Rethinking Stress in Schools –
By Dr Helen Street
Dr Helen Street
March 4, 2026
Last year, a principal said to me, late in the afternoon, late in the term, “I just wish we could get rid of the constant stress we experience in this job.”
It had been one of those days for her. A staffing issue. A distressed parent. A student wellbeing concern. An urgent system email marked high priority. By the time we were talking, the weight of it all had felt overwhelming.
And yet, as we unpacked the day together, it became clear that every source of stress this well-loved principal described stemmed from something that mattered deeply to her: the safety of students, the integrity of her staff team, the reputation of the school, the wellbeing of families.
The stress wasn’t a sign that something was wrong, it was a sign that something was important.
In education, we often talk about reducing stress. Professional learning sessions are designed around it. Staff wellbeing plans frequently list it as a core target. In fact, I wrote a book specifically about dealing with stress back in 2011 (Life Overload, published by Finch). And while there are certainly forms of stress that are harmful and unnecessary, I believe that our framing needs refinement.
Not all stress is the same, and removing all stress is not a healthy goal or a workable solution. In fact, stress is a natural response to undertaking meaningful work and rising to the challenges of a life that matters.
When we care about outcomes, when we hold responsibility for others, when we strive to improve, stress helps us lean into the challenge of doing important things. The question is therefore, not how to eliminate stress. The question is how we create the conditions that allow people to utilize their stress more effectively and more pro-actively; so that stress ultimately becomes a supportive driver of action, rather than a debilitating barrier.
In my work on contextual wellbeing, I often say:
Wellbeing is not something we build in isolation as individuals; it is shaped within the contexts in which we live and work as social beings.
The same is true for stress. Two teachers can face similar demands with one feeling stimulated and purposeful; and the other feeling chronically overwhelmed. The difference in each teacher’s experience rarely lies in personal resilience alone. It lies in the context surrounding their very similar challenges. In this, we need to ask:
· Do they feel respected?
· Do they experience clarity about expectations?
· Do they feel connected to colleagues?
· Do they have a sense of professional agency?
· Do they believe their effort contributes to something worthwhile?
When these contextual conditions are present, stress is more likely to be perceived as energising rather than depleting. It can sharpen focus, sustain effort and drive engagement. It can even support positive physical and mental health.
When these conditions are absent, the same demands can feel completely debilitating and exhausting.
This is why school leadership matters so profoundly. Leaders do more than manage workload. They shape the environment in which challenge is experienced.
Simply put, within the context of any school:
· If priorities are constantly shifting, stress becomes chaotic.
· If communication lacks coherence, stress becomes confusing.
· If effort goes unrecognised, stress becomes demoralising.
But when expectations are clear, relationships are strong, and purpose is visible, stress takes on a different quality, and a different physiological and behavioural expression. It becomes fuel for school growth.
Perhaps what schools need is not stronger stress reduction strategies, but stronger stress readiness.
Stress readiness recognises that meaningful professions such as education involve pressure. Rather than attempting to eliminate stress, the aim is to ensure people feel supported, capable, and connected as they navigate it. As such ‘stress readiness’ can help an educator embrace stress that supports them.
Stress that supports an educator’s ability to rise to challenge is time-bound, purposeful, and social. It pushes people to refine their practice, deepen relationships, and think creatively. Stress that erodes is unpredictable, isolating, and exhausting. It emerges from unclear expectations, excessive administrative tasks, or environments where people feel undervalued and unsupported. Challenges are therefore more commonly seen as threats.
The leadership task is not to remove all stress. It is to reduce the forms that erode while strengthening the contexts that allow people to navigate stress safely and effectively.
For teachers and school leaders, this begins with intentional reframing:
· When your heart rate rises before a difficult conversation, it may not be a sign of inadequacy. It may be your body preparing you to perform.
· When you feel tension about an upcoming initiative, it may reflect your commitment to doing it well.
· Naming the value underneath the stress restores your agency and sense of control in a challenging situation.
· It also helps to remember that stress becomes more overwhelming when experienced in isolation. As such, staff culture grounded in trust and shared responsibility can transform pressure into collective problem-solving.
Education is inherently relational, involving the complex mix of emotion, aspiration, and uncertainty of human interactions. To try and make it feel calm all of the time is unrealistic, and arguably unhelpful. The goal is not calm at all costs, rather it is calm, confidence and capability through challenge.
Stress, when held in the right context, is not a flaw in the system. It is evidence that something meaningful is underway. Our responsibility is not to avoid that meaning. It is to build school communities strong enough to sustain it well. When schools cultivate environments characterised by respect, belonging, clarity, and shared purpose, stress helps people to live and work well.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Join Helen at the University Club of Western Australia on May 22nd for a full day supporting SCHOOL LEADER STRESS (register at PositiveSchools.com – Note this is a small group session so places are limited)
Sign up for a FULL REGISTRATION to the Positive Schools 2026 conferences ‘BEHAVING WELL’, happening in October and November in Brisbane, NSW and WA; which includes a pre or post conference workshop with Helen LEANING INTO EDUCATOR STRESS (Visit PositiveSchools.com for dates, locations and registrations)
Stress Workshop here.
PositiveSchools.com HelenStreet.com
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