I contacted the lawyer re the bullying at most recent workplace.

[ms spock]

There’s so much here @ms spock - I just want to say that I’m sorry you’ve had this experience. It sounds dreadful.

Is this a mainstream school?

Yes

I’ve read some of your other posts about your other teaching experiences in different schools and I’m not completely clear what your work is. Are you a newly qualified teacher/a teacher in training who picks up short term contracts covering for other teachers who are off/covering gaps where maybe the school doesn’t have a teacher employed at that time?

I am a newly out teacher - in Australia it's called provisional - it means that you have less than a year teaching experience. I have 25-30 days in the classroom - roughly.

The lack of support from the head of department you’ve just described is awful. And her lack of clarity due to her contradicting herself (eg enforce the behavioural policy...but don’t approach students X, Y and Z because they might have a meltdown) sounds very frustrating and stressful.

She is not known for her leadership skills.

Some of this could be miscommunication but a lot of it is deliberate bullying.

In some ways, the school sounds very unorganised - like your IT not working from the get go etc and the fact that it sounds like you didn’t have a proper induction to really orientate yourself.

Yeah it's been a disaster.

Most of my first meeting the Head of Department was her saying she didn't feel bad about not being there to meet me. If I knew what I know now I would have just quit.

But the lack of support you’re receiving around simple things like helping you as a new member of staff find your way around/find out about the lunch duty roster etc just seems so unhelpful and something that you would expect (I know I would) to be quickly sorted for you.

Yes you would think that, wouldn't you? It's not unreasonable.

Is there anyone you can ask outside the department? Someone more senior than the head of dept?

Well a more senior member did email but I wanted legal advice before I emailed her, and I was warned that there are systemic problems in the school that if someone is a friend of a friend that a complaint won't go far. So it's dicey.

Have you now finished your contract with them or are you still working there?

I am there until the 5th of June I think? I am not going back. But I wanted legal advice on how to terminate or manage the situation. I don't want to break the contract and end up in trouble.

I have to say, I felt very stressed reading this thread. Your anxiety around it is palpable.

I did really well in a very poor situation. Seriously I can do anything now. But there is no point going back to be physically assaulted by this young man. That won't help him and it won't help him. He has been set up to fail. I have been set up to fail. All these kids are tough kids because they are trauma kids. I was doing fine with them until the Head of Department came back, it was going to be a tough gig. I got that. But it doesn't have to be unsafe and dangerous to the level it has been. It is poor management and this woman whilst not skilled in bullying has

I used to be a teacher and certainly had my fair share of challenging individuals/classes, including in my very first teaching job. Fortunately, I worked with supportive colleagues/in supportive schools, where I wasn’t just left to it and laughed at if I had a tough time with something.

It wasn't just one tough time, it was cascades of multiple levels and times of troubles. She has actively screamed at the students before or as I walked in the room. These students are set off by the slightest things. So I am being actively being undermined. The way she chastises the students is very professional and calm in front of other staff members.

First teaching jobs are tough. And you will find yourself working long hours to try to keep on top of things, to ulsure you have everything planned, to create great resources that you think will really click with your classes etc. That said, I was never in school at 5am. And neither was anyone else.

Yeah well there was so much to do. The equipment doesn't work or my log on doesn't work. I get up early because in the afternoons I need to go home and rest, then eat and go to bed by about 8pm so I can get up to do it all again. I was working very hard but it doesn't matter because all the work I produced last Wednesday was still there when I arrived back in the am on Friday morning. When you have a combination of ADD/ADHD/OD/anxiety/depression/selective mutism/trauma/PTSD - all really complex cases then you have to be super prepared. When you have kids coming off suspensions for violence you want to have stuff to redirect them. If you have a kid who has melted down to the point the building has to be evacuated - you really, really want to be so organised. Most of these kids really are one on one, and it says so on their management plans.

Getting in for 5am, having a really full-on day with lots of focus on behavioural management in a dept that isn’t very supportive and then working all evening doing lesson plans etc...that sounds like a clear path to stress/burnout/breakdown to me. I am genuinely concerned about your wellbeing.

That concern is well founded.

I am worried for my wellbeing.

I am not going back. It is not viable. I just have to get out now.

There's nothing that I can do. I don't trust management. I almost got punched out a week and a half ago. I was set up to be alone, as a female teacher, with a male student who went to attack me. That is totally unacceptable.

 

[ms spock]

Have just realised you’ve quit this job. Good!

I haven't officially quite but I am in the process of doing so. I have a medical certificate until tomorrow.

Hope you get to talk to the lawyer soon.

Yeah I am really unhappy that they didn't ring me back.

 

[ms spock]

I should have rung back after an hour. I didn't think to ring back I was just waiting. I am an idiot.

 

[barefoot]

Most of my first meeting the Head of Department was her saying she didn't feel bad about not being there to meet me.

Jeez..!

Yes you would think that, wouldn't you? It's not unreasonable.

Not unreasonable at all. Quite the opposite.

I am not going back.

Very glad to hear this.

it was going to be a tough gig. I got that. But it doesn't have to be unsafe and dangerous to the level it has been.

No, you shouldn’t find yourself in danger - especially when that’s partly due to mismanagement from senior staff. From what you’ve said, I don’t know how you were expected to succeed with these kids.

It wasn't just one tough time

No, I realise that - there have been a catalogue of incidents. I meant “a tough” time in terms of having a challenging time with a class/situation in general, not just a tough one-off incident.

I was set up to be alone, as a female teacher, with a male student who went to attack me. That is totally unacceptable.

Agreed.

I should have rung back after an hour. I didn't think to ring back I was just waiting. I am an idiot.

Not an idiot. They said they’d ring you back...so you waited for them to do so. They haven’t. That’s annoying. Probably feels even more so when you’re feeling so stressed about this. Don’t give yourself a hard time about not calling them back. Call them again on Monday - I hope they are helpful.

 

[ms spock]

They rang me back. The woman was most helpful. She said I could ring the Teacher's Union, and I have done that. I am going to put in a formal complaint. I am going to follow the processes and protocols.

 

[ms spock]

I formally quit my job.

All the work I have been sending in hasn't been used. I got an indirect message saying that I would teach literacy if I wanted to come back and not these classes but I am not interested.

I didn't want to get the woman involved because then she could cop it.

 

[ms spock]

So I am waiting for the Teacher's Union to ring. I am feeling very stressed. I am scared of not being believed or being ridiculed or being not taken seriously. This is old childhood stuff.

 

[ms spock]

I feel so scared that I could cry but I am an adult now, and even if I don't get justice I get to have my say. I get to have my say. This is a different now.

 

[ms spock]

I rang a the Union and left a message. I need to get on with my day.

 

[ms spock]

I sent my second medical certificate and asked the school to remove my name from their Relief Teacher.

 

[Sideways]

Just following along and hoping you find a way to resolve this for yourself. Maybe something distracting or soothing while you wait to hear from the union?

This sounds like a ridiculously tough placement - sorry it went so horribly wrong, but very glad you’re clear of it now.

 

[ms spock]

I am taking the day off today.

I went out last night with some friends.

I also have been playing my banjo.

So just taking it easy at the moment @Sideways.