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Teaching staff continue to report high levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and burn-out

A significant majority of teaching staff report that dealing with increasingly challenging student behaviour is having a negative impact on their mental health and wellbeing.
Image: Adobe Stock

The annual Teacher Wellbeing Index finds that more than three-quarters of the teaching staff surveyed report mental health symptoms linked to their work, including high levels of anxiety, depression, stress and burn-out.

Published by the charity Education Support UK, the research this year has involved more than 3,000 staff working in schools across the country, including teaching assistants, teachers, and school leaders.

The study makes for sobering reading once again, although there is a positive note with a year-on-year decrease in the number of respondents who believe their school’s culture has a negative impact on their wellbeing.

This year’s findings include:

When it comes to mental health symptoms, staff said they experienced insomnia or difficulty sleeping (46%), mood swings (44%), and tearfulness (39%) – all higher than in 2023.

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