Working in the education sector is bad for your health, according to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and Teacher Support Network survey.

As many as 70% of teachers and lecturers say their health has suffered because of their job, whilst over 50% are stressed by working in education.

The health impact is even higher among school leaders and heads of department, with 75% and 73% respectively complaining. And female teachers (72%) admit to suffering more than male workers (66%).

The highest stress levels are reported by those working in further education colleges (59%) followed by those working in sixth form colleges (54%). And more heads of department say they are stressed (58%) than school or college leaders (56%) and teachers (52%).

These findings are unsurprising since staff at all levels say demands on them and their time have increased over the past five years. A whopping 84% say this is because of the number of new education initiatives they have to deal with, 83% say their workload is higher, and 79% say they are doing more admin.

For school and college leaders the biggest change has been in the amount of extra responsibility (96%); for 91% of heads of department, it is a higher workload and more admin (91%); and for teachers new education initiatives (84%).

Among those whose health has been affected, 51% have gone to their local GP to seek help and 36% have taken time off work. The most widely reported health problems are stress (85%), disturbed sleep patterns (83%), and exhaustion (82%).

Patrick Nash, from the Teacher Support Network, said: “During our experiences as a charity supporting teachers through counselling and coaching, we have seen just how much stress affects both individual teachers and learning experiences of pupils. Schools and the government must work together to ensure the introduction of wellbeing programmes and better policies to look after the health of their staff.”