Ask the question, “How are teachers coping right now?” during the summer holiday, and the answer is likely to refer to exhaustion at the end of the school year and gratitude for the time away from school. But a holiday answer is not the whole truth. It tells you how teachers feel away from the job, not inside it. The truer picture comes from asking the same question, anonymously and at scale, during term time.
That is exactly what Education Support does every year in its Teacher Wellbeing Index, the longest-running study of the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and education staff in the UK. Education Support's answer to the question, “How are teachers coping right now?” is very troubling. The 2025 Teacher Wellbeing Index, the ninth edition, has just reported. It deserves to be read by every school leader in the country.
What the Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025 found
The headline findings are stark: the Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025 (Education Support, 2025) records the worst overall wellbeing scores for education staff since 2019. 78% of education staff report being stressed, and more than one in three have experienced a mental health issue in the past academic year. 77% experienced symptoms of poor mental health caused by their work — not by life in general, but by the job itself.
The pressure is not evenly spread. School and college leaders emerge, as in 2024, as the group at greatest risk: the Index finds they report the highest levels of burnout, exhaustion and acute stress of any group in the education workforce, with the majority of senior leaders reporting stress. The pace of the job tells its own story — staff report working at very high speed and to tight deadlines for most of their working time.
The consequences are very concerning. According to the 2025 Index, 29% of teachers and education staff have not merely thought about leaving because of wellbeing pressures — they have actively taken steps to change or leave their role. Among those considering ending their teaching career, two-thirds cite the volume of workload as a reason. Education Support’s response is a direct call on government: create a national teacher retention strategy with workplace wellbeing at its core.
Behind the percentages
How do the figures relate to an individual school? In a staffroom of thirty colleagues, the Index suggests approximately twenty-three are stressed, more than ten have experienced a mental health issue this year, and around nine have taken steps towards the exit door. In addition to planning lessons, marking books, completing admin tasks, supervising pupils during breaks, liaising with parents, undertaking professional development and running clubs, teachers are holding children’s worries — while carrying their own. Teaching remains deeply meaningful work; the Index is clear that teachers love their work in the classroom. What the data describes is not a workforce that has stopped caring, but a workforce paying too high a price for it.
What schools can do — and how Teach Well Toolkit helps
The most hopeful thing about the Index is what it implies: most of what drives poor staff wellbeing is organisational — workload and the workplace culture — and organisations can change. That is precisely the work Teach Well Toolkit exists to support.
Our FREE Staff Wellbeing Survey gives your school an honest, anonymous baseline of how your own staff are really coping — your school’s answer to the question “How are teachers coping right now?” which the Index asks nationally.
Our accredited Level 2 First Aid for Mental Health training creates trained Mental Health First Aiders in your staffroom, so that the colleague who is struggling has someone safe to turn to. And Teach Well Toolkit School Membership wraps it together into a year-round journey: survey, action plan, trained staff, and the Teach Well Programme — self-study modules for every member of staff and a step-by-step method for the leader building a whole-school culture of wellbeing.
The Teacher Wellbeing Index tells us how teachers are coping right now. The better question — the one your school should ask during term time — is how YOUR teachers are coping right now. We can help you find the answer. You can then act on what you hear.
If you are struggling right now: Education Support’s free, confidential helpline for everyone working in education is available 24/7 on 08000 562 561.
References
Chartered College ofTeaching (2025) Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025: an urgent call to Government. Available at: https://chartered.college/news-blogs/teacher-wellbeing-index-2025/
Education Support (2025)Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025. London: Education Support. Available at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/resources/for organisations/research/teacher-wellbeing-index/
National Education Union(2025) Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025 shows that education staff wellbeing has dropped to its lowest since 2019. Available at:
https://neu.org.uk/latest/press-releases/teacher-wellbeing-index-2025-shows-education-staff-wellbeing-has-dropped-its-lowest-2019