Ofsted inspections and targets harming teachers" psychological overall health, finds survey

Teachers are juggling ‘unacceptable workloads’, Mary Bousted, head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, will warn at her union’s conference this week. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters

A relentless inspection regime and culture of target-setting is damaging teachers’ mental well being, with many reporting anxiety and exhaustion, a survey by a teaching union has found.

Much more than half (fifty five%) of individuals questioned by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) say operate pressures are obtaining a detrimental impact on their psychological wellbeing, even though virtually 4 in ten have noticed a rise in mental well being troubles amongst colleagues over the previous two many years.

Of those teachers who did really feel their task had broken their mental overall health, a lot of reported encountering pressure (80%), exhaustion (69%), disturbed rest patterns (66%), nervousness (57%) and headaches (47%). Nearly a single in 3 stated it had impacted their appetite.

The survey is released as the ATL starts its annual conference in Manchester, in which the union’s standard secretary, Mary Bousted, will warn that teachers are juggling “unacceptable workloads”.

“Schooling specialists do much more unpaid overtime than any other group and are put beneath continual extreme pressure to meet targets, with excessive observation, modifications in the curriculum and Ofsted inspections,” she said over the weekend.

“There are in-college pressures brought on by Ofsted – pressures place upon teachers by college leaders to make sure that students show progress. There are demands for data, demands for lesson preparing – it really is as though practically nothing is done except if it’s written down.”

The stigma connected to mental overall health issues means several are afraid to inform their colleges, says the survey. More than two-thirds (68%) of teachers who reported experiencing psychological overall health issues explained they decided to hide it from their employers. Teachers will warn on Monday morning that 1 of the major triggers of anxiety in colleges – Ofsted – has misplaced practically all credibility. Robin Bevan, headteacher of Southend Boys’ Grammar, will tell the conference that the organisation “is no longer just disliked, now disdained” and propose a movement calling for an inspection charter for the regulator, exactly where all judgments are subject to a nationwide programme of dependability sampling.

“The whole discourse around Ofsted has altered,” stated Bousted, who is also expected to criticise Ofsted in her closing speech on Wednesday. “The company can no longer sail by means of insouciantly pretending that there’s no difficulty with the high quality manage of its inspections, nor with its methodology.”

The ATL did not take component in the most current strike action but says morale amid its members is minimal. A lecturer from a university in Manchester advised the survey: “Perform eats into every factor of a teacher’s existence …Teachers are above-worked, stressed and unhappy. The occupation is full of sick-well being and tiredness.”

Ofsted inspections and targets harming teachers" psychological overall health, finds survey