Gaslighting part one

I did not even know what gaslighting was until 2018. I did not realise I was being gaslit -that we were all being gaslit- until after my breakdown.

After a matter of weeks, a tangible uncertainty took hold of all of us. Most of us felt rudderless. Thankfully, we had each other and the children to keep us going. The first to feel the true nature of our new head were the rest of the senior leadership team. They were treated horribly: no trust, constant criticism - especially about their professionalism. People who had been teaching for years, whose track record was exemplary. They were trusted by the governors, by us teachers, by the community. One left at the end of the first year, one became institutionalised (for want of a better word). The last was on parental leave - upon their return, they were isolated in a blatant attempt to divide and rule. Then, sadly, the integrity of those that remained was compromised.

We muddled through and eight months down the line, by pulling together despite the tension, we got a good OFSTED. The year before we had been given good with outstanding. This visit was to rate whether we now deserved the outstanding accolade. Personally, and I speak for many teachers here, an outstanding rating is not necessarily a worthy goal. Far more important is the well-being of children and staff. Something to explore in a later entry maybe. 

And then we were all treated to the 'new regime' in all its glory...

Policies were reviewed in staff meetings. Compromises made. Then we were e-mailed the 'definitive' policy to find that very different ideas had supposedly been agreed upon. This was especially evident when we were presented with our marking policy.

We eventually had a union meeting to discuss problematic developments such as these. The tension is the room was high. As you would expect, the meeting was very cathartic. A lot of frustration was vented. We were united.

The next day, our daily briefing turned into a rant from the head berating us for being a 'moaning staff' and the only reason we got a good OFSTED was down to her. That in fact our previous good with outstanding was an anomaly. Our previous head had allegedly pulled the wool over the eyes of the previous team. Gaslighting extraordinaire.

Shortly after, as union reps, my colleague and I met with her. We had a relatively calm and lengthy conversation with her. One of our office workers took minutes. The agenda was lengthy and there was disagreement on certain items, but overall, the tone remained polite and collegiate. However, the next day, the minutes were shared with us via email. A lot of our discussion had been distorted and quite a few of the head's ideas had been added which had not been part of our conversations. I duly pointed all the inaccuracies out only to be told that a third party had been privy to all the discussion so no amendments could be made.

This third party has since left the school. She had a breakdown herself. She has revealed to me that once my rep colleague and I had left, the head took the computer from her and said she would write up the rest. She also acknowledged that the contents had been amended. Gaslighting? 

To be continued.