the way back - nervous breakdown and all that

  2019 – Ofsted #1 And so it came to pass that the head teacher was able to pull the wool over Ofsted’s eyes when our school was first inspected under their leadership in 2019. I guess it helped that we, the staff, wanted what was best for our school; we had put a lot of work to get it to where it was; we had done our best to make it shine. Sure, we didn’t trust the head (we were wise to their narcissism and their potential for ruthlessness had already become very apparent), but we did it for the children, out of professional pride and to uphold the legacy of our previous head. Initially, it came as a shock that our previous head had been thrown under the bus, her legacy lied about by the current head who had portrayed the school as failing. With hindsight, it was to be expected. The inspectors had bought the lie that 1) the culture of the school was not up to scratch; 2) had been turned around under the new leadership. The lack of impact of past leadership  had apparently bee...

My darlings, it's been too long! I'm still here and beginning to live my best life again after a long period in the wilderness.  A lot has happened over the past few months. F rustratingly, I am not in a position to comment on a lot of these recent events but things have truly got a lot better.  One thing I am permitted to share is that  after the best part of two decades  of living in London, we have moved: pastures new for the family. We have waved goodbye to Penge and moved to the East Coast of Kent. The atmosphere and environment couldn't be more different; and just what we needed. The children  miss their friends but have been enjoying  their new schools and are settling in happily. They are making many new friends and love living by the sea in a far less busy environment.  We're  missing a lot of friends too, but people have already been down and dates are in the diary for more visits. Anxiety is still present but not overarching; the positi...

After the odd comments from 25.02.24, this week began with another corker:  Mate, people are sharing screengrabs of this blog left right and centre at both your old and new school. And not in a positive way!  😐 Well now! Who would write that? It’s clearly not someone looking out for my best interests. And don’t they realise this is a public blog? It’s hardly hidden away in some obscure recess of the dark web. My feeling is it’s someone who is a little rattled. I feel (and having chatted to friends and ex-colleagues about this, I’m not alone feeling this) that these one-dimensional comments have most likely been written by one and the same person, with this latest one now trying out a new tone. There would appear to be an agenda: to make me seem a little ‘unhinged’ and a fabricator of tall tales. However, these comments are ironically only giving the blog more exposure and helping it reach more people. There has been a huge increase of hits these past few days a...

Oh, the fun that can be had with the haiku form - 17 syllables of freedom. I thought I'd take a break from heavy blog posts this week and just enjoy a bit of messing about on themes I've already explored more seriously in the past. ___   This first haiku was inspired by my previous head's insistence on not getting involved in staff's emotional duress. Upset staff If you shed a tear, Do not expect sympathy; Tissues should suffice. ___   This next one is a riff on the lack of accountability at my previous place of work. Nervous breakdowns One man down - who cares? Another four - who’s counting? No one seems to see … ___   This one echoes the head's dismissal of taking pride in one's work... Pride One thing is for sure, There is no place for pride here, Silly communist. ___   As Modern Foreign Languages lead, I was genuinely told to look into bringing Latin bacl onto the curriculum. Latin: that most famous modern for...

On 25.02.24, two comments were made within an hour of each other about a post I wrote last November .  Seeing as comments are relatively rare, this seems a bit of an odd coincidence.  Here are the comments: 1)  This is a little unhinged and erring on threatening I feel. The kids LOVE the head, there’s not loads leaving other than normal house moves away etc There’s been so many improvements since the head joined - new library, new play areas, new community initiatives. There’s discos, music night, everyone joins in . Teachers are great. Head is great. Parents are happy!! 2)  This is pretty threatening from a teacher at my child’s primary school. It makes you sound a bit unstable tbh. And I know loads of people with children at this school and they’re all really happy, so it’s just not true! These comments show a very shallow grasp and analysis of the ´whole story’ and Panglossian view of the school under the current head. I suspect that they were sent by the same per...

This week, I am putting up the longest entry ( by far)  included on this blog. It is a letter sent by the colleague I mentioned in my penultimate post: an esteemed teacher and reputable union rep who also suffered victimisation under the head at our previous school, and consequent unfair treatment from the governing body and council. It is so rigorously and powerfully written that I could not make cuts to it. I have anonymised it. I urge you to read the whole letter to get the full picture.  The collusion and dishonesty unveiled is staggering. Why has nothing ever been done to rectify this mess? All involved (the chair of governors, the DPO, the head, certain members of the council) come out of it looking like vicious, petty-minded amateurs – intent on covering up a lack of general decency. ________________________ 15th June, 2022 Dear [Director of Law, Governance and Elections], Re: confidential whistleblowing concern In your capacity as [the] Council’s Director of Law,...