Beyond fucking angry about our primary school

[Whattheactualhell123]

This article has just
appeared in our local paper about my kids primary school - I'm so upset for the kids and the remaining staff sticking it out.

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/former-teachers-slam-toxic-culture-27669063

Rumours have been circulating and heated debates launched on the school whattsapp from time to time about the new head.

In all honesty what power do we really have to make any changes for a better learning environment for our children and the teachers?

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

What would you personally do if this was your kids school?

If you are a teacher or support staff (apparently the PA had an awful time too!) who has left this school due to this person I am so sorry that you have been so utterly failed in your profession. ❤️

I'm sorry, but it's more common than you think. This is why teachers are leaving the profession. I've been teaching for 26 years and I survive by being part time.

This kind of bullying is absolutely rife in schools.

It was a stand-in head who was an utter demon at the last school I worked at. I watched her take people down, one by one. The place ran on absolute fear - everyone was terrified of falling out of favour. By the time she got to me I was so scared of her that I left both the school and the profession. My Doctor straight out asked me if the job was worth a breakdown. It wasn't.

After I left, a member of staff under 30 had a heart attack due to stress, good teachers have had to sue for decent references and someone off sick committed suicide.

The bitch is an Ofsted inspector now. She'll fit right in.

But if you read the story you see that the changes were made because staff were failing the kids in the first place. Those that couldn’t hack it left.

We had a similar hack piece in the local paper after our new headteacher joined a few years ago. She’s fab and the school has got so much better - she got rid of the shit teachers who wailed like babies instead of stepping up and doing their job properly

There have been historical bullying allegations at the school over several years which resulted in the local authority conducting a review identifying that the school needed to make rapid improvement in its provision. This was also the findings in the Ofsted inspection which many staff found difficult to accept and left as a result.
"Expectations for children's behaviour and learning have increased and the focus has been put on improving teaching to improve behaviour but again, some staff found this a challenge

The last Ofsted report in April 2022 was Requires Improvement, having slipped from Good. I suspect that combined with having a new head has a lot to do with staff turnover.

Any school that gets new leadership followed by a mass exodus of staff (dressed up in newsletters as retirement, seeking a new challenge, having a baby, focusing on family life) is almost always a result of a toxic culture.

I'm not surprised seeing it happen in my DC secondary - day to day DD2 last left there is fine but she chose her options with an eye on who was likely to stay.

I've had some interactions with leadership and they were awful. They won't go as they really struggled to find any head last time they looked.

I’ve taught in 2 schools like this, and each one has massively affected my mental health, and left me permanently scarred.

In the first of the two it was so awful and I really couldn’t cope with it, so I attempted suicide twice.

Despite teaching in different schools in between the two and them thankfully being a lot better, and now teaching in yet a different one after, I still feel like a shell of my former self - in my professional and personal life. My confidence just isn’t there anymore.

Someone very important in my life has been through very similar - again, in 2 schools. They have never been themselves ever since, and took early retirement as they just couldn’t take the risk in going to another school and it happening a 3rd time.

I have decided that until I can find a non-Teaching job, that I’ll try my best to get into Senior Leadership. At least that way I’ll remove one potential arsehole from above me. The trouble is, I lack confidence thanks to the way I’ve been treated so it’s unlikely. I would also refuse to treat anyone else like shit, so I don’t think I’d fit in with a lot of SLT I’ve known.

All adds more context doesn't it?

Like a PP I've also known a school where the (very necessary) drive for improvement led to a complete witch hunt, and as ussual with these things I expect there's another "side" to the one being presented

That statement from the council does shine a different light on it but I can't imagine it being a "bullying clique" if 30 members of staff have left the primary school (I struggle to imagine a primary school with that many staff anyway, it must have been huge).

What stands out is, according to Ofsted, it was previously good and was downgraded to requires improvement last year.

https://www.bassingbourn.cambs.sch.uk/assets/OfstedReport.pdf

Is this the current head teacher?

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

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.

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.

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.

@Dabralor SJPS?

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

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’.

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.

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.

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.

That's how I read it too.

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.

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.

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.

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