As employers, under the Health and Safety at Work Act and subsequent Work Regulations, schools have to ensure the health safety and welfare at work of their employees.

This is particularly the case with reference to work-related stress, and the fact that teaching is the profession which now suffers from the third highest level of stress of any occupation in the UK does mean that schools must consider the situation.

To resolve the issue many schools have now introduced a stress reduction programme, which is incorporated into the school’s work and is available for any member of staff who is feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of teaching.  

Through this it is very likely that some staff who might succumb to serious levels of stress can be helped. The resultant benefits for the teacher and the school are enormous.

Such an approach simply recognises that the prime way out of stress is for the individual to undertake the journey of recovery him/herself. The school therefore needs to support the individual teacher in taking the steps to start to deal with stress.

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