Dealing with an older and negative colleague

[lecce]

I am finding it increasingly difficult to deal with a colleague in my department and I would love some advice on how to handle this.

I teach English in a secondary school and I have a TLR (title is KS3 coordinator). There is a HOD and a 'second in department' and it is he who I have the problem with. My TLR means I have been given responsibility for rewriting several SoW, in fact, I have had to produce a curriculum map for KS3 as there wasn't really an 'official' one before. For his TLR he...mentors any students who come along- as I'm sure everyone knows, that means he will place them in at least one of his classes, thereby gaining a load of extra frees. There is nothing else he does that any other 'classroom' teacher doesn't do, yet his TLR is worth twice mine. He is supposed to do other stuff but the HOD lets him get away with doing nothing as she is intimidated by him. I actually 'acted up' as second before he came while another teacher was off and did loads of stuff, none of which he now does.

I wouldn't really care about that as I am in the early stages of my career so want to prove myself, while he is coming towards the end of his and I suppose I can't blame him for taking an easy ride. However, what really riles me is that he constantly makes derogatory comments about resources etc that I have made. He will say stuff like, "Oh, what's this shit I'm on today," and talk about how he managed to make it work - like it was a near-impossibility. Hard to explain just how annoying it is really. Comments like this are made several times a week. We actually get on ok at other times, but it seems he cannot work from a SoW I have created without moaning about it.

He is also very old-school and his lessons are very much 'chalk & talk' - probably why he doesn't like my stuff much, tbh. Fine - it works for him and kids do like him. However, it is not really what OFSTED are looking for and we have a huge push on all things related to the big 'O' as they are due. Following his SLT observation last week, a lesson wholly based around ideas and resources of 'mine', he told the SLT member and the HOD that he had created everything. I know I probably sound precious and I do know that delivery counts (he got outstanding, as did I, so this isn't sour-grapes ) but it did rile me. Moreover, as I am also the whole-school literacy coordinator as part of my TLR, I had to have a meeting with the SLT person who observed this man and had to listen to him going on about how he is a 'great teaching and learning man' who will doubtless give me loads of ideas...He has given me NOTHING in the three years I have known him and does NOTHING in his lessons except talk.

Sorry, this has turned into a total rant - well done if you have got this far . I know there is nothing I can really do, think I just needed to vent.

So you are doing a SOW - week long activity - and he is mentoring year round?

I have written several SOW as a main scale teacher in the last couple of weeks. It's something that a team player does.

He sounds quite bitter, you are right about O requirements too. Has anyone else had a problem with him?

There several ways you can play this..... keep records of everything and then request a meeting with his manager. In the meeting it is important to be objective and rational and not come across as an emotional woman(!) and give clear examples

Or you could call him out? when he makes his putdown comments, challenge him.... ask him for alternative suggestions, ask for feedback on how they didn't work, say does he realise that you find his comments unhelpful and hurtful? Is he like this in the classroom?

Do you think he feels a bit threatened? with school budgets under ever closer scrutiny?

Thanks for the replies.

Knowsabit No, I haven't done a SoW, I have done a curriculum map for KS3 and several schemes of Work - it is ongoing and certainly not a week's worth of work. He doesn't do mentoring all year, just when students are in and, as I said, gains 3 or 4 free hours a week for doing so. The last student he had told me that I and others in the dept had been more help than he had and only 4 or 5 times did he give her the hour of mentoring a week that he was supposed to. When he mentored an NQT it was only when we moderated the folders that it transpired this person had done virtually no KS3 marking for a whole year. Yet several times this man had boasted about how X was going to be a great teacher and they weren't going to have their mentoring session that week because he 'didn't need it' .

Chottie Yes, a few other colleagues have the same experience as I do but he is very popular with children. I certainly will take some of your advice on how to handle the put-downs - seething silently is clearly not productive.

I'm quite that you get a TLR for what you say you do, tbh. I'm Head of Dept (small, admittedly) and write all the SOW plus all the other stuff and am on the lowest TLR.

How do you know that the 2nd in Dept isn't doing more? If you do know that for a fact, then perhaps you ought to speak to your HT about it. It does come across that you feel you ought to be 2nd in dept. is that it?

I think you are obsessing about him a little.

If i were you i would let it go. You are not the subject leader so leave the monitoring of staff to them and just focus on your job and if he comments again give him your best " look" but don't let him wind you up.

I am on the lowest TLR, evil, and have mentioned only the things I do that are connected to this man. I am also in charge of transition from KS2 as it affetcs our subject and regularly hold meetings with the Yr 6 teachers from our feeder schools, organise events etc. Being lit co-ordinator for the whole school is also pretty time-consuming...

I know what he does because when we're not teaching we all work together in one smallish room (6 of us) and it is very easy to see who does what. Also, Hod frequently moans to me out about him .

Never mind, I knew I was coming across as a bit of a cow in some way. I suppose I am a bit bitter about not being second and would have applied had I not been about to have ds2. Obviously not this man's fault but it is draining when someone pisses on all your ideas but offers none of their own. Ever.

Sounds very much like you're doing more of his job than he is. So you're neither HOD or 2nd in dept, yet you're KS3 coordinator for English, KS2-KS3 transition coordinator (for English? Or for the whole school?) AND literacy coordinator for the whole school? What's your HT like? Could you arrange a meeting? In my school, the Head of English is the literacy coordinator- surely it's part of the job?