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. ❤️

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.

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 ...

How do you find out this information please?

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.

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.

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.

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???

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?

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.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

What % of staff the 30 are (in any case the school must be huge?!!)

A quick google of the school shows the PAN as being 420 with current numbers being at 386 pupils.

30 members of staff is excessive given that the school won't have 30 teachers at any point in time as it would be classes of 14 pupils, so its a high number of teachers, support staff and associate staff that have left since the head started.

Unless you are still going to push the narrative that its the staff and not the head.

There is little doubt that the Board of Governors must have been aware of a serious problem that resulted in 22 staff leaving in such a short space of time. It would be interesting to have an understanding of which governors participated in exit interviews, to have sight of these records in any investigations/actions that were undertaken to address the problems as a result of their findings. If nothing was done and they buried their heads in the sand or turned a blind eye, then the governors are equally culpable in promoting and allowing this toxic culture to remain unchallenged and need to instantly resign for dereliction of duty. How can one with any credibility act in the best interest of promoting the health and safety of children whilst being a silent and colluding in the abuse of staff caring and teaching these children?
What hope or belief could anyone reasonably hold that this kind of leadership could have a child’s best interest to the forefront if such challenges arose. An appalling situation to be allowed to continue- where is the accountability? Neither do I believe that this is a historic problem, it seems to be that the resignation of 22 staff within a short period of time should simplify the identification of the root causes.

We’ve had similar about DS high school… head teacher is toxic and from what I’ve heard half the staff hate her… the school has been in the local news several times the last week over other stuff so hopefully she gets pushed out.

That number of teachers leaving is a clear message. What's even more telling is that TAs and admin staff have left too. These are the people whose jobs are poorly paid - they often live in the community and work there because it's convenient. The school must be awful for people to give up a convenient job with school hours.

By the way, I've been a teacher for 25 years and I can count on one hand the number of lazy and coasting teachers I've met. Even the poor teachers I've come across have been hard-working and had good intentions, and the burnt out ones were trying their best.

This happened in the school I worked at as an HLTA. After 20 happy years I just had to leave, as had 75% of the staff by the end of the new Head’s first year.

As an ex primary teacher this does not surprise me one bit.

I’ve seen it happen in most schools I’ve worked in. Schools can be truly toxic places.

Personally, I would deregister my children from that school.

To my knowledge. there was no historical bullying - im sure the prevouse SLT might have something to say about this - I'd be raging to have such spurious claims put out there.

It was just such a happy school - not perfect but did its best.
Interestingly the Governors minutes used to be on the website but were taken down not long after the Ofsted report.
The chair of Gov wrote a letter after the result from Ofsted outlining that ‘They were aware of areas needing improvement.…etc.. Where was this mentioned
In the minutes? It wasn't, because I read every single one and, nothing!
Ofsteds reputation is completely on the line at the moment. Most sensible people put the result down to bad luck on the day!

@LuluBlakey1 are you the head in question? It's a school, not the military fgs! Change should not come at the expense of peoples’s mental health!! Some of the Staff have been traumatised by their experiences - people in power have no idea how intimidating they can be.

@cansu i agree with everything you said
@Mutters123 agree with you also
@Cookiecrisps 💐 sorry you had an awful experience

@EllieDen you have hit the nail on head! The board of Govenors are 100% culpable. In matters such as described in the article - it demonstrates, that this stucture of voluntary Govenance may fail due to its intrinsic nature of being made up of school parents who do not wish to whistle blow! It seems, everyone has been a bystander

Thank-you for all other posters adding their insights and experiences- it seems we still have huge mountain to climb within our school management.

I hope all those affected will collaborate and take this forward towards a thorough investigation.

We were a happy school. Outstanding and dedicated teachers have been lost to other schools and some never to return to the classroom 😔. You have not been forgotten 🌺

My kid was in a school like this. We moved them. Honestly it wasn't til we moved we realised how traumatised we all were by the place.

Worked at a school like this. . . For less than a year. Horrendous. I actually can't really talk about it much even now, 4 years later because I feel so scarred by it.

I left, supplied for a bit, then covid hit, I had kids, so haven't been back to teaching. However, if I do go back, I'd definitely be wanting to supply there long term and getting a true feel for the place first. A one day interview is not enough to see how toxic a place really is. But then again, maybe I'll leave teaching altogether 😒I wonder who was brave enough to talk to a newspaper. It would have been a similar story to the school I was at, but they were very careful to cover their tracks, so I was scared to raise it. Awful. Getting flashbacks. Leaving this thread!

Yes. She shouldn't be in charge of the school. Best thing I done is remove my son

Inspectors said the curriculum across subjects was at different stages of development, adding that some planning lacked “precision and detail”. Highlighting reading in particular, the report explains that while some pupils can read fluently, it said the weakest readers are not always given the help that they need.
It said: “The books they read are not matched well to the sounds they are learning. As a result, they struggle to decode the words in the books

yeah sounds like it was doing great before eh? The new head is obviously culling those teachers that aren’t performing - and they’re pissed off!

Dr Hodge explained that as a result of the review a number of steps to improve provision at the school had been taken.
These included the appointment of a new external co-headteacher, Chloe Coles, who they said had “immediately” started to address some of the weaknesses.

Oh hi Chloe.

These areas are being developed and it doesn’t help that Ofsted continually move the goal posts either. The real weakness is not the teaching staff but those leading. As a PP said, a great leader carries the team with them to achieve their vision. There is no way that 30 people of different job roles including midday supervisors as well as governors left in a short period of time because they were lazy and lacked vision.

The children are miserable and the staff are miserable. There is one common denominator.