Why don’t they get it? Target setting!

[Nuffaluff]

I’m a primary teacher with 20 years experience. I’m really good at my job.
Not that it counts for everything (although it’s all that seems to matter to our non-classroom based SLT), but I have ensured that all my target pupils (7 for writing, reading and maths) have achieved their challenging targets. They had a long way to go and I got them there.
Well, what would you expect for that? A well done, and a sign of appreciation to say ‘we’re so glad you work here’?
Oh no.
They just change the goalposts again. Now it’s ‘well yes, you’ve got those children up, but too many are still working below expected, what can you do to get it up to 70%? You wouldn’t expect below 70% to be ‘working at’. Surely you can get these four up to expected in the next three weeks?’
It’s so utterly demoralising.
I have had it.
We work in a deprived area. We are rated good, but we have a high number of EAL children and free school meals. Many children come to school with no breakfast and get zero support at home. It’s hard work. They come in very low and we get good value added. That’s why we’ve managed to maintain ‘good’

So many of our good teachers are leaving this year and SLT don’t seem to care. They’re just excited about the shiny new people coming.
Question is, are all schools like this, or would your school appreciate teachers like me with my results? Is my school ridiculous?
Should I quit teaching or change school?

You’d be appreciated by my school. We set targets but are in no way berated if they are not met. If we have obviously been working hard to meet them we are praised for our efforts. Anyway, for what it’s worth, a big well done from me. I don’t think I have ever managed to get all my children to meet all their targets!

Your SLT are ridiculous, however, sadly, a huge number of schools are also like this. Forget the child, forget all the things you have done to support the families. Forget the progress each child has made. Forget the fact that you may have fostered a love of learning. As long as there is a target box to be ticked, it matters not how much the child has gained from being in your class. The pressure comes down from Government Ministers who - with the honourable exception of Estelle Morris - have never taught, and who know nothing about child development or learning, or SEN/Ds , or children who come from chaotic families, or children who are just from families that struggle a bit.

Sometimes the kids and the school can be the right fit, but the SLT so so wrong, and people leave managers, not jobs. I’m a firm believer that if the school doesn’t fit anymore, change it. There are really good working environments out there for teachers, you sometimes just have to go find them.
Failing that, it sounds like you’ve got an SLT who don’t know very much, and they never last long when they’re terrible at their job. You could just nod and smile and wait, you can probably outlast them.

Thanks everyone. I suppose what bothers me is that these people don’t actually teach. They’ve spent the minimum amount of time in the classroom, progressed very quickly and now their main job is setting unrealistic targets and making teachers feel rubbish.
I don’t want their job. I like teaching. Or at least I do on some days!