What’s it like to work in a Harris Academy?

[MamaVV]

Wondering if I should consider it as a viable option or avoid it like the plague?

It’s not the kids who are the problem. It’s the awful management. Treating staff like the children with silly rules like you can’t wear your hood up in the rain on duty or drink a cup of tea in the playground and policing people who try to leave one minute before the end of the day!
Jeeeeezzzz! Gives me the shivers thinking about my time in that school. It mentally scarred me and it’s taken five years to stop flinching when someone walks in my classroom!

Plenty of 'tough, council estate' local authority schools which won't send you into meltdown. Find one and stay in it, I did and it's so nice to feel valued again. Workload is manageable and staff welfare is high up the agenda, in fact it's part of our motto.

“Worth my sanity“
No school is. Don’t downplay this OP. I did. I thought I was strong, then I worked for an awful SLT (not Harris) and it nearly broke me. Genuinely. No pay packet, extra free periods, free CPD, etc is worth your sanity or your family life.

At least when I worked in one, this chain had a policy that staff would receive a small bonus if they had no time off sick or for reasons such as funerals (seriously). We had to clarify that GP appointments were not included if they were only available in school time. Tells you what the management think of staff rather, doesn't it?!

Oh yeah, I remember that bonus! I'm sure in my Harris GP appointments also nullified it.

Oh, it was the same policy, but they backed down when it was questioned. As it is both outrageous and stupid - who wants to incentivise staff to avoid healthcare?

Off topic of Harris but my school gets us to phone hospitals to rearrange hospital appts (ie referrals, not just gp appts) for the holidays. Which could mean a massive delay. Even though three members of staff have died of cancer in the last ten years. It's one of the things our union are in dispute with them about.

I still wouldn't move to a Harris after the stories I've heard about them as well.

Really, ive had a few hospital appointments and no issue to take leave. Which Harris do you work in?

Its not really professions to drink a cup of tea on break duty in my opinion tbh, you need to be able to break up trouble and it's unsafe if you have a glass cup full of hot liquid.

But tbh I'm not a fan of directed time.

I just feel Harris runs a generally type ship, and in these areas, they have to. Its not for everyone but there are plenty of outstanding Harris schools around. I guess it just depends.

Avoid! I've not heard a single good thing.

Although they seem to be good if you are looking for fast track routes to senior leadership and are willing to be a yes person to get there.

I'm not a yes person and enjoy it. I'd say most of my colleagues are happy in their work too. Teacher retention is generally low anyway, and I don't think a Harris is any different. But this convo is a little moot because each Harris is completely different. It's like saying what's it like to live in the EU, it's totally different in each country. Same with a Harris school as they have a lot of freedom on curriculum etc.

If you get one positive response on this thread I will be blown over. They are notorious. The risk is that it could finish you and/or your career so if you have other options then don't consider it. I know someone who was Hod at one and lasted less than half a term. Truly awful but recovered now and moved to a normal school

@selfishaltruism Harris as a group of schools have a lot of freedom, but individually teachers have almost none, in my experience. You get told exactly what to teach and how to teach it. All subjects even had to use the same PowerPoint slide layout. I worked there a few years ago though, so maybe it has changed. (Doubt it though!)

Pangur, it really depends, on the school and the department.

Its actually a good thing there are lots of resources there already as making lessons from scratch is time consuming.

In my school, there are lessons there but they're a, guide to use and to be used for ideas and as a, template.

I find this thread a little annoying causes its like someone asking should they buy chocolate ice cream and then everyone saying they shouldn't cause they don't like it.

All schools are different. Harris works for some people, and not for others. You have to just go and find out for yourself. I persoanlly like it and know dozens of happy satisfied teachers, I also know some who hated it and left. Like chocolate ice cream, it isn't for everyone, and asking a thread isn't going to get you your answer.

You need to taste if yourself.

It would be sad you miss out and a happy and successful career because of a few people on a website, that's all.

I suggest going and checking it out and make your own mind up.

Also, I tend to find that on forums etc you get a Lot of negativity about teaching generally.

Frankly, because the happy teachers have better things to be doing than going online and moaning about the profession.

I worked in one for 5/6 years. To be fair the OP asked for opinions from people who worked at one. You must admit, it has a bad rep. Maybe Harris need to think about why.

I've not been impressed with SLT from a Harris background. Not the sharpest tools in the box but full of self belief and obstructively defensive. Some interesting leadership ideas based on coercion. They are not well regarded by many.

You must admit, it has a bad rep. Maybe Harris need to think about why.
This is quite true. I don't think Harris is the only large MAT to get that sort of reputation either.

You have to just go and find out for yourself. I persoanlly like it and know dozens of happy satisfied teachers, I also know some who hated it and left. Like chocolate ice cream, it isn't for everyone, and asking a thread isn't going to get you your answer.
You need to taste if yourself
If a dozen people warned me about a restaurat, I'd listen to the range of experiences and make a decision from there, not take the plunge and book a birthday meal for 24 there. I'd also wonder why so many people had bad things to say about the restaurant.

You're right it's not for everyone, but there's got to be a reason why so many teachers hear bad things about specific MATs.

This article is from 4 years ago, but nevertheless the stats make for an interesting read..

School’s out for Harris academy teachers in turnover that ‘should ring alarm bells’

@suk44 Aren't Ofsted or similar bringing in a rule that if your staff turnover is over a certain percentage you aren't allowed to employ NQTs anymore? I wonder if that is down to Harris, Oasis etc turnovers?

Sadly, I have to echo the negative sentiments expressed in every other comment. The Harris schools are generally awful to work for, full stop. I joined one on long term supply (was there 2.5 terms). Firstly, and I am not making excuses for the management here, the kids are very challenging. As mentioned, Harris only really takeover failed schools in very deprived neighbourhoods...very little aspiration, poor or non existent parenting, broken homes, gang issues etc... Then, there is the management who make the situation so much more difficult. Harris has one of, if not the highest turnover of staff of any academy chain. In the school I worked for it was nearly 40% the year I joined. Inevitably therefore you will find careerists getting promoted without merit or sufficient experience and of those I experienced many. They were rude, patronising, with hugely inflated egos...probably in line with how overpaid they were despite being quite poor teachers in some cases and terrible leaders in nearly all cases. What's worse still, there is a perverse culture of never praising staff and instead always trying to put them down - generally make them feel worthless and incapable of getting a job elsewhere. However, like the emperor's new clothes, this frankly ridiculous notion that it was a professional privilege to work for a harris school quickly collapsed when a teacher threatened to leave and suddenly the mood changed to promises of promotion and progression. To be honest I saw right through the PR nonsense and called them out on it almost straight away ( I was in my mid 30s and financially secure) something nearly all teaching staff were not ( think early /mid 20s straight out of training with debts ) and my criticism was met with incredulity and arrogant derision. The truth about how this unscrupulous employer operates is now common knowledge in south London, to such a degree they really struggle to recruit at all even from their staple diet of young, vulnerable, and importantly malleable and suppressible trainees. The truth is out about working for the Harris Federation and I firmly believe in a few years, when their schools start failing due to kids not learning anything from constant turnover of teachers thrust before them, there will be a public enquiry and many heads made rich by their inflated state salaries will roll...

@mightyblues any of us former London trainees with a decent mentor were warned during our PGCE year. Only a couple of my PGCE colleagues went to Harris for jobs, I know most of us actively avoided it and other MATs with a similar vibe. I had never thought about potential future fall-out before but I agree with you.

Still, at least Harris staff get their 20% carpet discount...

Please please avoid...not a good teaching and learning experience for student or staff. Bullying from senior management. Over inflated egos. Overly structured lessons that must kill learning enjoyment.

I would never go back and am now luckily in a nurturing environment with confidence in my teaching again

Really! Wow I did not know this.

snap

I've never worked in one so I can't comment on what it's like, but my school is based near a number of them in London and we have had several staff leave them for us. I would recommend people avoid training with them. From the quality of the teachers we've gotten from them, they seem put very little emphasis on training you to be an actual teacher but rather to follow their procedures. Their teachers always tend to have very little knowledge of how to actually plan and deliver a lesson themselves. I don't know if it's because they're so used to everything being rigidly planned/scripted with lesson resources and having strict procedures for everything, that they then struggle at first when coming to an environment where they need to plan lessons themselves and make their own decisions.

It's at the stage where we try and avoid hiring someone who has trained and only every worked at Harris (and some of the other chains also).

I will also say that I've heard some nasty stories about the way staff are treated at those academies (as well as some of the other ones, particularly in East London).

Given the reputation they have amongst teachers locally (I'm in a Harris area), I don't quite understand how they manage to remain staffed to such an extent that they have an adult (not just a teacher, but a fully grow person with free will) in every classroom. Any school that insists that teachers cannot deviate from a centrally planned PowerPoint is a wrongun imo. I'm not sure why you'd want to do it.