Beyond fucking angry about our primary school

When dd was on primary, there was a change of Head. By Christmas there was an emergency governors meeting because all the staff had signed a joint letter advising of a mass resignation.
She must have been paid off.

Many teachers (far too many) have similar stories to this. I was one of 6 members of staff who left a school at the same time because of a toxic head and a school in total chaos. This was before I became a mum and it horrifies me now to imagine my child being taught in that environment.

A new Head started last month at DC’s school and we’ve already had one email that was passive aggressive in tone. I pushed back and complained about it, but it did make me wonder, if she’s prepared to speak to parents like that, how does she speak to her staff?

I once worked at a school where there was zero monitoring of my teaching, no advice and guidance of how to improve, etc. First another teacher then myself were basically forced out unfairly. I’ll never know why but as both of us were divorced, single parents maybe some level of discrimination….Funnily enough, that same year at least 5 or 6 other highly experienced teachers then decided to leave too.

The member of SMT who orchestrated it was a deep down a very bitter, unhappy person. I don’t know why these people stay in their jobs, they need to be held to account….Hey Mrs Bloggs, why the hell have a quarter of your teachers just resigned???

I did wonder the same, if staff have been there for many years and it had become a comfortable, easy place to work then a new Head intent on improving standards comes in then the boat will be rocked. What were standards like say 5 or 8 years ago? Did they need improving? One person's bullying can be another person's attempt to improve their work standards and that rarely goes well.

We removed our DC from a village primary just down the road from this one due to SLT’s abject failure to deal with persistently disruptive children. It got worse after lockdown, the governors did nothing, and the issues we raised weren’t even logged effectively. Local authority didn’t want to know, even after DC received death threats and were followed home. Over 50% of the staff left at the same time we did, but the Head is still in post. PP are correct, the children suffer the most.

After reading this article and having experience of the leader named in it, I hope a full and honest investigation takes place and action is taken. It saddens me to know that children are being affected by this as well as staff.

How do you find out this information please?

On what planet is it likely that 30 teachers all weren’t up to their job and left because the new head teacher wanted them to work harder?

I agree it's a hell of a lot, though personally I'm assuming nothing and simply wondering about possibilities. The "likelihood" could depend on a lot of things though, such as:

What % of staff the 30 are (in any case the school must be huge?!!)
The timescale the departures were spread over
Whether any of them applied for, and failed to get, the new Head's job
What interpersonal relations were like before the new Head arrrived
Just how entrenched any previous bullying issues were
And more ...

lulublakey1
Whilst some of what you say about change is true, you do not get wholesale departures in this way unless the head is poor at managing. The sad fact is that some people who become heads are poor at communication. They lack warmth and empathy. They do not practise what they preach and they sometimes are unwilling to listen. They see listening to staff as weakness and are so keen to be shown to be strong that they ride rough shod over others. I have worked in several schools and have worked with some good heads. I have also seen some poor practice that has had a serious impact on a school. Getting the best from your staff is part of the head's role. I am sure that all the poor heads I have met or been told about would say that they are getting rid of weak or obstructive staff. I am sure that is what they say to governors or advisors. The problem is they also alienate and lose good staff who they need to keep along the way.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these ridiculous comments are coming from these type of bullying leaders. On what planet is it likely that 30 teachers all weren’t up to their job and left because the new head teacher wanted them to work harder? 🙄
I’ve been teaching for many years and the vast majority of teachers I have worked with are amazing and extremely hard working. I can probably count on one hand the number of ‘lazy coasting’ teachers I have worked with. It’s a constantly scrutinised profession with far more expected than most other careers paying a similarly poor wage.
Unfortunately OP, as others have said, this bullying culture is very common in schools at the moment and you are right to be concerned. If they have all been replaced by young teachers then this will be another red flag.

Just before my DC started at primary school, a new head teacher started and many, many teachers left en masse. New head teacher employed lots of her colleagues from her old school. I have been very unsettled by this toxic behaviour and have been wondering if I should move my child, so it's interesting to see this post and all the replies saying how common it is.

Could be

could be head of governors

?

bullying culture is not good for anyone

This.

Ive been in a similar school. New headteacher started in September - school was ofsted good. Within weeks - I as deputy head was shouted at and called a bitch in front of pupils. By November he had 13 formal complaints against him and had reduced 15 staff at least to tears. He was ‘left for personal reasons’ ie paid until December and ‘asked to leave’. Three years later he pops up as a headteacher for a school 100 miles away…..

why aren’t parents speaking up - if you pull out a 100 children and demand some answers - yes I can see the headteacher will be asked to go - but who will you get as a replacement.

You need to demand a parental consultation meeting with the governors / academy trust to air your concerns

bullying happens in outstanding schools, and failing schools.

don’t listen to press briefings listen to the staff and your child

is it a happy place to work ?

But I read the article as to say that there had been a bullying culture there already which might mean an entrenched group of employees running the show and then throwing their toys out the pram when they got called out by the new head? Maybe the old staff were the problem?

What you are omitting to mention, though, is the scale of departures. I would be very surprised if the issue is not bullying management.

What I read here is a school that has been badly led for a number of years. Staff have not liked it but have become very resistant to change because change means challenge. It sounds like there is a very negative culture amongst all staff. Changing a negative culture in a school is the hardest thing to do. Turning around a school with a positive culture that needs system change is much easier than turning around a school where the culture is so negative.Anyone coming in to change this will upset the negative staff. It is natural that there will be a significant turnover of staff during this time. When someone says 'I used to love my job....' what they often mean us 'I came in, did what I liked, how I liked and no one checked up on me. Now they do I don't like it.'

I work with new Heads in challenging circumstances. They all face resistance from staff when they take over schools- often the leadership team has embittered people who applied for the job and were not appointed and do not support the Head. Or they have new and less experienced people on the SLT and staff resent that and the people are still learning how to manage challenging staff. If the staff have been very anti the previous Head and his/her systems, the middle leaders have probably also done a weak job and are now being asked to step up and work differently and don't like that. New systems never bed down easily- some staff, often stuck in a rut, unwilling to do anything differently staff will resist them. It will be a tough couple of years. Teachers are quick to complain in these circumstances and what will happen is:

Some will get onboard quickly recognising what is needed.
Some will take a while but see the sense and buy into it.
Some will be unhappy and leave. The Head will appoint new staff who will support his/her ways.
Some will be remain and be very resistant but will have to make a decision- either get on board or leave

A strong Head will win over staff. They do have to make tough decisions. The ones who refuse to be won over and continue to be difficult and shit-stir will end up leaving one way or another.

Just going to ask again for those that seemingly support the head

A couple of questions to those that think that the teachers that left are just upset at being found out to be coasting/crap/bullies.

Do you really honestly believe that they have all been put on improvement/support plans?

Do you really believe that they are all crap teachers and they don't want to work?

Do you really believe that the head has done everything in their power to support these teachers as they are required to do in the school's policies?

Remember that this is 30 members of staff.

Impossible to tell without knowing the full situation but I was getting 'sour grapes' undertones from the teachers statements in the article. Combined then with what the Council said about Ofsted and I suspect it's more likely that the new head was brought in purposefully to improve the teachers who were coasting and failing already.

I worked in a secondary as support staff in a professional pastoral role. Never. Again. I’ve never met so many mean girl bullies in one work place. Many of whom had only ever been educated in a school to then work in a school. I have honestly never seen anything like it. Interestingly my old school can’t even get cover teachers in such is it’s reputation.

This is very common unfortunately. It is normal for a few staff to leave when there is a new management team. However, it is a bad sign if many staff leave. A good leader should be able to take the staff with them. They should be able to recognise and value existing strengths as well as develop any weaknesses.

Omg I worked at a Cambridgeshire school that sounds very like this one! Horrible

I second what others have said. This is so common in schools. My last school had a really horrible head and almost all the staff left. It was an utterly toxic place to work.

Bullying is rife in schools, staff are worst than the children sometimes.

Modern Britain - where bullies thrive. This situation is repeated up and down the country in workplaces.

The advice from professionals if your boss is a bully/narc etc = leave workplace yourself to get away. That’s what those teachers did. Who can blame them?

I left teaching the term our new head started, nothing to do with her it was already planned. Very quickly what was a successful, happy, family orientated school became a very unhappy place ro work, with very low staff morale. Colleagues were told they were luars, she played each off the others, and 3 amazing staff left due to bullying, 1 completely left teaching.

The head quickly moved onto another another , larger primary where exactly the same issues emerged. Staff refused to go in to ANY meeting with her in a 1:1 situation because of the bullying and lies spouted.
Eventually staff (not just teaching staff), unions were involved and they did a vote of no confidence in the head and basically she left before she was kicked out. She willnever teach again. Head of governors also left because he said the school had lost faith . and he didn't want it to affect the school. I don't know the ins and outs of what the governors knew etc.

My friends who had left school 1. all had a celebratory drink that night. Its wrong that 1 personcan affect so many.

This could be the case of old entrenched teaching not being happy with new leadership, or it could be new leadership wants certain teachers out, but coming up to 30 yrs since I qualified I have NEVER guard of numbers like that leaving a school which would seem to me that the new regime /leadership could be the problem.