Nearly two-thirds of teachers feel stressed at work most of the time, according to research by the NEU teaching union.
In a poll, some 62 per cent of teachers reported that stress affects them more than 60 per cent of the time.
Female teachers, younger teachers and teachers in primary schools and nurseries were more likely to report higher levels of stress.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said the sector has to face up to the “immense toll” that the job takes on teachers.
“It cannot be right that we have a working culture which invades every aspect of a teacher’s life. The government’s own figures show that working hours are out of hand and they are getting worse,” he said.
Heavy teacher workload
The government reported last year that full-time teachers work an average of 51.2 hours per week, and school leaders 57.6 hours a week. The NEU said teachers regularly exceed the 1,265 hours of directed time prescribed in the School Teachers’ Pay and Condition Document.
The union’s findings have been published today as its annual conference gets underway in Harrogate.
Nearly two in three teachers polled said they regularly work evenings. More than half said they regularly work weekends, and more than a third said they often have to cancel plans with family and friends to get on top of work.
Furthermore, three-quarters of those teachers responding to the survey said they are frequently unable to switch off at home. And two-fifths said they were always unable to switch off.
Some 27 per cent said they are often or always contacted by their employer outside of working hours, and 31 per cent said they are always dealing with work during school summer holidays.
Responding to the survey, one teacher said: “You feel exhausted all the time and guilty for sacrificing your own family time. It is not a profession which allows you to have a life outside of work, and it is mentally draining and detrimental to your mental and physical health.”
Mr Kebede added that staff are even more stretched because of the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, saying that both higher pay and more school funding are needed to address this.
More than half of survey respondents said the staff leaving rate has got worse at their school in the past year. And 61 per cent said they have seen an increase in teaching and leading responsibilities being doubled up.
Some 71 per cent also said there has been increased staff absence due to sickness.
A motion at the annual conference asks the union’s executive to raise the profile of work-related stress and campaign for stress too be part of health and safety risk assessments. Another motion calls for an initiative to support members in disputes regarding excessive hours beyond directed time.
This comes after headteachers warned that Ofsted’s proposals for new inspection report cards will drive up staff workload.
Teachers were surveyed between 28 January and 9 February. The poll received responses from 14,159 teachers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A DfE spokesperson said: “We are working together with partners across the education sector to re-establish teaching as an attractive, expert profession - and are already taking action to ease workload pressures and support wellbeing, embedding flexible working and investing in key education priorities.”
The spokesperson said work has already begun to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers, including £233 million of investment in recruitment next year.
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