It’s not a secret that teaching and leading in schools is stressful and time-consuming, and that it is leading to an unsustainable attrition rate. Annual datasets show precisely how many teachers and school leaders are not only leaving the profession, but leaving early. I work with teachers and school leaders up and down the country and they habitually say “this isn’t a job I can do until I’m 60” . In the 38 years I’ve been involved with schools, I’ve never been more worried about the health and wellbeing of our staff and pupils. The reasons are clear. Many are now realising the long-term impact on their physical and mental health. They know the workload and stress from the system, and the pressure they put on themselves to do the best job they can in the face of increasingly poor pupil and often parental behaviour, is too much. Many of the school leaders I talk to need medication. And for many, it is something they will need long term. But no employment should lead to the employee needing to be medicated just to do their job. Back in its box Should we not be looking, as a profession and as those who create national policy, at how we can rein back on the workload, stress and pressure of the role? We often talk about supporting wellbeing as something of a thing to do and then put it back in its box. But it should be a sustainable long-term process to which all staff in schools are entitled. However, without all the players in the room – Ofsted, DfE, councils, trusts, unions and school staff – it feels like we at best pay lip service or re-arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic. Failure to address this will lead to more early departures and schools losing experienced staff too early. It will also act as a barrier to many who might have come into the profession, but who are now put off by the visible impact the current expectations have on daily life and health. If we are serious about growing a healthy profession, we need to start taking things out of school in-trays, rather than continually adding to workload and stress. A few are thriving The research that I have carried out with school leaders for my book, The Wellbeing Effect, shows 85 per cent are struggling with their health and wellbeing. Fifteen per cent are thriving because: They have often seen the impact of poor physical or mental health themselves and don’t want to go back there They have created their own plan to address their health and wellbeing needs They make this plan non-negotiable We need a real and sustained reduction in workload that prioritises what works for learners. Policymakers and those who enforce policy decisions through inspection need to prioritise what they want schools to focus on, because schools can’t be asked to manage all of society’s problems. We also need a different way to raise standards that incorporates good staff and pupil wellbeing. Andy Burnham’s government is looking at local solutions to meet local needs. The team evaluating the opportunity areas programme talk about the need for schools to meet the needs of their learners in their context, not merely adopting some national idea emanating from Westminster. Schools, staff and parents want everyone to be the best version of themselves in the school community. But the context for the pressure, stress and workload starts with the wider system and its expectations of schools. Pushing a rock uphill Asking schools to manage workload – as the staff wellbeing charter did – is akin to pushing a huge rock uphill. Schools can only do so much: the environmental context and the ask of schools forces leaders to make decisions that often compromise health and wellbeing for the sake of the next inspection. We need to take a long hard look at the impact the education system has on those who try to do their best for their children. We need a national conversation and investigation into the damage that is being done by the system to staff and pupils – and then create a planning forum with real teeth that leaves no option off the table. If we want our staff and pupils to be the best version of themselves we need to take away the shackles that bind them and make them ill.