the way back - nervous breakdown and all that

Apologies – in my previous post, I got a little over-excited and hopeful about my request for the whistle-blowing to be reconsidered. How foolish of me… On 15.12.22, after months of silence, I had been graced with a response from the council’s HR department. What ensued was a slapstick scurry of e-mails between them and me. With a touch of Kafka thrown in for good measure. _________ Dear Alex I am writing with reference to your email of 7 th  December 2022.  I have to confirm that as at today, the Local Authority have not had any contact or a request from the DfE to review your earlier WB referral. The findings of the independent consultant will therefore remain in place as the outcome. Best wishes (HR representative) _________ Dear (HR representative), Please find below recent correspondence with the DfE. I have been assured as you will see that " (Council) Local Authority have advised that they are looking into the concerns you have raised."  I will phone them to s...

It has been an interesting year. On the positive side, I am completely fulfilled at my current school. I feel valued, part of a real team and community, and have been given challenges that inspire me. I have never been this happy to go into work every morning. Also, on the whole, this blog has had a positive impact: it has been cathartic and so helpful for my mental health. It has enabled me to record all the traumatic events that happened to me (and colleagues) at my previous school, as well as the lack of accountability and collusion that has continued to this day. I have had a lot of support from people who read the blog which has also been extremely healing. On the negative side, at times the blog has been quite triggering. I have been honest and written at great length about the frustration of spending hours trying to get some form of accountability from the establishment. I have been in communication with:  o   the school itself,  o   its Ch...

It’s my first day off sick in forever so I thought I’d catch up on some admin - which led me to editing the blog. I have put together all the comments I received on social media and on the blog at the end of November here for practicality’s sake, and also to be honest because it was reassuring after months of writing this alone. I know I’m being read (6471 hits as I type this on 12.12.22) but the comments making it that much more real and tangible. Social media:   17.04.22 1) I can’t like this Alex   but I am so pleased you have the strength to write so honestly about what some leaders are like. I’ll definitely keep reading. Hope you are in a better place now and valued for the fab teacher and colleague you are. X 2) I’m sorry this happened to you Alex, I remember you as such a warm and dedicated teacher. I worked in a school with a toxic leadership duo who definitely “gaslit” and left people in tears upon opening their emails, so glad to have moved on. All the bes...

This is possibly the longest post I have published on the blog.  Apologies for not being able to make it more succinct but I think that it could not have been any further abridged than it has been.   Back in March this year, having had no luck with school’s grievance procedure or the council, I made an official complaint to the DfE. The next month, I received this initial response:   Dear Mr Gwinnett , Thank you for your email of 21 March, regarding your complaint about […] Primary School. le I was sorry to read about the situation you described and can understand your reasons for writing to the Department for Education. Unfortunately, I am afraid I must explain that, as schools are the employers of teachers and the wider school workforce  –  either directly through the governing body or via delegated management from the local authority  –  the department is unable to intervene in individual staff grievance cases. This is because these are ...