Feel like I've lost sight of what's reasonable

[howaboutanelbow]

I am HOD in a fairly small school and the department is a bit of a mix of HOYs and assistant heads: no one is "just" an English teacher.

I teach 25 hours out of 30 a week. One of these is a scheduled meeting with a graduate teacher; the other is a meeting with my line manager. So really three free hours.

The biggest headache is that I have a tutor group. The kids are perfectly nice but we have things to do in tutor time that are really intricate and detailed, like putting on a play at Christmas time and organising charity events. I also have to interview the kids and record the outcomes of these interviews. It takes loads of time as have to take them out of lessons etc. If they are absent I also need to interview them.

Then I have two exam classes who are both 32 in size. I have both five times a week. Marking takes me forever.

I have two after school events and also meetings until 5 once a week.

I'm exhausted and I feel like I am doing a rubbish job. I've been told off twice today and both were about petty things but I don't know.

Am I being unreasonable here?

I've left 2 schools in the last 2 years after 2 terms, because the schools were shit - they weren't even as bad as you're describing.

Firstly, huge numbers of teachers move schools and find they hate the school they've moved to, so leave fairly quickly - it's common, and if you move once after a short stint in one of these schools, no one is going to be bothered.

On top of that though, because there's a massive shortage of teachers (and I think there is in English as well?), beggars can't be choosers, so employers are now starting to overlook dodgy CVs with lots of moves on them, and take those kinds of people on anyway. When there are no other applicants for a job, there's not a lot else they can do.

Just stick some applications in for other jobs - you'll never know unless you try!

Hi OP.

I’m an English HoD. It’s relentless.

However. The new ofsted framework seems as though the powers that be are a little more interested in staff wellbeing, which I think may give teachers a bit more clout.

Is your directed time under the 1265? If it isn’t, that’s not allowed. So that is class teaching, tutor time, any mandatory intervention, mandatory meetings and your mandatory tutee interview shizzle. Parents eves, other after school directed stuff. If it’s over, that has to change.

It’s not up to you to change that, it’s up to SLT to make sure it happens.
If that feels really difficult, maybe talk to your union rep - if there’s not one at school, then many unions have a centralised service you can call for initial advice and support.

It feels insurmountable - and it’s so, so hard when you’re so busy to find time to fight it.

Email the head outlining all you concerns and use all the buzzwords associated with mental health. Schools have a duty of care towards their staff which they are clearly ignoring.