The anxiety of headteachers across England increased “substantially” throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, finds the largest study of its type to date, led by a UCL researcher.
The research shows that headteachers and senior leaders bore the burden of stress throughout the pandemic and that they were ‘generally quite good at protecting more junior colleagues from workplace stresses’.
The study, which was published in the journal Educational Review, collected 26,394 observations from 1,530 teachers using the daily survey app ‘Teacher Tapp’ at 75 touchpoints from October 2019 to July 2022.
Lead author Professor John Jerrim (IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education & Society) said: “Our research demonstrates the considerable anxiety teachers experienced throughout the coronavirus pandemic, particularly that faced by senior leaders and headteachers.”
