According to the 2022 Teacher Wellbeing Index – a survey carried out by the charity Education Support – 78% of UK school staff reportedly experienced mental health symptoms due to their work in the past academic year. The same survey found that 59% of staff had considered leaving the profession.
This is an ongoing trend. A 2019 survey of over 5,500 UK teachers by the teaching union NASUWT found that 70% felt that the job had negatively impacted their mental health within the previous 12 months. Of those surveyed, 32% had accessed some form of counselling.
These issues are not limited to those who have been in the profession for some time. According to a study published in 2023 by research organisation the National Foundation for Educational Research, between 10% and 12% of early career teachers – those within the first five years of qualifying – left the profession between 2015-2020.
My own research has focused on trainee teachers. I have found that stressors such as creating and maintaining professional relationships, the intensity of their workload and their awareness of the pressures on themselves as teachers and students all affected trainee teachers’ wellbeing.
