Meeting the psychological needs of teaching staff Essay

Meeting the psychological needs of teaching staff - Essay Example In April 2000, Pamela Relf, a teacher with over 36 year’s experience, took her life after an Ofsted inspector criticised her teaching at Middlefield Primary School in Eynesbury, Cambridgeshire. For a teacher of her experience to be criticised like this, was more than a rebuke. Pamela, the school’s senior most teachers left behind a note echoing the sentiments of many teachers, saying "I am now finding the stress of my job too much. The pace of work and the long days are more than I can do." Similarly, three other teachers have also been linked to stress, bullying and Ofsted inspections. They are Janet Watson (33) of Northwick, Cheshire, Jenny Knibb (47) of Exeter, and James Patton (29) of Birmingham. Though the numbers of casualties are unknown and definitely much more, the above cases alone characterise the heat teachers undergo in the face of prolonged stress and bullying. Though these teachers took their lives because of the workload and pressure to perform, it is ar gued that their suicide was because of mental health problem. But this can also come about due to the result of psychiatric injury caused by prolonged negative stress. Psychiatric injury is not the same as mental illness (Tim Field, 2006). The cases of stress and strain are numerous and would go beyond many, many pages. In order to understand the impact of stress and strain on teachers, the above cases were quoted. To overcome the negative thoughts of leaving the profession, teachers had to be offered perks and cordial work environment for retention.