According to the latest Teacher Wellbeing Index 78 percent of teachers claim to have experienced mental health symptoms as a direct result of their employment in the last year.
A third of teachers leave the profession within 5 years and only around half manage to get 15 years in.
With such a stark statistic it is perhaps unsurprising that I am one of those who has experienced mental health difficulties.
If I could turn back the clock I would never have entered this profession. Now, around 15 years later, I find myself trapped at the top of the Upper Pay Scale, having virtually no prospect of finding another job with such a healthy salary and generous holidays.
Healthy as the salary and holidays might be, teaching is now a soul-destroying profession with too much micromanagement, too little trust, too much external scrutiny and too little appreciation.
Behaviour at Mickley Grange has been the icing on the cake. People simply would not believe the abysmal standard of behaviour, with a significant minority of students being openly defiant, avoiding work, being rude and disrespectful and totally derailing every single lesson.
I hear every excuse under the Sun about why such and such a student can't behave and it's never their fault, always someone else's - invariably the teacher's. I could write a book - a horror story - about some of the incidents I have witnessed, but I'll save that for a later time.
Just this week I am aware of two parents who have complained that "my child is not learning due to the standard of behaviour" and I can entirely empathise with their concerns. The bosses, of course, are utterly clueless on the matter, them never setting foot in a classroom unless they're filling in some meaningless bit of paper. It also doesn't suit their agenda to acknowledge or draw attention to quite how abysmal the standard of behaviour can be.
Anyhow, I'll try not to be too sidetracked.
I was struggling with various work-related issues getting on top of me. Every morning I awoke physically sick at the prospect of work; every evening I was relieved at leaving the door in one piece. I was also suffering really badly with insomnia, tossing and turning all the way through the night and unable to sleep at the prospect of work the following day. Colleagues were beginning to notice that I was not myself, becoming very withdrawn, unsociable, lacking motivation and feeling utterly worthless - with the occasional teary-eye I am not ashamed to admit.
The day finally came where I simply could not come to school. There was a straw that broke the camel's back, but I can't relive it because the circumstances would be recognisable. Let's just say that a student did something that they could have been arrested for in the real world, but that the Mickley Grange bosses have never even challenged them about due to their "special" status.
I left one evening, having experienced a particularly arduous day at the hands of unruly students, and told the office staff not to expect me the following day as I would be going to the doctor. I also made it quite clear to them that I would be in no hurry to return.
The following day I completed my doctors' surgery's online consultation form describing my circumstances and symptoms. The doctor rang me later that day and I repeated to her everything I had said on the consultation form. I explained to her that I needed some time off work to recuperate and reset. She immediately signed my off for a fortnight, making it quite clear that she would be happy to extend that later on. She pinged the fit note straight across to my mobile phone.
I spent the next fortnight moping about the house, worried about going outside because I was off work. I ignored the emails and did my best to forget about school.
The day came when I needed to renew my fit note. I again contacted the doctor, who was happy to do a telephone consultation. I told her that I still had the same concerns and was still having difficulty sleeping. She suggested counselling, but left it entirely in my hands. I said it was something I would consider, but didn't think I needed it at the moment. With that she extended my fit note by a month, making it clear that she would do the same the following month if need be.
During that month I was invited into school for an absence monitoring meeting, which I attended with my union representative. I made it clear what the problems were - as if they didn't know already - and said I had explained them all to my doctor. I also explained that my doctor had indicated a willingness to further extend my fit note.
Another month passed and I again contacted the doctor. Another telephone consultation ensued and another one-month extension was given.
By this time occupational health were sniffing about and I had an hour-long telephone consultation with them. The lady doing the consultation was a nurse, so in no way trumped my doctor's professional opinion, so she reiterated that I was not fit to return to work. The report also suggested some adaptations that could be made to smooth my return when the time was right. A risk assessment also had to be completed prior to my return.
Another month passed and by this time I had a plan in my mind for returning to work after a holiday period. I explained my plan to the doctor, who was happy to extend my fit note by another month to tie in with my planned return day. I thanked the doctor for all of her help and said that I hoped I wouldn't need to bother her again. Reassuringly she said that I had to get straight back in touch if there were any problems once I returned to work.
In total that was 3.5 months I was signed off by the doctor - and I won't hesitate if I need more time off in the future. My days of turning up to work when I'm ill and working on my days off are well and truly over.