The staff room is by no means the only and best place teaching professionals can seek advice.
Since 1999 Teacher Support - a charity committed to improving the well-being and effectiveness of teachers from training to retirement - has assisted teaching professionals in England and Wales (this line was launched in 2002) with any personal and professional advice they might need via its 24-hour telephone line, the National Support Service.
Acknowledging the Scottish education system and its teachers often have unique needs, in August, and after a year-long trial period, Teacher Support launched a Support Service for Scotland too.
"Teaching is a unique and at times very challenging career," said Teacher Support's Joe Williams, on why such a specialist resource is needed.
"Career progression works very differently than in other professions so a bespoke support service, on careers, well-being and other areas, is highly needed."
Williams cites the education sector's need for specific qualifications, unique school cultures and diverse expertise and backgrounds as some of the factors driving demand for a tailored service such as the support line.
As well as the support line - run by 12 coaches and counsellors from Commercial Primary School in Dunfermline - teaching professionals can also seek advice from Teacher Support via its online coaching programme or its comprehensive, online fact sheet library.
This resource offers detailed advice ranging from identifying energy curves, the ideal language to use on a CV and a seemingly Trinny and Susannah-inspired What Not to Wear interviews advice sheet..
"A personalised service is important because the experiences of teachers can differ radically depending on their school, region, age and more," said Williams.
Although the personalised nature of the telephone service seems well-suited to dealing with personal or private issues such as family relationships and bereavement, teachers seeking career-related advice are also very common callers - and have revealed professional problems can be just as delicate.
Working conditions (including concerns about workload and organisational management ) accounted for 32% of the trial's queries with health and well-being concerns making up 18% of calls - both glaring confirmations of teaching's current elephant in the classroom - unacceptable levels of workforce stress.
Take Lewis (full names have been withheld for confidentiality) a Newly Qualified Teacher eager to make a good impression in his first post, who went overboard trying to impress.
"When I started, I was really keen to make as good an impression as possible," he said. "I was working hard in the classroom and spending my weekends preparing lessons. I'd also volunteered for a whole heap of extra-curricular stuff - trying to get involved in as much as possible and help out the school."
It wasn't long before Lewis was struggling to get everything done and, despite wanting to be a teacher since he was young, began to feel anxious he was in the wrong profession.
A Support Service coach helped Lewis to explore his difficulties and perception of his job. It was soon established his ambitious workload, not the role itself, was what was causing him problems.
For workload and stress-related queries such as this, self-correcting coping strategies are often suggested.
Lewis was advised to try 'to-do lists', stick to strict prioritisation, and was encouraged to ask colleagues for help and to say no. He was told there was no shame in using existing lesson plans available online and at his school.
"I began to understand better that being keen to impress is a good thing, but my dedication cannot be at the cost of my own well-being," he said.
"Working through evenings and weekends was counter-productive, as the stress from not having time away was affecting my ability to see my work clearly.
"By agreeing short-term goals and trying to organise my time better, I felt much more at ease about my workload and I'm regaining my passion for teaching."
Similar techniques helped Erin, a teacher who had held the same post within her school for nearly 20 years, when she told by another teacher she was difficult to communicate with. Initially she lost confidence in her abilities and felt demoralised, but talking to a Teaching Support coach helped her gain perspective.
"Chatting with the coach meant I could see the picture much clearer," said Erin.
"It helped me think about my opinions and how they differed from people around me at work. It helped me decide what to do next, what I was most comfortable with and I think I can now resolve the situation."
Working with teachers to change their self-perception has been very successful, says Williams. Plus, empowering teachers to take control of their own working lives in this way is in line with the existing Continued Professional Development (CPD) framework for teaching professionals, identified as essential by 1997's Dearing Report (lecturers, for example, are required to complete 30 hours CPD annually) something Teacher Support's sister organisation, Worklife Support, helps implement.
Similarly to CPD, Teacher Support's self-motivational advice encourages teachers to question their own part in a problem.
Supporting teachers, and in turn their schools (bettering education overall and student experience is part of the bigger picture for Teacher Support) isn't all there is to be gained.
There seems to be potential to use this constant interaction via the support line, for gaining insight into what needs attention organisation wide.
"Our contact with teachers offers a unique insight into the multifaceted issues that teachers experience both in and out of school," said Williams.
"Our Support Line is used by the broad range of teachers from across the UK. Because we interact with thousands of teachers every year, we can gather information and give a detailed, up-to-date and authoritative picture of what issues are affecting the profession."
