With fourteen years' experience under my belt I've just started working at a rural comp. Compared to the suburban school I was at before, behaviour is horrendous and the SLT just don't engage with it. Te wording of uniform has been changed to enable students to get away with trainers and jeans which is illustrative to me if managing a problem away rather than dealing with it at leadership level.
Last week I taught the worst two lessons of my career. One began with an incentive (IT) but I swiftly had to rethink after the kids didn't respond, and another began with one boy kneeing another in the balls
and descended into further chaos from there.
There is an element of my teaching being at fault here, but the department is led very prescriptively and the content of every lesson is directed and planned by the hod. I am on a very strict schedule wrt controlled assessment deadlines and I have to report to the ht if for any reason I am delayed.
It's also clear from a number of teachers that poor behaviour and a blame culture is prevalent and that staff turnover is high as a result. I honestly don't think it's just me.
My concern is for my own children (obviously it's for all of those who can't learn in that environment too but my hands are tied). We live in a nearby town with a similar demographic and only one secondary school. Both schools are judged 'good'. There has even been significant improvements in results at the school I'm working in this year. But based on my first hand experience I wouldn't dream of sending my DCs there in the future. How can I possibly judge where or not the local school has similar issues, or if it genuinely is a good school? Conversely they actually had a poor year, results-wise.