"Have you phoned home"

[Elendel]

Why oh why does this seem to be the only "support" someone in charge of behaviour gives when you ask them for advice, at your wit's end?

I am meant to phone home for
-equipment issues
-uniform issues
-any parent who doesn't access their messaging app
-behaviour issues
-bullying/ friendship issues
-attendance issues
-truancy issues
-toilet issues
-phone issues
-detentions
-praise

My department is in crisis as we had one member just cease to turn up for work (long-term supply), one member off with stress and another off with an operation. We are all busy doing cover, setting cover, rejigging the curriculum to account for lack of teachers, rewriting the sodding curriculum yet again, lesson observations happening, marking twice the amount we would with a full department and Y11 intervention all while teaching our own classes.

But ask for help, all you get is to make a phone call home. Each of which takes 5-10mins, sometimes longer. Or, when you had an issue, "you should have phoned home earlier".

That's not behaviour support. What do SLT not get about that?

If you are SLT, do you realise just how unsupportive you sound? I understand you are overwhelmed, but so are all your frontline staff. There is no time to pee, let alone call home for the 10-15 or so children every day where we are requested to make one.

If you are classroom staff, do you hear this all the time, too?
I just need a rant today.

No advice here but just sending a hug as it sounds like you are having such a rough time. Is your HOD supportive? Is there a member of SLT in charge of staff wellbeing who you can talk to? Or union rep? Your workload sounds insane.

I'm leaving at half-term, so from that side I shouldn't even be too bothered.

I'm used to working in rough schools, can usually hold my own very well, but on the odd occasion I need advice about a behaviour issue this seems to be the standard pushback. As if phoning home is the magical solution that will make it all disappear.

Unfortunately, with rough schools often come very unappreciative parents and even if I do get a spare 10min to make a call (rarely) more often the parent is after a rant, not a solution. It then doesn't help if SLT don't have our backs and provide something a tad more useful.

I completely agree and if that is their only response it is very good that you're leaving, they are ineffective. In my experience for a significant number of students, contacting home is a waste of time anyway, it seems more like an exercise in back covering, which is not a good use of a teacher's time. We luckily we don't need to contact home for every little thing, only if there are significant concerns. When a (centralised) detention is set in SIMS, the parents get an automated text with the reason for the detention (just generic stuff like "missed homework deadline", or "late to lessons" etc) after we've selected the right behaviour point code, so the parents know anyway. I can't really complain too much about that, but there's from for improvement in other areas. In schools that struggle to retain staff, I agree SLT likely do need to look at their policies for things like this.

Do you work at my school?

I didn't realise this was a mantra trotted out across the country.

I just don't do it. We are supposed to make 6 phone calls a week and I do not have time to do it so don't.

I miss the automatic text going out to parents stating reasons. Ours doesn't, just says they have a detention and then we have parents phoning up asking why. Though they often already know one side of the story because the kids just text them anyway.

I've worked in a fair few schools in my time, and its often in schools where behaviour is appalling that behaviour leads trot out this "phone home" line.

I don't know whether it's laziness, a way to cover up their own ineffectiveness (most teach and must know how impossible it is to phone home for everything) or whether it's just exasperation at the situation in general.

Either way, in their case it might just come down to a lack of basic professionalism. I have just found out that they have actually said to some of the kids I have trouble with "don't worry, she'll be leaving soon". This was quoted back to me by reliable sources. It's still over a month to go and I hadn't planned on telling the kids until the last week... Pissed off doesn't even begin to describe it.

It's just a trick to throw the problem back at the teacher rather than have to deal with it themselves.

Sounds like my school too and my previous!
I'm HTLA but have to make phone calls home. I absolutely hate it and I know teachers feel unsupported by SLT just as you do. We have to log every call as well and put them on a spreadsheet.
As far as I'm concerned it's just another box ticking exercise in case Ofsted turn up.

It's almost as if when members of staff are promoted to SLT, they can leave all the dirty work behind.

That is an excessive list which a teacher can't keep on top of but for behaviour issues in your classroom teachers should phone home. Doesn't work for all children of course, but does for a lot and it's important to take ownership of behaviour in your own classroom.

Some of the other things in your post make your school sound horrible, but I think making phone calls home is a good behaviour management strategy and is one to be used.

I agree that it is a useful tool, but not under the current circumstances in which we are already working flat out 7.30-5.30 and then some at home. And not in a school where behaviour issues are so huge that if I did make a call for every child truanting, say, I'd need to tag on an extra 1-1.5h onto my school day, let alone any of the other things on the list.

And especially not when it is the ONLY response from SLT after I told them a kid told me to STFU over asking them to put their blazer on (happened on Friday). NO sanction, the kids don't attend detention, only ever response when asking for help is "have you phoned home".

Yes I suppose I'm talking about instances of low level disruption in the classroom.

In the circumstances you are describing, SLT and the pastoral team should be following up and in my school we do. If you were sworn at, unless there were exceptional circumstances or a specific safeguarding concern, we would suspend. I'm sorry your leadership team are so unsupportive - nobody deserves to be spoken to like that at work.