Overreacting? Not in the SLT clique, now getting the cold shoulder

[Mamma246]

I’m a teacher. I lead curriculum areas across the MAT, run whole-school projects, write policies, handle Ofsted-linked work, plan Collective Worship, do safeguarding bits… basically everything short of actually running the place. I’m professional, I get the job done, I’m polite, popular with children and parents — but I’m not the type to gush about someone’s “amazing vision” every five minutes.
The result? I’m not on SLT despite formally asking for the last 4 years. No meetings, no say in decisions, no official recognition… just the workload of leadership without the pay or benefits.
And lately, it’s not just being left out — some of them have started being outright horrible. Passive-aggressive comments, freezing me out of conversations, giving me the awkward jobs nobody else wants. It feels like they want to put me back in my box for daring to do leadership-level work without being in their little club, or ‘gang’, as the HT describes it.

I’ve raised it with my headteacher — more than once — and get the same “we value you so much” spiel, followed by absolutely nothing changing. Meanwhile, I get to watch others with less responsibility but more… let’s call it schmooze factor… get promoted.
Anyone else worked somewhere like this? Did you:
a) Perfect your brown-nosing and join the club,
b) Keep your head down and seethe quietly, or
c) Jump ship to somewhere that actually values competence over coffee-room politics?

Look at your JD. Do the bare minimum and look for another role. They don’t value you and you are giving more of your time than is recognised

Leave. It won't change.

Start looking around and planning your exit.

There is nothing worse than a cliquey, bitchy SLT.

I've been there, OP. The bullying from SLT in the last school I worked at was unreal.

Don't be like me and let it get so bad that you leave the profession.

I will forever be angry at myself for letting them take a career away from me.

If you are doing this level of work without the title or pay then I would be looking to move elsewhere for promotion.

As others have said, if there are no Assistant Head or Deputy Head roles being advertised in your school it doesn't matter how often you speak to your HT, you will not be promoted to SLT if there is no vacancy.

Personally, I've found after 30 years of teaching that the people who do your kind of role for free are doing it to beef up their CV and give a heads up to management that they are looking for promotion - either there or elsewhere. It's a subtle suggestion that if they aren't recognised they will take their talents and work ethic somewhere else. I'd have been looking to move after 2 years if nothing had come up - not waited four years.

Just leave. They don’t value you. Make sure they do at your next school .

New academic year, new you.
Don't do anything beyond what you have to in order to be paid. If asked to do more, just say that you don't have the capacity right now. Don't be writing policies even if it is only 30 mins work, as a PP was suggesting ( it isn't). If you are a class teacher, just do that. If you have been obliged to take a subject lead position without any extra pay, do the minimum.
Spend the extra time looking for another job.

This. Do your cv. Put all your roles on it. Apply apply apply.

Also this.

The HT has a statutory duty to nurture succession. Not sure how it works where you are, but when you have performance management and show that you are interested and capable of leadership they should help you progress. Additionally, people are being moved into SLT who have less responsibility, qualifications and experience and I am never given a rational explanation to why I am refused after 4 years.

Life shouldn’t be this hard. Leave. And don’t take on as much in your next role. Management in schools often takes a certain type of arsehole. Especially in trusts where there are so many heads/assistant heads/deputy heads etc that they can only afford ect’s to do the actual bloody teaching.

(I recently left a school like this, as you may be able to tell!).

OP could you see more about this, 'formally asking to be on the SLT."

What did that actually look like?

B followed by C. But my advice is just leave. You’ll never be valued in this toxic bullying environment.

How this is so common in schools I’ll never know.

SLT is fluid where I am - certain subject leads attend the meetings but are not considered school leaders. I would be happy with this as it would help me progress but this has also been denied - for me.

I would move elsewhere.

Leave. Get a new job elsewhere.

After 4 years they aren't going to suddenly promote you.

If for some reason you either can’t or won’t leave then you have 3 choices:

1. Accept that you will do the extra but not be recognised for it.
2. Stop doing the extra
3. Re-assess the things you do and double check that they are actually as valuable to the school as you think they are. It’s possible that you are working hard on the wrong things, it’s easily done.

I work well with all of the other teachers and teaching assistants. I don’t mind greasing some wheels sometimes but I just don’t want to arse lick - I find it unpleasant and the people who do it are often incompetent because they have blagged it. Writing policies is not something I should be doing but there was no policy for one of my subject areas and they hadn’t realised, so I just wrote one. Since then I have been asked to write more. Tbh, I know I’m wasting my time- I just wondered if anyone had shared experience and could help.

Kindly, your head clearly doesn’t recognise your leadership capacity. Have you asked them outright what is stopping your progression? I agree with other posters that if you want to be on leadership team you need to apply elsewhere. Either your head will at that point realise they will lose you and offer you something to stay or they won’t and then you’ll know where you stand. If you’ve been trying and failing to get promotion for 4 years my guess is that the head will let you go. Sometimes people get taken for granted and sometimes, sorry, the people who think they should be on LT are overestimating their abilities. Either way a fresh start is probably the best thing for you at this point.

I think there is a fine line between going over and above to display leadership skills and a desire to progress, and being a teaching martyr. I started as the former and may well end up as the latter if I am not careful, as you say… just gathering advice!

True - I am lucky that the MAT recognises my skills and are supportive, it’s just my school where I am hitting a brick wall. I love my school community and have given them a lot over the years, but it sounds like it is time to go 🙁

If the MAT do recognise what you’re doing then a role within your trust is probably your best bet. However you say you’re not a fan of the politics and arse licking that goes on in management (not something that gets you promoted at my school I might add) and from experience this is far more likely to be the way to the top at trust level.

Both in performance management every year and in emails before roles are announced in the summer term for next year. I have a colleague there who has been asking for a teaching role every year for 6 years (she has been qualified for over 10 years and is support staff) and every time a position comes up she doesn’t even get an interview offer. Because, like lots of PPs have said, why would they when they can pay her a TA wage and get a qualified teacher?

You’ve just described every school I’ve ever worked in

She’s been qualified as a teacher for 10 years and stayed as a TA?

Why on Earth?

Go and take the poor woman with you.

Haha yes I will! They hint at it and encourage her to apply but they tell her she doesn’t have the experience and then hire ECTs, even though she is an HLTA and has taught, planned and assessed in every year group but would cost the same as an ECT. I have often asked her why she stays but she also loves the school community.

So they don't send out an internal advert for a SLT post ?

Im not a teacher but am an often passed over public sector person. Can you go to another school in your academy thing?
And yes, they're taking advantage of you. Stick to the job description,.