Anyone have any advice on a slightly rude headteacher?

[hello129]

I imagine during this tough time it’s a hell of a difficult time for heads. They probably really have their work cut out.

But I noticed the head of the school direct training school I’m at is a bit mean. I just recall being in a briefing and someone made a comment and he just shouted shouting as you would at a student “hey! Who made that comment. Turn off your mic right now. You’re WRONG” Idk what time comment was but maybe a bit of sensitivity towards staff that maybe just made a comment that could’ve been dealt with more softly in difficult times.

Then there was a literal PowerPoint which detailed the fact the employee chose the job and he said “look if you don’t want your job you know I’ve got no hesitation just replacing you” then we got another meeting and he was challenging all the staff. Like fully questioning them via zoom and probing them to answer and he said if you can’t get a quick fire answer. You better think about whether you want this job or not. Like...come on. They’re doing their damn best and okay if some are not, have a word with them? I just feel like it’s some kind of dictatorship happening there. It’s a bit nerve wracking as a school direct trainee aswell worrying if you’ll be in his line of fire.

They are massively stressed, just stay out of their way basically. I got shouted at by my extremely gentle and lovely head on Tuesday over free school meal delivery. Ah well.

They are stressed pretty much all the time at the moment. However I've worked in schools where this was normal. It was just best to keep your mouth shut. These schools were the ones that had a huge staff turnover. Unfortunately the threats are often linked back to the trust that runs the school as well. I decided to leave my last school after I was threatened with my job. It was when the police were advising people not to drive due to the poor weather conditions in 2018 (beast from the east). I live a 40mins drive from the school and was pregnant. Every other school near where I live and near my school was closed but the head was trying to impress the trust by opening. I now wish that i'd refused as after that day I had no respect for any of the senior leadership team. I went back when my son was 8months old so I didn't have to pay back maternity pay and then left in July. My new school doesn't threaten its staff and is a much nicer environment. It's also only 10 mins from home which is a bonus.

That sounds absolutely horrific. That’s more than slightly rude. At the moment slightly rude can be excused. People are stressed, HTs are working insane hours and can be forgiven for not being 100% perfect. This goes far beyond that.
As a trainee you should have relatively little to do with the HT. my advice is to get your head down, grit your teeth and get through the placement but under no circumstances be tempted to take a job at the school for next year. Schools run by total bellends are not pleasant places to work in the longer run. Start looking for September jobs.

Stressed or not, he's totally buggered his chances of taking out capability on any member of staff. He's threatened them twice with advice to go elsewhere. I've seen capability fall on just this. All anyone would have to do is bring that up.

As others have said, keep your head down and see the placement out.

Join a union.

It is a very stressful time for everyone in school at the moment, particularly heads. Therefore, one could excuse someone being a bit short/snappy.

However, he doesn't sound like he's just a bit stressed about the current situation, he sounds dreadful to work for and like he doesn't appreciate his staff. If he's not careful, he will struggle to recruit -word gets round!

My advice to you, as a trainee, is keep your head down, get on with your job and just remain courteous and professional. You will only be there a relatively short time and it's not worth sticking your head above the parapet, so to speak.

When you start applying for jobs, take time to look at schools and meet the staff (within the current limits) so that you hopefully avoid working for someone like him. It's hard at the minute as interviews may not be what they would usually be but a decent school will do all they can to make it as positive an experience as possible.

@MadameMinimes I agree. I just felt really taken back by it. I was just sat there pretty scared and nervous. I understand you need to question your staff but goodness, isn’t there a nice way to be. They don’t need a PowerPoint dictating the fact that they made the decision to take the job so they MUST take all the sh*t that comes with it.

Here was me thinking my last placement was hard. This ones just longer and even worse:( I’m not enjoying the emails and I’m genuinely scared to have an issue here

@echt I’m in a union and I’m thinking I might have a quick chat with them tomorrow to establish what is expected of me and how to handle what the head says.

He interviewed me as part of uni mock interviews and I have a learning difficulty and his response when I mentioned if he read it on the form was “okay so what do you need then” but not in a polite way.

@PumpkinPie2016 thank you so much for the advice. He is very intimidating. From the get go my impression has remained the same. I had an interview as part of uni mocks and told him of my learning difficulty and he said “okay so what do you need” but in a very blunt rude I don’t care way.

He honestly makes me really nervous. At the meetings I’m scared and idk what to do as I can’t even move placement.