders”.
It says the sector needs “time to recover and get back to normal, without the added pressure of constantly changing goalposts.”
In the brief, the CCT suggests a number of approaches that could be used instead of “high-stakes inspections”.
It says the DfE could “increase resources” so that “standards are more realistic to achieve”, or it suggests that judgement could be replaced with “constructive and positive feedback and to avoid blanket grades or rankings”.
The brief also argues that “time and money to focus on professional development is key for education recovery”.
The organisation argues that the current minimum of 10 per cent planning, preparation and assessment time is “not enough to allow teachers to dedicate sufficient time to their professional development”.
The CCT also raises concerns that a “stronger focus” on “initial and continuous training” is needed for teaching assistants.
The brief warns that the number of TAs could fall further as the “cost of living is rising, school budgets are strained and teaching assistants are seeking better-paid employment” - and warns that action must be taken to prevent this happening.
But in yesterday’s letter to Mr Malthouse, the CCT and Education Support warned the situation is “likely to worsen as the cost-of-living crisis deepens”.
Speaking to Tes, Dame Alison said that the CCT would be opening a new route for associate membership for teaching assistants later this year.
She said she felt it was important for support staff to have a “professional home” and be provided with resources “more widely”.
The brief also says that 40 per cent of survey respondents “emphasised the need to ‘respect teachers as the experienced and knowledgeable professionals they are and trust their judgements’”.
“Given the link between autonomy and agency and teacher job satisfaction, this could further benefit teacher retention and thus student achievement in the long term,” it says.
