The workload crisis facing teaching dominated the annual conferences of the three main teaching unions, including calls to tackle deep marking practices, set limits on working time, and offer more support for teachers’ mental health.

At the NASUWT annual conference in Birmingham, delegates warned of the impact that excessive workload is having on teacher wellbeing.

In 2015, research showed that 80 per cent of NASUWT members said that their jobs were having a negative impact on their welfare.

A motion on excessive workload and working time, passed by delegates, warned that the problem was so severe that some teachers are self-medicating and self-harming. It called on the union to campaign to secure “enhanced practical support for teachers dealing with mental illness” and to encourage the “creation of Health and Safety at Work Committees in all workplaces”.

A second motion on work/life balance, also passed, attacked the “dismissive attitude shown by employers to teachers’ statutory entitlement to a work/life balance”. It called on the union to continue its campaign for the enforcement of work/life balance policies in all schools that set out a clear limit on working hours.

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