Teacher stress

[Piggywaspushed]

Following on from the 'teachers aren't stressed/ bunch of whingers' thread, I thought I'd post this up to date survey here. Draw your own conclusions! And draw your own conclusions about SLT :

teachertapp.co.uk/why-uk-teachers-are-walking-out/?fbclid=IwAR0XpYkKDZG6vhjjpKEw2GQsVFp9CVQA8UynIMt2JMTP5gDppGS3jQzTIP8

Teacher Tappers tend to be annoying relentlessly positive so this survey is all the more interesting.

It's interesting.

Sometimes I lurk on Twitter and the teachertap discussions and wonder how people gavel the time to make some of the beautiful resources and displays they make. I wonder if they counted that in their hours. Some of what I see is impressive, but may not be necessary.

You're right though, teachertap teachers tend to be quite a positive group of people on the whole from what I've gathered.

Sometimes I've wondered if time is a big factor. Having had middle leadership posts with appropriate leadership & PPA and middle leadership where I had 1 extra free or no extra free, the former leads to me doing more work but feeling much more in control of my workload. The latter saw me nearly leave teaching as it was a case of large SLT overburden already overworked middle leaders (you know the types who go on SLT away days to brainstorm whilst leaving middle leaders to troubleshoot in their absence).

Have to be honest the idea that SLT feel a bit less stressed doesn't surprise me. My new HOF has been told several times by members of SLT ' welcome to our world'. They should stop all this rhetoric about their own time and walk a few weeks in the shoes of those with limited PPA, shedloads of marking , plentiful planning etc. It is an interesting survey!

On AIBU this would have had about 800 posts by now. Perhaps my OP title lacked goadiness!

Good SLT stay grounded. Poor or weak SLT hide in their offices and peer through the blinds as the NQT tries to get a group of ks4 students to move towards their lessons.

I think SLT should have to teach, and by teach I mean teach a middle set y8 and bottom set y10, not a nice y11 class and some 6th form. It would give some of them a rude awakening.

Equally, I do think (and I've already been shot for this once today) that some people do create their own workload in some respects or are quick to moan. They aren't the majority, but they exist in every workplace and teaching seems no different to me.

I'd also be interested to see SLT stress levels vs level of SLT and size of SLT. In my experience a smaller SLT usually had a better grounding in school life and probably felt the pressure more, whereas someone on a large SLT who is an 'assistant associate vice deputy principal' with a nebulous remit that seems to involve rarely teaching and occasionally thinking of a silly initiative for the next 6 weeks that adds to staff workload is probably going to report lower stress levels because they don't actually do anything.

Your post offers the opportunity for an interesting debate around teaching and hours and pressures rather than the goady threads which seem to involve lots of GF going on about holidays and then lots of teachers getting defensive.

I'm not remotely surprised that slt feel less stressed. In a small primary school, slt teach less hours and so although there are many other tasks to complete, there also isn't the same workload of marking.
Slt decide what needs doing by when, so they set targets based on their timescales.

I teach in a small school and our SLT (3 people) are classroom based, except the head. The two of us on the SLT who teach get one half day a week for leadership time, and quite often we lose that anyway because of staffing or we are dealing with behaviour. We share a desk in the main office, but that's also where teachers go on their ppa, so it's not really our own space!

Being in a small school means the teachers have about 5 or 6 areas of responsibility, except for the NQT, and SLT get tons more work than in a bigger school, with a bigger SLT, as there's only the 3 of us. I would say our stress levels are extremely high, and the end of term can't come quickly enough right now!

Oh yes, I can imagine that I a very different situation and , in a small school, doesn't come with huge fat pay cheques either!

SLT should absolutely have to teach. Challenging classes too. It happens in two very good schools I know well (and not just Ofsted good schools). Their contributions in staff meetings are so much more valid as a result and they really understand workload much more.

Small schools have a massive workload and lack of space. I sympathise @Piggywaspushed

Small schools and also alternative provision.
I was surprised to hear that an AHT/DHT in an alternative setting was on similar pay to a HOD of core subject in a large secondary.

I worked in a small independent some years back (secondary). Neither the head, deputy or director of studies (!!!!) taught any lessons! It was pretty much a disgrace to be observed by any of them as their feedback was always 'smile and nod at what they're saying'. None of them lasted long, either!

The two of us on the SLT who teach get one half day a week for leadership time, and quite often we lose that

Our SLT, also in a smallish school, ensure that they NEVER lose time out of class. Head would rather close the school than stand in front of a class and teach

Hope Clearwater - our head covers us regularly/ when needed, and will often come and play in my reception class when her workload is getting stressful! She taught our year 4 class for 2 weeks when the teacher was ill.

@HopeClearwater
That's not good. My head covered for me last week so I could go to my daughter's assembly!
Things like that help massively with my stress levels as it feels much more like we're a team. (I'm in half form entry primary so many tasks shared between the few.)

I wonder where we stand really. We have constant text message sover the weekend about work;informing us when meetings are, when things need to be in etc when they could easily wait until Monday.
Its shite for staff well being