Blackpool school leader says pressure on headteachers "makes them ill"
A poll found more than half have seen a negative effect on their mental health
Headteachers are becoming "ill" due to the pressures of the job, according to a Lancashire school leader.
It comes as a poll by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) found that more than half of those surveyed reported a negative effect on their mental health in the past year, with some quitting their jobs.
The NAHT's president, Rachel Younger, said: "Headteachers love the job, but it's just too hard to sustain it.
"It basically just makes them ill and nobody's job should ever do that to them."
The survey also found that only one in five senior school leaders are prepared to make the step up.
Ms Younger, who also works as school business manager at Blackpool St Nicholas CE Primary School, added: "They see what the head teacher that they were currently working with is going through and it's really off putting, to be honest.
"They're looking at what's happening to their colleagues and thinking, 'I just don't want that'."
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, has called for more to be done to restore school leadership as an attractive proposition and for "real ambition" on pay, funding, inspection and workload.
The findings have been published ahead of the NAHT's annual conference in Harrogate in North Yorkshire taking place today and tomorrow.
Conference delegates will debate a motion which says school leaders have been pushed to "crisis point" and have quit due to the pressures of the job.
The motion - which is due to be debated on Saturday - calls for an "urgent focus" on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of school leaders.