Thank you so much for your replies.
I count myself lucky in some ways that it’s taking me such a long time to wake up to the realisation that the school is, at the end of the day, a business. I must be very idealistic and by the sounds of things, unrealistic so thanks for the head wobble!
I am naturally a socialist, but due to awful experiences working in academy chain schools, where the leaders cosplay as leaders working for a public service, while taking all of the govt funding to pay themselves and sod what the children/ families/ teachers need in order to thrive.
It’s imperative that I have good mental health for the sake of my own family, so I couldn’t really afford to have a job which aligned with my principals - that is, I think, the definition of privilege.
In the awful academy schools, you can’t make a difference.
I regularly had children coming to me telling me things like they’d seen their mum’s boyfriend punch them in the tummy or they sleep on a bare mattress covered in fleas and the DSL told me each and every time that one of these many disclosures came, that I had to go and tell the parents that their child had said this on the playground at pick up time.
Of course, the result was the child was told off by their parents and threatened that they'd be taken away if they told me anything else. The children then didn’t. So from the school’s point of view, that safeguarding issue had been dealt with as no more disclosures were appearing on their system.
When I told the DSL that I didn’t agree with this course of action, I was put on a safeguarding course in my own time and the implication that I didn’t understand was incredibly humiliating and belittling. Chip chip chip away at your confidence is a big part of the game.
My class was shared by a rotation of unknown supply teachers as I worked only 2.5 days a week as a maternity leave cover. I was expected to do all of the reports, planning and assessment for the whole week (I was also working in another school at this point so it was such a high workload).
I had an awful TA who would constantly undermine me, mock me, who shouted at the children and seemed to think she ruled the school and even when I complained about her, nothing happened.
There were countless parents asking me to fill out DLA forms for them and the school wouldn’t allow me to speak honestly about the symptoms of ASD/ ADHD that I observed in their children.
There were children who had severe disabilities. One, who had the mental age of a 2 year old in a Year 1 class who was supposedly given a 1:1 TA each day to help him access his learning. He would cry coming in to class because the environment (lots of swearing, loud, sometimes violent children) was not right for him. He’d lay on the carpet for hours at a time staring at a car, would often fall asleep. The loud TA would scold him for falling asleep. I told the SMT about all of this and they responded by putting me on a behaviour management course (in my own time!!) all of the books and resources were dog-eared and poor quality.
Honestly, when I left I felt like I was leaving an abusive relationship. I was gaslit into believing it was my weaknesses that were the issue.
The parents hadn’t even been shown the respect to be told that for half of the week there were random supply teachers put in their child’s class all year. I was told not to tell them.
If I could make a change, I would but the management of these places need to genuinely care about change. There were so so many head/ deputies/ managers sat in plush offices, drinking lattes or ‘working from home’ I often wondered why they didn’t come and teach?
When I handed in my notice, the Head (who I hadn’t seen once in the whole time I worked there) came to see me, trying get out of me the reasons why. I gave him nothing.
Just for context, I have literally only had outstanding lesson observations.
After this experience, I researched MATs on Glassdoor and found that my story was not in any way, rare.
I make no apologies for opting to teach in a place where children and parents want to learn. After all, I went in to teaching to teach, not battle pigs in the trough and fight for resources for children who have a right to them.
One day, I want to set up an adult literacy initiative because most of the problems I witnessed at this school were due to the school-based trauma of parents being passed on to children.