As we commemorate 100 years since the end of World War One, it’s appropriate to consider what we have learned from that terrible conflict.  It brought to public attention another type of conflict: the conflict in the mind.  Days and nights of non-stop shelling often devastated minds rather than bodies.  Soldiers wandered off or lost the ability to function.  How was such mental illness treated? Until shell shock was finally accepted as a medical condition, they were shot for desertion or malingering. In total, 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers were executed. The British asked the Australians if they could also shoot their soldiers for ‘cowardice’.  The more-enlightened Australians refused.  Field Marshal Haig, for so many years revered as a hero, is now widely regarded as a ‘butcher’.  Even when no evidence could be found to execute one soldier on trial, Haig ordered that he should be executed anyway as a lesson to the other men.

We have to ask, 100 years later, how enlightened are our school leaders.  Do they model themselves on Haig or on those who identified shell shock as a real condition and worked to support and rehabilitate victims? One would like to assume that the latter is true; sadly, this is not always the case.  I have experienced mental health issues from both sides: as a senior leader and as a teacher.  I have never experienced post-natal depression but I believe it is very real.  When I was a deputy head, one of my staff was suffering from the condition.  When she was able to return to work, understandably, she had lost her confidence in the classroom.  It’s daunting to go from the depths of depression to educating and entertaining a class of adolescents, not all of whom intend to make your life easy.  The solution seemed obvious to me: we team-taught until she had regained her confidence.  I am still in contact with this ex-colleague who has gone on to continue with a successful career in teaching.  She sent me this note:

I just wanted to say a massive thank you.  You have given me a huge amount of support during our time at ... and nothing has ever been too much trouble.  That is a rare quality to find and much underrated in the present climate.  It is the thoughtful support of colleagues that creates an atmosphere where people want to stay.

A year or two later, I had a nervous breakdown.  I didn't know it was happening but looking back, all the signs were there - you just don't see them in yourself.  I thought I was just tired... stressed... I was resilient... I'd come through it.  I didn't.  One day I noticed my hands were shaking and I couldn't stop it.  I went to the headteacher and he told me to try to get though the day.  But this time I knew something was seriously wrong and I went straight home.  In the next few months, I was hardly able to leave the house.  I had no confidence.  I felt my whole life and career had been a sham; I was a fraud.  I found no pleasure in anything. Life was not worth living.

But I recovered - testimony to the healthcare professionals who supported me. I remember asking the doctor, "Will I ever get better?" He replied, "You will, but I can't say when."  That honesty reassured me and, sure enough, after trying various drugs prescribed by the specialist, one week I just came out of it.  Life was worth living again and my mental health was even better than it had been before.

I did receive some support from the leadership but I was treated like a pariah by certain members of the LEA and its HR department.  I had to face the most incredible aggression: if you can’t do the job, get out! They had never liked me supporting school staff when I should have been locked in my office producing multi-coloured graphs and poring over statistics.  Now was their chance to punish me, when I was at my most vulnerable.

That is going back over 10 years, so surely things have changed... haven’t they?  Princes William and Harry have brought mental health to the forefront of the social agenda and the government have appointed a minister with responsibility for suicide prevention.  But are schools more attuned to the mental health needs of their staff?  Sadly, I’d have to say that there is mounting evidence that things are getting worse instead of better.

One of the problems is the government’s strange determination that all schools should become academies.  In reality, these are businesses often set up and run by business people, often with no experience in education.  These people have to justify their high salaries so they put more pressure on school staff to get better and better results.  How many times have I heard in Monday morning briefings: “We value all of you but you must work harder.”  And like Boxer in ‘Animal Farm’, we must adopt the maxim “I must work harder.  The leadership is always right.”

Leadership puts the most incredible pressure on staff.  Lesson observations are not enough; we now have "learning walks".  A senior leader can walk into a teacher's lesson at any time for a few minutes and, at that point, the teacher must be performing at his or her 'best' level, and learning of the highest order must be demonstrated by all students.  The leader may have missed the best part of the lesson or it could be one of those ridiculously long double periods and the teacher may have sensibly incorporated some 'downtime'.  That is no excuse.

Some schools put the feedback from "learning walks" onto a monitoring system, accessible by staff through an online program.  Often the feedback consists only of highly-critical and even insulting comments.  These can be accompanied by coloured graphs demonstrating how poor the teaching is.  The teacher has no say in any of this.

Teaching is stressful enough as it is, without school leaders and executives adding unnecessarily to it. And, in the new climate of education, it is not unusual for senior leaders to be in their mid-twenties, having taught for only 3 or 4 years, and they are assumed to have the experience needed to make judgements of the competence of others.  But how good is their own teaching?  Often it is "Do what I say, not what I do" as their time is spent furthering their own career rather than supporting students... or teachers.  Can they get their first headship before 30 or 35?

It is not a new phenomenon that power can go the heads of senior leaders, but now, with hardly anyone to answer to, more and more are becoming drunk with power and relentlessly bullying their staff.  They can dismiss teachers with impunity.  If a member of staff has served less than 2 years at the institution, they have next to no rights at all.  Even after 2 years, one needs a lot of money to afford legal representation at a tribunal - the institution will fund theirs from school finances - and tribunal success rates are extremely low.  Even on the off-chance of winning the case, the teacher would probably only receive a relatively small pay-out and not be reinstated. These leaders  will claim of course that they are not bullying but just driving up standards, but how many bullies have the insight to know that they are bullies?  And how many school leaders have the emotional intelligence to recognise the needs of their staff and the damage they are so often doing to them?  All too few.

Sadly, mental health issues are  still stigmatised in our schools.  A broken leg can be seen but mental health problems cannot, so some people still assume that they don't exist.  The sufferer is accused of malingering.  One teacher, absent from school suffering from severe mental health problems brought on by bullying by senior staff was told by e-mail, even before she had been contacted by occupational health, "We would like you to come back on Thursday."  In other words, "You've had a nice rest so there should be no problem about you coming back to work."  It shows a complete misunderstanding of mental health, assuming that a time limit can be put on recovery: "Take five days off work and you should be cured by then."

Schools can be slow, or reluctant, to recognise problems in their organisation.  One HR manager for a trust running a number of academies was asked why half the staff had left one of them.  Her answer?  "Oh, it happens in all schools."  Shouldn't she be saying, "Yes, we must evaluate the way we are doing things and try to identify the problem"?

As Sir John Timpson of the Timpson business empire, who calls all his staff "colleagues",  says: "You can be kind and still makes lots of money."  Kindness has largely disappeared from teaching in terms of the treatment of staff and, with it, the fun.  Teachers have become commodities, put under so much unnecessary pressure that mental health issues have reached almost epidemic proportions.  Many 'cope' by leaving the profession for good; others struggle on until, one way or another, they succumb.  And the leadership spend valuable school finances, meant for the students, on non-stop recruitment and massive salaries for themselves.

So, in a hundred years, what has education learned about mental health issues?  Nothing, it seems.  The Haig mentality prevails: if you can't cope with our absurd expectations and demands, you must be punished.  Perhaps Field Marshal Haig should be appointed the patron saint of British education.

What should YOU do if you are experiencing mental health problems?

·         Be honest with yourself.  Don't blame yourself or put it all down to exhaustion and struggle on.

·         Having mental health problems is nothing to be ashamed of.  Talk about it with trusted family members, friends and colleagues.

·         Seek help.  Your school may be supportive but, if not, record your feelings and what you believe have caused them in writing, in a calm, non-aggressive manner and give this to HR or the headteacher.  This can sometimes spur insensitive leaders into taking action.

·         If the school refuses to support you, you can ask to speak to the chair of governors or lodge a grievance.  If you are in a union, seek their support; if not, find a trusted and strong colleague to support you.

·         If the situation appears beyond recovery, consider looking for another job.  If you know you are never going to be happy at your school, what's the use in staying?  Don't, however, leave on the spur of the moment.  Ensure your health issues are being treated and that you have another job to go to.

·         Seek medical help: go to your GP.  You probably need time off, so don't oppose your doctor signing you off.  Even in your first year at a school, you are entitled to 25 days of paid sick leave.  You are no good to yourself or your students if you are struggling.  Don't make the mistake of thinking that the school and students won't survive without you.

·         Accept medication or specialist support offered by you GP: they could change your life for the better.

·         Contact support organisations such as The Education Support Partnership on 08000-562-561

·         Put yourself first for once. YOU matter!