the way back - nervous breakdown and all that

Today has been a very good day.  I am on holiday and been able to meet up and talk to several very good people who also suffered under her headship.  My struggle to make public the toxic culture which took place at my previous school has at times felt quite lonely but these important people in my life have always been there for me. And as it turns out been quite busy behind the scenes themselves. I feel vindicated and far less alone. A lot less like this: And a lot more like this: Thank you beautiful friends. 

Food for thought: There’s no single UK law covering workplace bullying, but your employer has a duty to tackle discrimination and protect your health, safety and wellbeing (including mental wellbeing) at work. This is enshrined in several pieces of legislation: The  Equality Act 2010  provides protection against racist, sexist, ageist, homophobic and ableist behaviour and other types of discrimination that have ‘the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment’ in relation to ‘protected characteristics’ (see above). This Act also protects workers against pregnancy and maternity discrimination. The  Employment Rights Act 1996  allows workers to claim unfair dismissal if they are forced to leave their job because of their employer’s actions (e.g. discriminatory practice) or inactions (e.g. failure to deal with a complaint). Under the  Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 ...

The article (see previous post) was accompanied by these interesting statements from the Governing Body and the Council’s Director of Education. Ofsted states headteacher is well supported A statement from the chairman of governors at [the] School in November said the progress since headteacher joined the school has been acknowledged by Ofsted. [1] Inspectors said after their May 2019 inspection: “The headteacher is an excellent role model for staff, who uses their expertise and experience from other school settings to innovate and implement new ways of working. “This has had a significant impact on the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress.” Ofsted also acknowledged that since the previous inspection: “The headteacher, well supported by the senior leadership team, has successfully transformed the culture of the school. This has led to the rapid improvements.” [2] Restructuring and finances [3] [The Chair of Governors] said: “In common with many other schools, ensuring we ...

Here is the article from Feb 2022 (anonymised) that was mentioned in my previous post. Below, find footnotes. A school has denied a big loss of staff is because of the headteacher’s regime and incidents of victimisation. Governors at [the] School, which has 379 pupils, say the mental health of its staff is a top priority – and that it had “very much normal staff turnover” for that period. The school had 66 staff when headteacher arrived in September 2018 and now has 45. Governors confirmed six staff left in 2018-19 and two the following year [1] . Last year, 11 were made redundant and there were two retirements, while a parent working there temporarily also left. Current and former staff have expressed their anger to the [newspaper] at [the head]’s methods. One member of staff for 10 years, who did not want to be named, went off sick with work related-stress in September 2020 and was made redundant in March 2021. She said: “There were some really, really unpleasant situ...

As touched upon previously, our attempt to blow the whistle was thrown out in September 2021 - apparently not in the public interest. Not in the public interest of the staff that were hurt. Five people leaving with mental health issues, and over 30 people leaving since 2017 due to the toxic culture of the school.  Not in the public interest of the children who were seeing one member of staff after another leaving them: trusted and respected members of the community  (teaching staff, office staff and governors) . Consistency -and many would argue quality first teaching- ever receding. And yet (again mentioned previously), I cannot let it go. If anything, the closing of ranks of the establishment (SLT, Board of Governors, Council, local councillor, etc.) has made me more determined. It's not just about me. It is for all those who have suffered and may suffer if nothing is done.  Although, for obvious reasons, I cannot go into details, since September 2021, I have be...

This past week has been SATs week and I'm exhausted. So, I'm directly publishing my anonymised exit interview notes rather than writing at length this weekend.  I think it makes for interesting reading as I was very clear about my experience at the school and why it had been so destructive. I insisted that the interview take place with someone other than the head. She fought this claiming all exit interviews were carried out by her. I eventually had to get in touch with HR who assured me that while  "It is normal procedure for the headteacher to complete exit interviews however if you prefer not to meet with the headteacher you can have the meeting with someone else." Once the interview had taken place, I naively thought these would have been used by the governors to try to introduce a little accountabilty to the school and protect colleagues remaining there.  As far as I can tell, either these notes were not shared with the governing body or they were roundly ignored...