TEACHERS could withdraw from duties because crushing workloads have led to a crisis in recruitment and retention, their largest union affirmed yesterday.

Delegates at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference in Cardiff voted to support action short of strike, as they emphasised that teacher stress was leading to poor learning conditions.

James McAsh, a newly qualified teacher in Lambeth, compared the modern education landscape with the depiction of teaching in the 1967 film To Sir, with Love, starring Sidney Poitier as a young worker in a challenging east London school.