Teacher leaving due to bullying SLT

[Teachergoing]

I just want to tell people. I have no one to tell.

SLT have been very sneakiky bringing me down over the last few years, and finally I've cracked.
A member of SLT was rude, shouted at me and just generally unprofessional. They blamed me for something they had never told me not to do (something pretty minute with little effect on anything).
I complained about the manner of SLT and was basically told it was all my fault, that I misread the situation because of 'how my brain works' (they know I'm autistic).They invented witnesses and made up stuff.

There's nothing I can do. I can't see how my union could help here. They have 'witnesses' and all SLT just defend each other and back each other up.

So, as I can't imagine working for these people any longer, I'm going to leave ... I will miss the children and my TAs desperately but I cannot stay somewhere I feel has put a target on my head.

I will not be applying for any other teaching jobs. Maybe a TA in the future when I've recovered from this, as currently I'm all over the place.

There, thanks for reading. Just wanted that off my chest.

Don’t make any decisions until you’ve been on sick leave and taken union advice.

Look at special schools, I've never worked with such lovely SLT. They have to be because the kids are so complex and trying!

Or do what I did become a supply teacher, especially if you live in a big city everyone is so grateful you just turn up. SLT makes you coffees

Help negogiate a good reference.

Just take sick leave as soon as you can. The stress of my problems in teaching caused my blood pressure to soar and I didn't take the doctor's advice to sign off. Consequently I suffered a small stroke or a broken blood vessel behind my eye and I am nearly blind in that eye now, after several years of deteriorating vision.

If you feel up to it, speak to, or email your union with your version of events. If nothing else, it will make you feel better and perhaps the local authority will send an advisor to look into the situation and cause them some stress when they have to explain themselves. It's dreadful that people behave like this.

What about them? You don't know what else the union already knows, and they can't do anything without you talking to them.

Sorry to hear this but as others have said, unfortunately very common. My wife was also bullied out of her last school for daring to challenge the inept, incompetent SLT staff who had been promoted way beyond their capabilities, when they tried to blame her department for their own failures. She is now having issues again at her current school. Thankfully she'll be going on maternity leave soon and is planning to leave shortly after. It's sad that this is so common in schools.

Yes.

I was being bullied by my HT. My union advised me to go sick before taking early retirement. (The usual drill is to hold out until the end of the summer holidays and and then get signed off for 3 months.)

Idiotically, I was too proud to go off sick. If I had, I would have been a bit financially better off when I took my retirement. (It would have meant not being able to do supply in my LA, but that wouldn't have been a huge sacrifice.)

The one good thing about refusing to go off sick was that I did a teeny bit of supply in my old school the following year and was there the day the HT was escorted from the building.

This is awful for you, feeling so alone and defeated. I am really sorry and would never say that you shouldn't leave in such a situation. However there is point in talking to your union and I would urge you to do so.

You can tell it exactly as you've written it here, including that you feel hopeless because they gang up and back each other, which leaves you feeling you can't win and wouldn't be believed.

That's not fact - it's a reflection of how you feel. Anyone can understand and recognise that sort of scenario and especially so as a trade union representative - it is a very common pattern when there is conflict or bullying in the workplace.

I am glad you have come here to at least tell someone and hope it will change how you feel, enough for you to be able to go and talk to your union - don't be afraid. It will help in ways you haven't considered and you need to know what options you might have to challenge what has been done or to navigate this situation in the best way for you. You will feel better once you've done it.

What makes SLT like this. I don’t understand. Ours are wonderful.

So sorry this has happened to you 🩷

It's not "SLT" that are the problem. It's the people on SLT.
I am a union rep and I have my eye on a specific SLT member because I think we'll be dealing with them pretty soon. But I can't do anything until a member talks to me about it.

The really sad thing is, SLT are well liked in my school. They are considered 'good' SLT.
They just have a problem with me...

I understand OP, left teaching earlier this year, weak HT, poor SLT. A few changes at the top resulted in a totally different school to the one that I loved previously. I think though that you should flag it with union, because you won’t be the only one subjected to this. Enough teachers flagging this up going forward means the unions will listen. One TA who was treated appallingly went to Chair of Governor with his grievance, which did the trick.

Talk to your union. Workplace investigations and situations are not like criminal cases. Plenty get sorted with no witnesses.

You are disabled and they are possibly guilty of discriminating against you.

Okay thinking about it, I will flag it with the union but I still don't believe they could do anything (and I doubt anyone else has complained about this SLT as they are generally well-liked).
I just want to go off sick for as long as possible.

The school is actually in the Ofsted window now as well. Do Ofsted take any interest in a staff member being off with work stress?

Really? How though. Surely witnesses are crucial, otherwise it's just he said she said.

Ousted usually send out staff questionnaires as part of their inspection.

The Unions can't do much. The only advice i was given was to stay signed off with sick pay as long as possible and then leave. I just wanted to be shot of the place as soon as I could. I was approaching 60 so retired and took my TP although I had to wait another 6 years for my State Pension.

This.the union may well be able to help you. Do you have any other evidence of poor practice from SLT? Don't worry about the 'witnesses' for now. This must be as a result of many incidents not just one event. Gather your evidence before you go on sick leave. Would you TAs support your evidence? Try to see if there are any other people in the sane position at school, make subtle enquiries. It can't just be you. You can't just walk away from your teaching career without a fight.

How long did you manage to stay off on the sick pay for? I understand that GPs will sign off for two weeks initially, but how do you get them to do it for a long period of time?

Honestly thank you everyone for the comments. Lots to think about. Ultimately though I just want out. I don't want to work with these people and I dont think I want to return to teaching. I could see myself being a TA as I do love working with kids...

Please drop me a message about this before you do anything. Been in a very similar situation.

I voted YABU as your union should be able to help. Apart from anything, if you have ASD they shouldn't be blaming your brain for something, but taking steps to ensure you have understood correctly.

That said, look for a better school. They are out there and you don't deserve to be on tenterhooks at work; if you aren't relaxed it'll make teaching harder and compound the problem.

The same thing happened to me OP.

I was 10 years into my career and just couldn't do it any more. I was jumping through every hoop they conjured up in front of me, and it was always something else, then something else.
I spontaneously handed in my notice on a random Tuesday in June, and it was the best thing I ever did.

6 years on, I do supply full time, work in a holiday club during school holidays, and do a bit of tutoring in the evenings. The money works out almost the same. These past 6 years have been the happiest of my life.

Happy to chat if you want to DM me.

I know you probably don't want to say .... But what did you do? I'm in no way justifying the shouting, that's unacceptable but SLT sometimes have a really hard job managing staff who are underperforming. I'm not suggesting this is you but you've obviously done something wrong from your original post. It's hard to judge because you haven't said what it is.
SLT get complaints from parents about ineffective teachers and from colleagues when staff aren't pulling their weight but then people don't like it when they hold people to account. It's a tough job.