A teacher who suffered a nervous breakdown triggered by a head teacher who shouted at him, criticised him to pupils and allowed discipline in school to collapse has been awarded £300,000 sterling. The teacher became irrational and suffered delusions after he was pushed down stairs by a pupil in his Shropshire school in February 1996. The teacher, who is 45, took early retirement and is not expected to work again.

"This teacher has suffered dreadful stress which could have been dealt with if the authority had intervened as soon as it was aware of it," said the general secretary of Britain's National Union of Teachers (NUT). Neither the man nor the school has been identified.

According to the NUT, the new headmaster, who was appointed in January 1995, ignored staff and promoted a divide-and-conquer approach to managing staff. Four months later, the teacher began showing signs of stress-related symptoms.

He is said to be fearful and haunted, constantly looking over his shoulder and unable to cope with strangers. He rarely leaves home and has not slept properly for two years.