SCHOOLS in Kirklees lost over 7,500 work days last year to stress, the Examiner can reveal.

That’s more than double the number of working days lost due to injury in local schools.

Using data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the Examiner can reveal school staff took 7,506 days off sick in 2009 because of stress.

That brings the total to 33,856 days missed because of stress between the end of 2009 and 2005, when stress was first recorded as a reason for absence.

Stress sick days (SSDs) peaked in 2007 with 9677.6 recorded and they have decreased over the past two years.

But the Kirklees branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) believes this may be the tip of the iceberg with harassed staff reluctant to record stress on their sick notes.

By comparison staff missed 3,227 school days last year because of injury across Kirklees Council’s 195 schools which employ approximately 8,000 teaching and non-teaching staff.

Last year’s greatest loser was Healey Junior Infant and Nursery School, Batley, whose 55 staff took 710 SSDs last year.

Among last year’s worst hit was Almondbury High, which suffered 548 SSDs among its 89 staff.

Shelley College, Netherhall Learning Campus, Rawthorpe, and Mount Pleasant JIN School, Lockwood, were hard hit with 384, 226 and 198 SSDs last year respectively.

But 30 schools recorded zero SSDs from 2005 to 2009, including Almondbury I&N School, Berry Brow I&N School, Grange Moor Primary School, Mirfield Free Grammar School and Wooldale Junior School.

Biggest improvers included Honley High School which recorded 870 SSDs in 2005 and 605 in 2006 compared to 85 in 2008 and 68 last year.

Howard Roberts, secretary of NUT Kirklees, says work-related stress is the main reason why teachers leave the profession early.

But the statistics are just the tip of the iceberg, says Mr Roberts, who has worked for the NUT Kirklees for 30 years.

Mr Roberts said: “The single biggest cause is stress leading to anxiety – but it’s very seriously under-reported because teachers and other people don’t want it to be on their sickness record.

“Doctors will often support them by putting other things on their sick notes.

Want to see the figures for a particular school? Click on the link on the next page to open up an alphabetical PDF table of every school in Kirklees.

“There is enormous pressure from performance league tables and sometimes appalling management.

“They are not bad teachers, it’s just they can’t take it. It’s all through the profession, even amongst senior staff and headteachers.”

Mr Roberts added that troublesome pupils were just one of many causes of stress.

He said: “Some schools have a good team spirit and some are every man for himself. It’s not just with difficult and troubled youngsters.

“It even affects non-teaching staff because they don’t have the authority of teachers.

“Thirty years ago stress used to affect very few people. Now it’s all the time.

“Individuals’ family lives are being ruined. They don’t have a life. There’s alcohol abuse and self-medication and it’s a very serious problem.”

Click here to see the table of every school in Kirklees.

A spokesman for Kirklees Council said: “The figures show there has been a gradual year-on-year reduction in school staff sickness due to stress since 2007, while preliminary figures for the current academic year shows this trend has so far continued.

“This improving trend is a reflection of the efforts made by the council and schools, who have worked very hard to reduce the causes of stress to school staff. The result of this is the continuing fall in staff absence due to stress.

“The council recognises that schools are going through a period of change and as part of our work to reduce absence through stress we have a head teacher wellbeing programme.

“Schools also run wellbeing sessions for all their staff and the council works continuously with schools on absence management, providing special support for schools which are undergoing periods of rapid change.

“We provide counselling for school staff, both over the phone and in face-to-face sessions, and help teachers who have been off work due to stress to ease them back to a full teaching commitment.

“The council’s Employee Healthcare also runs the Heal Scheme, which helps to promote a healthier lifestyle to reduce the effects of unavoidable stress.”