In the context of Stress Awareness Week November 5th – 9th we need to revisit the situation in our schools with teachers and school leaders under ever increasing stress. In August 2017 I wrote in this column about the escalating problems of low teacher morale as a result of budget cuts, increasing class sizes and difficulties of pupil indiscipline. A year on, things are certainly no better. Even with the removal of the 1% public sector pay cap, teacher pay increases and money for schools can only be found from existing funding allocations and that seems a distant prospect.

Last week BBC Northern Ireland Education Correspondent Robbie Meredith reported that 446 schools are now in budget deficit and in a