More than 7,400 school days were missed by Bradford teachers suffering from stress in less than a year.

There have been 227 teachers in the district off work suffering from the problem over the last 11 months.

And one teacher has told how the stress at an inner-city Bradford primary school got so bad that she became scared to leave her home.

The figures obtained by the Telegraph & Argus under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 7,473 school days have been missed in Bradford because of the problem in the period.

There are 4,069 teachers in the Bradford district who work around 800,000 days a year.

Teaching unions in Bradford say large workloads and a pressure to improve results are responsible for teachers feeling unable to work.

A Bradford councillor has called on education bosses to bring the issue to a public meeting to allow it to be debated. Councillor Phil Thornton, who chairs Bradford Council's Young People and Education Improvement Committee, said: "I find these figures to be alarming and I would like to see this brought through our committee where we can address this."

One teacher who has worked in Bradford for eight years at three different primary schools said stress forced her to quit a job she had loved.

The 39-year-old, who asked to be anonymous, has just resigned from her job at a Bradford primary school, having been off since last September.

In December 2004 she moved to a new school but was forced off sick last year. She cited poor management and communication as the biggest problem.

She said: "By the end of the summer term I didn't want to go out, I didn't want to talk to people, sometimes I wouldn't get out of bed. I went to the doctor and was given anti-depressants and I didn't feel safe anywhere but in my home and any contact with the school would make me very distressed.

"I would feel sick approaching the school and I wasn't eating or sleeping."

Her health has now recovered but she wants to see more support for teachers who find themselves in the position she was in.

"I think a lot of teachers are incredibly tired and demoralised," she said. "When you are working with people who are at a level of exhaustion and low morale they need building up before you push more new things onto them.

"By the summer last year I felt my spirit had been broken and I was a shadow of my former self. I didn't like the person I was becoming "And the saddest thing is that I was forced to leave a job which I felt I was born to do."

Stuart Herdson, the Bradford branch secretary and senior-vice president of the ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers), said teachers in the district faced verbal and physical abuse from parents and pupils every term.

He said: "One teacher from a Bradford primary school who approached us about stress has said I have been doing eight years of SATS and I feel great pressure to increase the value added score of pupils.

"I do not stop talking about it or thinking about it even when I'm at home. I have a longer working day but I'm achieving less, I'm working from 7.30am until 6pm and then going home and doing some more work at home and working at least one day a weekend on paper work. I have no time or energy for other things in life. I feel totally exhausted and unable to concentrate or focus'."

Mr Herdson called on Bradford Council to make attending stress management courses compulsory for all management staff.

And Bradford's NUT branch secretary Ian Murch said he believed the problem was even worse than the results suggested because teachers were afraid of citing stress as a reason for being off sick.

Mr Murch said the pressure of teachers workload, dealing with unruly pupils and the pressure to improve results were the contributing factors in causing stress.

A Bradford Council spokesman said it was is committed to supporting "all of its employees in all circumstances relating to their health and well-being at work".

In total there were 36,608 school days missed through ill health by Bradford school staff in the 11 months.

A total of 2,629 school staff were off sick during this period.

e-mail: john.roberts@bradford.newsquest.co.uk