Teacher Stress is a hot topic in the UK; not a passing fad, but a constant irritation, a persistent itch in the shoe of our education system.
One of the things that is puzzling is that so little attention is given to the topic in teacher training, and - no disrespect to you dear reader - how poorly teachers understand the topic. There is lots and lots of good advice already available - most from other teachers - but it is desperately muddled, and virtually all of it suffers from one desperate flaw: it fails to distinguish between the two key aspects of stress in education, and unless this is clearly stated and understood, the advice is unlikely to be helpful.
The distinction is this: Working in a Stressful Environment is entirely separate, distinct and different to Suffering from Stress.
In fact, in order to emphasize and maintain that distinction, TM4T uses acronyms WISE (working in a stressful environment) and SFS (suffering from stress) to discuss the topic of 'Stress'.
This may seem a trivial distinction, but it is really important: these things have different symptoms, they require different solutions, and - perhaps most important - they are the responsibility of different people in the school. Although all teachers have a duty to support their leadership, WISE issues are basically management issues; and although all leaders have a duty to support their staff, SFS issues are basically the responsibility of each individual teacher.
If this is so important and so obvious, you may ask, why are the two aspects blurred so frequently in schools? The answer, the rather sad answer, lies in the messy intersection, explained here....