To think schools are toxic to work in

[Anon331]

Overreaction or accurate description?

I’m a teacher btw. Senior managers are bullies. Talk to you like you’re beneath them. Belittle you infront of kids and other staff. But if you dare raise this then you’re being unreasonable and causing problems!

Never worked anywhere that wasn’t in education. Been in schools for more years than I care to mention.

Yes. I've worked in 5 different high schools for extended periods in that last 12 years. Only one wasn't riddled with those issues.

Since she would have to have ad egret and a postgraduate qualification I find this very hard to believe to be honest.

I have also worked for the local council during uni holidays and have seen applications from people who have 'passed' their teaching degree. I have never seen so many different a spellings of the same halls of residence on my life. I can't remember now whether they were education degree or PGCE qualified (which might explain them being on a campus perhaps) but I can well believe it. They were all grads from one of the bottom performing universities in the country at that time.

My last school was more SLT were ineffectual. Weak members of SLT who had been rubbish in the class room but could talk the talk.

I remember the SLT member in charge of safeguarding telling me, 'well he's a (name of big family within the school with known domestic abuse from their father) they always make a fuss' when said pupil had arrived at school with fresh self harm marks on his wrists and told me he was planning to kill himself. Luckily the schools Ed psych was on site that day and stepped up as soon as I told her.

The rest of SLT would turn and walk the other way if a kid was kicking off - on call would hardly ever arrive if you needed a kid removing from a lesson. And the head was never seen outside of her office - pupils didn't have a clue who she was.

New school is much better. SLT have a real presence in the school they know pupils names. Kids know them and the don't walk away from the tricky situations.

Like any field it depends on the place you work. I have worked in three schools. My first school was extremely toxic, it made me seriously consider quit teaching and I felt sick going into work daily - this was nothing to do with the kids, but the senior leadership.

My second school was amazing, SLT were compassionate and massive advocates of work life balance. I left for a promotion at another school, which is thankfully, just as fantastic.

I've worked in three schools now and that's not my experience at all

Leadership in all three were genuinely committed to the students and staff, lots of work done on staff wellbeing and supporting progression where people wanted it.

At the first school there was a "coven" of long standing staff who could be really unpleasant to incomers, including the new head and were very resistant to any change, but head did really well in unravelling that - I imagine they didn't think particularly highly of him though, or enjoy the way he "treated" them to resolve it.