Beyond fucking angry about our primary school

Sounds to me like long term, entrenched members of staff couldn't adapt to the New Broom tbh.

My goodness, my sister went to that school, decades ago though. So weird to see it suddenly like that.

They don't have to be. But they are public documents and must be made available to anyone who asks to see them (excluding confidential minutes, which should be a separate document).

My dgs began secondary this term. He was on his third day when the head got arrested and charged with sexual abuse.
The same head had been accused of bullying 3 years ago and still kept his job.

It’s awful to think teachers will be upset and anxious when they should be able to enjoy their work and inspire and encourage the pupils in their charge.

I became a school governor after a change of head. The previous head had been fantastic and it was a lovely, nurturing school.

The new one was a nightmare - very inexperienced, micromanaging and she appeared to have modelled herself on Dolores Umbrage. At the end of her first year she had retained just one member of staff, the least experienced one. She had been fast tracked into becoming a head and it was a terrible mistake. She slowly - and with a lot of resistance from the governors - changed so many of the very great things about the school. I resigned from being a governor after a teacher had been appointed to teach year six who was totally unsuited to the role. She turned out to be as bad as everyone predicted. It was a miserable final year for so many of the students.

The school went from very good to special measures. It was shocking how quickly things changed and I was horrified at the spitefulness of an immature and out of her depth leader. She should have been fired at the end of the first year but by then it was too late really as so many staff were leaving.

I had something like this once. Worked in a happy primary school, great staff morale, very low turnover as everyone was happy. Most staff were women in their 30s and 40s so plenty of experience.

Head retired. New (male) head in his first headship, had been deputy in an inner-city school with high turnover. He was the worst human being I've ever met. Immediately started trying to bully people out. Didn't like working with experienced teachers who might (politely) question reasons for changes.

His sort of changes included cancelling all post-SATs treats for Year 6 like leavers' trips, end of year shows, etc "because they should be on timetable doing the regular curriculum every day till the end of year 6." He complained that the staff at his previous school had never moaned about working till 7pm so we were obviously all lazy. He liked to catch people alone in their classrooms after school so he could harangue them about what crap teachers they were and reduce them to tears. Every day there was someone sobbing in the staffroom. He was horrifically misogynistic and spoke to women with contempt. Suddenly people who had only ever had Good or Outstanding judgements on their teaching were being told all their lessons were inadequate. He wanted to get rid of expensive older teachers and replace them with cheaper NQTs/ECTs.

Within 18 months of his arrival the entire staff (bar one) had left and he was running the school with only (mostly male) NQTs and supply teachers (word had got round the area, no one wanted to work there). I left, obviously. Parents were appalled at the mass resignations of staff.

I am happy to say I now live hundreds of miles from him and hopefully will never see him again. I've worked in three schools since then and all have had much better morale and management. After we all left, his school was academised and the trust who took it over brought in a female executive principal who overruled all his decisions. Hope he hated it!

@worriedmummyself you should change the logo - you shouldn't use the school's official one.

So if you get a ton of anonymous signatures, what then? You need names not anonymity and most people won't do that, especially if their children are at the school.

A warning to parents. Ignore the ofsted reports and look at staff turnover for schools when chosing. I've chosen my dds school for next year based on staff turnover and length of time the head and other staff have been there. A spread of ages in the staff has also played a part in my choice. Its a good school, others in the catchment are outstanding but the staff turnover is much higher. The local oversubscribed outstanding school had a new head 2 years ago and is staffed almost entirely buy very young staff, the SLT are all late 20s or early 30s apart from the head, there are no teachers over 35 there.

Sadly, this kind of behaviour is endemic across many professions. I'm a nurse and previously worked in a lovely ward, our senior charge nurse was fantastic, great morale between staff and we were genuinely like one big happy work family! Unfortunately our SCN retired and a new one was appointed. She was a huge bully, spoke to staff like something stuck to the bottom of her shoe. So many knowledgeable, experienced staff left which ultimately had an impact on patient care.

I would think that if the parent body kicked up enough of a stink, then coupled with this already negative media attention, the headteacher (or whoever exactly the person in question is) could be removed or at least put on a warning. I'm not sure of the exact procedure you should follow as I'm in Scotland and I'm aware that English schools have different school structures ie governers etc, but there has been some really good advice on this thread already.

Such a shame as ultimately, it's the children who are affected by this.

There is a check box underneath the sign this petition box that says
"Do not display my name and comment on this petition"

I would like to sign this but need to remain anonymous. I understand how those staff feel and the children too. I felt that dread and fear. It saddens me to see that this has continued.

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?

Because having been in the education system with heads that bully and have their own favourites I can honestly say that it is far more likely that these teachers have a point and the head is a bully.

This school is a joke with the head in charge. My child was doing ok at the school till she came along. Then she changed all plans put in place to support him and told me he wouldn’t fit in at the school because he was a little behind from being constantly in and out of hospital. I know of one class that had a different teach near enough everyday because there teacher quit.

That's how I read it too.

I haven’t worked at that school but have experienced the new headteacher’s leadership style. Let’s just say that I thought the article was about this.

My last permanent teaching job lost all their teachers, including me, over a two year period due to the head. Somehow it's managed to hang onto it's teachers since Covid, so maybe the head got the message and started managing things better.

In most of the schools I have worked in, long term or supply, if there are major issues then it's usually created by the senior leadership team. It's easy to say say its the teachers that end up being forced out that are the issue, but many of those same teachers go on to be considered outstanding teachers elsewhere. If a school is in chaos, even the best class teacher can't make much of a positive impact.

Unfortunately in schools those that end up in senior leadership positions aren't often the best at managing people.

If a school has such a high turnover, then I'd strongly suspect there's huge problems with the way it's being led.

Is it ever really possible for a head to be removed from their post because they have behaved so badly towards their staff?

Yes. I was union rep at a school with an awful abusive head.

It took me a year's work, gathering evidence and taking 50 different cases throught the complaints process (to then be ignored).

I managed to sign just about every single member of staff up to the same union and then we said we would simply strike continuously until she was no-longer employed. They sacked her the day before the strike started.

Bottom line, if staff all stick together the school governors will have to act- no matter how distant (ours were based in London). If it's already hit the papers a huge amount will have gone on before that point to try to get the governors to respond. Teachers just don't talk to the press unless there is no other choice- it's really bad for our careers.

That’s also how I’m reading it. I’ve read a few articles and the bullying seems to have happened over a number of years. Someone’s come in to put a stop to it from the sounds of it, and some of the staff ‘failed to rise to the challenge’.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-abuse-of-power-from-the-senior-leadership-team-at-bassingbourn-primary-school

@Dabralor SJPS?

The problem is, good teachers don't necessarily make good managers. They don't receive enough management training either to hone their skills. So they resort to 'control', which is a horrible situation for everyone.

she got rid of the shit teachers who wailed like babies instead of stepping up and doing their job properly

This shows how easy it is for bad heads to get away with treating teachers like crap.

It is not known how the head treated the staff that left, yet they are presumed to be "shit" and "wailed like babies". It is also not known whether the staff that left "stepped up" or not.

The truth is that there are very few ways of stopping a poor head teacher. and if its an academy even less.

I read that news report differently. It seemed to be suggesting the new leadership team were there to sort out historical bullying instead of actually doing the bullying.

Read the ofsted. The subject leaders were letting down the other staff and they were all letting the kids down.
Imagine the new head told them to pull their finger out of their arse and get their bloody curriculum plans done and sharpish.
The media can spin it how they want but looks like the school is better off

Is this the current head teacher?