Some advice required on behaviour at work

[Supergirlthesecond]

Hi,

I have been reading another thread on here where the poster thinks she is being bullied and I would appreciate some advice from others on my experience in a job.

I was a supply teacher, brought in last minute, as the teacher handed in her notice. Two teachers left that class in a year, both had been long term staff (one was the Dept Head). That suggests to me that there were existing problems in the dept. I worked for a term and was asked to take a one year contract with them with view to permanency (as one yr was all that was available at the time.) At the end of the year, I asked about the contracts available and was told that there was only another temporary one going. I saw the post advised and it said permanent and that there were two positions available. I asked the head if it was def temporary or pemanent and she said that we say it is permanent as otherwise we don't get any applicants. (??!!!)

It felt clear to me that they didn't want me to apply. I, equally, was so shocked at what I had seen in the school that I had no desire to stay but I had been very discreet about that. I never said a single negative word about anyone or thing, was constantly positive and set up many smaller projects that would make things much easier for staff going forward, yet in the end, I was treated in such a disrespectful way that I am still left with this feeling I can't really shake off. Normally, I can see that some places are just the wrong fit for me but actually, this place did fit in many ways and it is in the general area I grew up which makes me feel isolated by my own local community. I am also thrown by this because I don't believe that all of the people there are problematic but by the end even someone I had worked closely with, become friends with and shared confidences with, has affectively blanked me. There is a lot more but overall, I am struggling with this sense of being humiliated and manipulated in a space that I worked incredibly hard to maintain as professional and of good quality.

Any advice appeciated.

Anyone out there??!!!

Work somewhere else?

Not alot you can do.

You say you had no desire to stay, so I would move on.

It doesn't sound like you want to stay to be honest.

But if I've got that wrong and then what was the disrespectful behaviour from colleagues?

Some schools are just bad places and it has nothing to do with you.
I just left my job at a primary school and I am sad about this. But I resigned due to very similar reasons as you.
And it is sad. This school is full of families from my local community, people I see regularly. And I never ask but do wonder how they, the families, tolerate the ice-cold staff there? Overall, misery reigned amongt staff members. I think this feeling just spreads like a malignancy and the reality is that most people end up working for years, unhappily, in one place. And what binds them together is their misery. I could have stayed on. That's the thing. I could have stayed on because actually, the kids were great. But it wasn't the right fit at all for me.
And I think this is the case for you. It ultmately wasn't the right place for you.
I left and not one person I was close to has contacted me to check-in. The thing is, I knew they wouldn't. I knew the people I got on with weren't ever going to become genuine friends because of the whole vibe of the place.
Next time, share nothing, OP. In a school, listen, nod your head, but never ever ever share grievances. Colleagues in a school are rarely true friends. In our school, everyone was after everyone's job. It was horrible.
I don't think many schools are like this. Like everything, sometimes you hit the slots and it's all lemons. Find another school to work in or change career paths.

You could have applied for the posts in the advert that you saw though?

Your post is a bit confusing, because you asked them about jobs even though you then go on to say that you didn't want to stay anyway, and then extrapolated the lack of new job offer to being rejected by your home community. That's a lot to read into a job tbh, OP! Do you have form for over-thinking situations?

Thank you all for replying.

I know you are all right. My gut instinct when I
started is that there was something wrong there but I wondered if I was being too sensitive. As time went on there were lots of significant, small incidences that occurred that made me think the whole place was a mess. Sometimes, quite bizarre stuff. I just can't work out why I feel genuinely hurt at how it all ended up.

ChicCroissant - yes, at times I do! I didn't mean it to sound quite so dramatic though. I had kept my thought sabout the school private and worked very hard. I think I feel that I worked that hard and yet it was obvious they didn't want me to stay and I wonder what more I could have done. Yet at the same time, my head could see it was all a bit of a personality contest there and usually, I steer clear of people/situations like that because there is always some other agenda going on.

Am not sure what your 'experience' was? You were on a temp contract at a school. At the end of contract you asked about more work and they said only another temp contract. You pointed out the ad said permanent, they said that was false and only temporary available, as tallies with what you were told. But you didn't want to work there anyway?

Is the issue that you think that they lied to you, and the adverts were in fact for permanent jobs?

TheVanguardSix - what I find hard to understand is the love in between the parents and the school. Everyone gushes at how great it is yet there is a real mockery towards what is considered good practice. I feel like everyone thinks the school is fabulous, as it is 'outstanding' but the practices there were some of the worst I have seen.

Everything else you said is very relevant - lots of staff 'stuck' and fed up but at a good payscale (and they are vocal about this and how they would leave if they could get good pay elsewhere) and very, very negative.

I am sorry if I sound all over the place - I kind of feel it after this school. It has left me feeling really insecure about the word of work.

BarrenFieldofFucks - yes, they took on 2 people on permanent contracts.

Sounds like there is poor leadership and low morale. You've tried to implement things and have been met with resistance, not a v good work culture at all. Sounds like you're better off out of it tbh unless you are positive you can make a change.

I know in my workplace we're often allocated funding for fixed term contracts with a view to them becoming permanent depending on the needs of the service - could this be perhaps the issue with the available posts?

The schemes of work were a big issue in the dept. Clearly they had been put together by someone in the past and over time bits had changed or been removed and what was left was a real mish mash of different bits from old staff. They had used an online resourec but no longer had the licence so you only had the free bits and pieces and none of the substance or real learning parts. In our weekly meetings I saw another member of staff try and address this, very delicately and with good ideas and she was completely cut down (she is quite badly bullied there, in my opinion). There is a general disregard for what is considered good practice and everything is either rushed through or over controlled. Morale is low and there is definitely a battle going on between senior management and some very mixed messages coming out. I don't know why I 'm giving it a second thought, actually. It was a nightmare. Some of the things that happened were beyond stupid and you just don't take those risks with young children. I respected their experience and years in the job but actually it was just a very controlling and dysfunctional place.

Everyone gushes at how great it is yet there is a real mockery towards what is considered good practice. I feel like everyone thinks the school is fabulous, as it is 'outstanding' but the practices there were some of the worst I have seen.

I hear you! I know I mentioned that I don't ask local parents how they feel about the school (mainly because I've been working there) but when my own kids started primary school, I didn't choose that school simply because it's divided into infants and juniors and at the time, you needed to apply for the junior school once they finished infants (really weird and it's the only school I've come across that's done this). Anyway, for that reason, my own kids didn't go to this 'outstanding' primary school. I didn't want to reapply in year 2.
After working there, I am SO glad I didn't send my kids there. You really don't know until you're behind those walls what it's like.

@TheVanguardSix Thanks for this. You have said what I needed to hear and couldn't tell myself. :-)

@TheVanguardSix That is strange because this school is the same. Its in London...The infats gets good results but the juniors doesn't and because, on paper the infants is outstanding, it looks as though the juniors are at fault however the fault is really with the infants not preparing the children properly. It is all fake. Really, really fake. (teachers use TAs to do the kids work and use
that for a display each year and make it look as though the kids have done it, then it is stored and brought out the following year for each topic).

Oh my heavens. I wonder if we're at the same school!

!!!!!Run, run for the hills......

Mine's in London too. Without being to 'outy' is yours also divided into an infants on one site and a juniors on the other? Is it close to the river?

*too outy

Not really, a combined site with one end infants, the other, juniors. I wonder if these problems come up a lot in schools like this, though. Bit of a them and us mentality.