Stress on teachers is reaching unprecedented levels, brought on by disruptive children, fear of repercussions from aggressive parents, over loaded with marking, exams and particularly the government’s obsession with targets.
Stress has been identified as the top recorded reason given by teachers for absence for the past three years, including this academic year.
According to Lambeth NUT secretary Sara Tomlinson, “Many are at breaking point. The turnover at schools in Lambeth is very high.” In addition to the enormous work pressures, many teachers are afraid of being branded as “teachers unable to cope” due to stress, thus ensuring that many teachers suffering from the effects of stress fail to seek appropriate support. Teachers are expected to “deal” with pupil behaviour problems and still delivery “outstanding” lessons.
Teachers are placed under enormous amounts of stress, which if not dealt with effectively will inevitably lead to mental, physical, emotional and behavioral problems .
Employers are responsible for the Health and Safety of their employees, and failure to provide adequate support or preventative measures to combat stress means that employers may be negligent in their duties.
Stress manifests itself in a variety of symptoms, mental, emotional, physiological or behavioral. Persistent stress leads to significant changes to our well being.
In order to help teachers with stress, stressmanagement.co.uk have launched Stresskey.com, a free online stress diagnostic and management system.
www.stresskey.com
EXERCICES
Meditation (by Dav Panesar)
Symran (by Dav Panesar)
Victim to creator (by Dav Panesar)
