The headteacher of Brookside Academy in Street has been featured in The Guardian, talking about the pressures headteachers are under.

Brian Walton spoke to the newspapers about his plans to resign from the teaching profession, after well-being survey of teaching staff found stress had reached epidemic proportions among heads, with 87% of senior leaders saying they had experienced poor mental health as a result of their work.

In the article, he says that his profession should be the best in the world, but while a lack of support staff and teachers are making his jobs difficult - the majority of his stress is caused by social issues.

"When the services that are supposed to deal with crime, social care and mental health aren't working, it is schools who end up on the frontline," he says. "Families don't know where to turn for help."

He also said that in 20 years of being a headteacher, he has never known so many families relying on food banks, or living with mental health problems. These issues means that he is seeing the behaviour of some school pupils escalating.

"The anger and even despair we are hearing from our members right now is unprecedented," explained Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) union. "School leaders are telling me they cannot continue to run their schools in the current circumstances."

Headteachers, teachers, and supporting staff in schools across the UK are uniting to ballot on strike action to demand better pay and working conditions. The ballotting deadline is scheduled on 11 January,

About six teachers out of ten have admitted to changing professions over the past year due to increased stress levels. 

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