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Teacher wellbeing: Covid threatens to leave legacy of anxiety, stress, depression and burn-out

"If I’m honest, at the present time, I feel like each day’s problems are impossible to solve.”

The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to compound existing problems with staff wellbeing and leave a legacy of anxiety, stress, depression and burn-out among the UK’s teachers, according to the annual Teacher Wellbeing Index.

Published by the teacher wellbeing charity Education Support, the report finds that more teachers than ever are reporting symptoms of poor mental health, including depression and anxiety.

The report draws upon research including two surveys of education professionals, one in July involving 3,034 staff and one in October involving 1,072 colleagues.

A key finding is that, in October, 84 per cent of teachers and 89 per cent of school leaders described themselves as feeling “stressed” or “very stressed” – the comparative figures from the July survey were 62 and 77 per cent respectively, showing the impact of the continuing pandemic.

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