Best Practice

Stress: Keeping your head above water as a school leader

Mental health Leadership/school profiles
As a headteacher, James Hilton fell victim to the huge stress that can affect many school leaders. He now spends his time helping education professionals to recognise and overcome the symptoms of stress. It is a theme tackled in his new book – Leading From the Edge. We invited him to offer some advice to Headteacher Update readers

Teaching can be one of the most rewarding jobs in the world, but it is also one of the most stressful. Resources are rapidly shrinking while the pressure for improved results is relentless. Add into the mix higher levels of accountability than ever before and shifting goalposts and it is of course inevitable that many teachers are experiencing high levels of stress.

Many teachers are suffering from stress and the cost of long term-cover for absent staff can have serious consequences for school budgets.

As a nation, failure to tackle mental health issues at work may prove to be the biggest barrier to creating the education system our children need and deserve.

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