Change of atmosphere in work

[disneyprincess87]

Hi all,

I'm an experienced teacher with 15 years under my belt but this year seems something else. Lots of new initiatives and changes to school, which I'm fine with and it's part of development but it's the pace that they are changing at and poor communication. The attitude of leaders is discouraging and derogatory. I've always loved working here but the atmosphere this year is very different. We seem to be Ofsted obsessed, the timetable is jam packed and our head talks about the staff behind their backs. Currently in the heads bad books as they believe we are being difficult and awkward (a colleague informed me about this conversation who isn't SLT). I've never contacted the union's before but is it time to seek advice? Time to look for another job? Any advice or words of wisdom? Think that's what I'm after as we are all working ourselves silly and being met with repeated criticism. Is this how the job is now? Are you finding the same? 😢😢

this is the way teaching is these days especially as part of these academy trusts which are essentially businesses. If your face fits and you are prepared to exhaust yourself and never be good enough, come on in! Keep your head down, say yes, yes, yes and quietly do your job. This is the only way to survive in my experience.

That’s so true but the ones that seem to thrive in that environment are not always the ones that enjoy being in the classroom and actually teaching and look with suspicion on people who do…

This is what I am finding too. So little of what we do is for the children. We are currently updating curriculum plans, intents, knowledge organisers. You name it, we've got a document for it. Everything seems to be for Ofsted or our Academy. Noone seems to care that the children are learning and that they are happy. I have only been teaching 7 years and have loved it up until this point. I am gutted that the vast majority of my time is taken up with administration and not teaching.

I am in lreland and things are moving in that direction here too. It breaks my heart. So little talk about the children . It's all admin and no one will have entered teaching with that in mind. Anything useful and practical to help the children learn is fine but the faffing around and constant repetition of useless information is soul destroying. No one will listen. You have my total sympathy.
Every now and then we get a booster poster for the staff room from the Department saying
We care about your mental health!!!
Makes me want to scream.
I could go on ..sorry no solutions just sympathy

Sorry to hear your stories too. We aren't an academy who knows if we will be. You're right in terms of keeping our heads down and saying yes. When we have questioned a new proposal it's led to issues 🤦🏻‍♀️ so need to change my mind set and think it's just a job, do the best job I can teaching my class. I'm hating the vast array of paper work to fill out on screens too. Any lessons learnt from covid have been forgotten, mental health isn't important. We will be at the stage were staff are walking out, changing jobs or signed off sick.