AIBU to resent my colleague planning stress leave before term ends?

[BeGladRobin]

Just a bit of a rant really, I am a primary school teacher. My year group partner is an ECT in her 1st year. She's doing a maternity cover and started mid way through the year. She told me this week that in a couple of weeks, she thinks she will go off with work related stress as she is entitled to 5 weeks sickness on full pay. Therefore she will not have to go to work for the last 5 weeks of term and still get full pay throughout the summer holidays.

She is leaving teaching and has told me she is never setting foot in a classroom again. She is massively struggling with work life balance and is working all of the time. She is also really struggling with low level disruption in the classroom. The children keep taking when she is trying to deliver the teaching input and as a result she is lessons behind my class (instead of completing 2 afternoon lessons every day, her class is only completing 1).

She told me that as a result of work stress and she is going to book a holiday abroad while signed off sick. She told me that she "doesn't give a shit" what people think about me anymore. When I questioned her about the children and the effect of them if she goes off sick. She said "she doesn't care" and "they won't die" so its not the end of the world.

Just a bit fed up as we share planning, so that will mean my workload will massively increase. Also she hasn't started 1 single report yet and isn't planning to.

But the OP isn't a new teacher, or temporary covering maternity leave (where a class and more likely their parents may have already felt hard done by at having someone new). We also don't know that the school is giving the ECT their full entitlement of time and whether they are being appropriately mentored.
Surely a plan should be discussed if they are struggling (which could have impacted the OP anyway as they might discuss her taking on more of the shared planning).

The problem of working in schools is there is always the 'think of the children' view and any teacher who goes against this is frowned upon.

Then she should hand in her notice now and not wait? This makes no sense

If she's sick with stress it makes sense for her to take sick leave; that's what it's for.

The ECT programme is extremely formalised and structured. It includes weekly mentoring sessions and detailed paperwork (for both the ECT and the mentor). The whole point of it is to provide training and support, but it also acts (or should) as an early warning system if someone is struggling.

Each weekly meeting should include targets for the next week, and updates on progress made towards last week's targets. If the ECT's class is that behind, it absolutely is the fault of the organisation for not picking it up.

I have been an ECT mentor - it is time consuming and can be exhausting but very rewarding if done properly. From the OP, it does not sound as if that has been happening here.

I wouldn’t worry about reports, as surely that won’t fall in you, you don’t know the kids surely. If she leaves and hasn’t done them, that’s an SLT problem.

Sorry I do agree with that. Meant to say if she’s sick, she should go off sick now and not wait. It sounds like she isn’t sick, she’s just fed up of her job so is playing the system to get as much paid time off as possible.

She's described the symptoms of work related stress to you - so much stress that she's leaving teaching.

I don't blame her. Sounds like she needed much more support. I had a similar "fuck them" attitude towards the school/SLT when I quit teaching.

I sympathise with her and I would bet that SLT have not bothered to pull their finger out and support her. When you are in that situation, you do get to a point where you are so angry and stressed that you just don't care anymore.

I relate to one of the PP saying how teaching is a hard profession to leave - the kids and teaching and school life is very enjoyable. I don't even mind the planning and workload that much. It's the management who consistently seem to be useless across so many schools. My SLT talk to me like I'm a child and blame me for any poor behaviour.

You have good work morals and good ethics generally, it is disappointing to learn that other ppl do not share the same. I know how you feel. Accept that she does not have good morals or good ethics generally and move on, try to make the best of the situation, dont let it get to you. You wont be able to change her mind, ppl like her will do what they want to do regardless of the mess they leave behind.

Yes, she’s struggling and yes, she needs support, but she has calculated exactly how much longer she needs to be in school before taking the maximum amount of sick leave she can and still be paid during the summer break. That sounds quite deliberate.

I would report it too as early as possible it’s pre planned and if they have been prewarned they maybe able to do something about it.
If she’s on holiday she’s not sick and actively planning on leaving you with a considerable amount of work to do from your joint workload it’s absolutely not fair and I would ask her reports are complicated before she leaves. She’s awful.

This.

The head can prepare for this.

She's earned that money throughout the rest of the year.

Why is it always the organisation's fault? This teacher is behind yet the OP is not. Surely that shows incompetence of the employee, not the employer?

Possibly, but there are problems in education currently that mean many ECTs (along with everyone else) are not being adequately supported in any capacity. She is falling behind because behaviour issues. SLT need to do something about that.

If an ECT is failing, that is the schools responsibility because they should have put support in place to ensure that they don't. If they have been adequately and appropriately supported and is still failing, that would suggest incompetence.

The bottom line is that, if she is struggling, SLT should already be aware and have put measures in place to support her. The profession can't afford to keep losing teachers.

If they're not aware, they're not doing their jobs properly.

If they are aware but haven't put anything in place to support her, they are responsible.

This is an almighty nightmare for you OP and you have my sympathy. But, it does sound like she in genuinely burnt out if she has reaches the 'no fucks to give' stage and is willing to burn all her bridges on the way out. I know this is hard with your impending work load, but could you guide her to speak to someone in school about her stress. It won't affect her ability to leave if she wants to carry out that plan, in fact it will just support it, but it might mean extra support can be given that might change her mind, or at least that people get an awareness of what might happen and can start to plan to mitigate it.

She's leaving in the summer.

If she weren't leaving in the summer and handed in her notice now, the soonest she could leave is 31st Decemer.

The HT can grant early release from the contract in exceptional circstances but it's entirely at their discretion and many don't. Besides, she's earned her summer pay throughout the year and naturally doesn't want to lose that.

That is not the sign of a person too “stressed” to cope is it?!!

Well this is horrible for you from a workload POV if you’re going to left to do it all, but she’s right, the kids will be just fine and frankly it sounds like she’s been left to crash and burn with very little support from SLT. As such, I think she’s got the right idea tbh. And the crappiness of SLT is what will be to blame if you have to do all the planning and reports alone too. Basically, SLT are the main issue here.

If she was genuinely struggling she’d go off sick now, not in 2 weeks time to line up perfectly with the summer holidays!

If she wants to be free on September 1st, she's already resigned, as the deadline was 31st May.

The alternative is being signed off sick until December 31st.

Exactly x

Sorry wrong person reply.

The head won’t be able to do much if she has a doctors note and is entitled to sick pay. So yeah, snitch all you want!

The school should recruit someone to cover, and it shouldn’t be all down to you. That really is where your issue lies, not with an individual! It’s the schools responsibility ultimately