Primary school teachers face new term ‘exhausted and anxious’ after spending holidays on lesson preparation
Thousands of primary school teachers have had to use their summer holidays to prepare lessons and activities for the new academic year - and it’s impacting on their mental health and leaving them facing the new year exhausted and anxious.
Nearly a quarter (23.7 percent) said it impacts on their sleep and over a third (34.4 percent) report it making them anxious. Over a third (35 percent) said it prevented them from doing a leisure activity. And nearly half (49.1 percent) complained that it stopped them spending time with their families.
The results are from a survey of nearly 1,000 teachers by PlanBee, the leading lesson plan and resources company run by former primary school teachers.
Some teachers spent as many as 18-20 days on preparation for the new school year, with over a quarter (26.8 percent) having to allocate up to eight days.
Some even said they worked throughout the holidays.
The most onerous task was lesson planning, with nearly half of respondents (49.3 percent) identifying this as the key task during the holidays.
Asked how the holiday workload made them feel, teachers used words such as ‘frustrated’, ‘overwhelmed’, ‘resentful’, ‘drained’ and ‘depressed’, though some considered it just ‘part of the job’.
One said: ‘It doesn’t seem to be a holiday as I’m always thinking about work’. Another wrote that they were ‘resentful of the fact that I cannot “switch off” completely’. Another said they were ‘overwhelmed’, adding: ‘It is very tricky to juggle it with looing after my own young children in the holidays’. Another simply remarked: ‘It’s too much.’
One commented: ‘I’m constantly torn because I want to take time for myself and to recharge my batteries but I also don’t know how to take a step back. Unfortunately, due to the pressures and lack of resources/funding and support at the minute, I can’t see it changing any time soon.’
PlanBee founder Becky Cranham, a former primary school teacher, said: ‘Teachers have always spent some time over the summer holidays preparing for the next academic year. But these findings show that some are having to devote great swathes of what should be rest and recuperation time to planning the coming year’s activities, and that suggests that something’s going wrong with the workload they’re expected to handle.
She added: ‘As well as impacting on their mental health, it’s stopping them from spending time with their own children. And that’s not right. We need teachers refreshed and positive in September if they’re to be at their best in the classroom.’
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For further information, and to arrange an interview with Becky Cranham, email susan@empra.co.uk or phone 07739 364899.
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