Secret Headteacher Reveals Anxiety & Panic in Schools that impacts on teachers and on our children

[RosieBrock]

I thought it was really important to highlight for everyone interested, & with a child at school an article written by a head teacher in the Guardian yesterday. It makes worrying reading about what has happened in State education because of the constant interference by consecutive governments for the past thirty years, culminating in the past fifteen years of constant change for changes sake. Read this article (link given below) and share it please...my husband (a teacher) says it is spot on. This particular head will be watching GCSE results today and worries he may not have a job afterwards. He or she suffers from psoriasis and IBS because of the constant stress. I was deeply concerned for this person but obviously realised that the stress he or she is under will be reflected amongst the cohort of teachers and this, in turn, will impact on kids. Our kids. My husband thinks it is widespread in all schools, state or academies. My husband said:

1. In his school each teacher has an Ofsted 'grab bag' as if they are about to evacuate an aeroplane
2. Exam boards are hiring anyone to do the job because they can't get people- and many of these people are inadequate.
3. Ofsted and Government are data-mad - They say "This is the data about your exam results" and you say -"but half our Year Eleven got Mumps before the exam." They say " Does not count. This is the data."
4. All schools work in an atmosphere of panic and anxiety
5. Estelle Morris is the only one he recognises as having been a potentially half decent Secretary of State for Education in around 1999/2000. Not only was she a dedicated ex teacher, but she did not want to change much. So she was forced to resign.

The article can be found here:www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/23/secret-headteacher-gcse-results-students-exams-worry?CMP=share_btn_fb

Love to have a campaign on this issue on Mumsnet. Too important to ignore.

Working link here: www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/23/secret-headteacher-gcse-results-students-exams-worry

4. All schools work in an atmosphere of panic and anxiety

I agree and understand this statement far too well. Unfortunately! And I say that as someone who is admin support in a school.....a different kind of role but still badly affected by the stressful atmosphere that prevails.

From experience i would say that the type of individual promoted to "leadership" roles in many (not all) schools is also a factor in this stress, and a failure to accept that the whole school community should be on the same side....not be treated like sub-class citizens because they don't have their names on an office door.

Can you post a link to the article please?

Oops, cross posted re: the link!

One piece of information in the article tells me a lot about the school. 12% of pupils have attendance of less than 25%. Average attendance nationally in secondary schools is over 90%. That kind of attendance level will probably put the school into an Ofsted category on its own
The reality is that with that kind of attendance levels the chances of the school ever getting close to the floor standard is remote, simply because the pupils are not in school to learn.
So the question becomes one of are the pupils not attending because the education they are actually getting (in their opinion) is rubbish or is there a complete culture of non-school attendance in the local community. Only the school and the local community know the answer to that question but the fact that this headteacher does not seem to have recognised the enormity of this problem send a lot of alarm bells ringing in my head as to whether they do actually warrant being in charge of the school.