Would you report your crap manager?

[Purpleturtle43]

I work in a primary school and the Depute head teacher I report to us absolutely useless. The teaching staff are in around 8am until 5-6pm and she comes in a 8.58am and leaves not long after the kids leave, so outwith class time is barely available to speak to about any issues.

She is volatile and will bite your head off, raise her voice and storm out of a room if she doesn't like what you have to say which is usually only suggesting something we think would work well In the department.

We have lots of ASN/behavioural issues in the department and she provides no support. We are also faced with many phone calls/meetings with parents after school which she should be dealing with but just palms it off to the teachers to do when she could be doing sitting in her office all day while we are teaching.

As a department we just tend to meet and make all decisions without her, mainly because she isn't often there and also it's just easier not to have to deal with her outbursts.

Other departments in the school work well as they report to different depute heads and it's like a night and day comparison, they feel supported and like their wellbeing is being cared for.

Would you report this to the HT? We are all fed up with it.

Shouldn't this deputy head be in meetings etc along with the other deputies and the head teacher? Has no one else really not noticed this one's bad approach to work?

Is there something going on that the head teacher may know about already?

I would certainly see the head about it.

If no one reports it, management can't do very much. The only way to try to address it is to complain.
Not an easy option I know, but the Head will need real on the record complaints before any thing could change.

I would be surprised if the HT wasn't aware to some extent of what was going on but I don't think she realises just how bad things are. The teachers in our department are just fed up doing way more than our colleagues in different departments who get support.

Then definitely gather some evidence together and talk to the HT. Maybe persuade a colleague to gather different evidence and to talk to the HT separately too.

Report it. You all need to report this individually, as they will act when they have lots of complaints

Contact your union and ask for their advice and support. Depending on how others feel you could raise a collective grievance as then no one will be on their own. What do you want as an outcome though? Even if you ‘report’ her she will likely be put on an improvement plan. The problem won’t just disappear and you may have to have some difficult conversations.

I've never know a primary school work in departments. It's usually year groups

Anyway my lesson learned over 20 years as a teacher is "never complain never explain"

We have an lower school department and an upper school department.

Oh that makes sense.

Just pretend they don't exist.

She sounds like a typical teacher to me!!

You must have been unlucky. This year is my 20th year teaching and never met anyone like her. All my colleagues work their socks off and go above and beyond for their pupils.

Do you have any holiday insurance incident reporting system ? If so, report all of them that happen when there was no LM present. Enough incidents for the SLT to investigate will change these things ( 🤞 ).

I hope I have been unlucky! Re assuring to hear :-)

I complained about my new faculty head who was, and still is, awful. I was the one who was given a rap on the knuckles by the Depute Head. I retired early six years ago and he's still there, still lazy and getting others to do his job for him. That particular depute has retired too and the new one is having to micro manage him. So complaining won't get you anywhere I fear