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

[ms spock]

And now I feel pretty anixous.

 

[ms spock]

I had no idea when I turned up that I was going to be teaching complex students with so many diagnoses and trauma. I thought I was going to be teaching mainstream classes. I was given an area outside of my training to teach in. I thought I would do the work in the evenings to prepare, but that came a distant second to behavioural management.

I sought assistance from my Head of Department many times. I didn't realise until later that I should have been documenting her not helping me. But I didn't get what was going on for a while, and when I arrived she was away for a couple of days.

The issues began when the Head of Department demanded that I teach at a Year 8 standard (these students are between Grade 2-4 in literacy). So they are old enough to be in Year 8 but they are not cognitively capable of doing anything of that year. Except some of the students with Autism and on the Spectrum, who are only interested in one area. I say let them do it in their area - and the Head of Department said no they have to learn to broaden their horizon which is a seriously unevolved neurotypical thing to say. You could seat my brother in a desk for 20 years, he just wouldn't do it.

So last week I had the difficult class on my own - Head of Department asked me who were the four most difficult students and told me she would have them removed to buddy classes. I was so relieved. Then the students turned up for class, one of them a male student who had behaved in a threatening and intimidating manner towards me the week before. The Head of Department turned up, walked in to the classroom, laughed at me, her phone rang, and she left answering. Not really feeling faculty support.

So when I got this class I was told not to approach X student with a red card on his desk because he can have a meltdown and have the building evacuated. Then I was informed that sometimes he doesn't take or use his cards. So really set up for success there. So I wrote a lot of notes of the students conditions/traumas/diagnoses down.

I was doing okay until the Head of Department returned and demanded I teach at a Year 8 level - to kids in Year 8 but substantially lower - so I was really stuck - I couldn't just ignore her as her staff room literally leads off my teaching room, now I can think enough to either to quit, ask her to show me how it is down or just refuse to do something so incredibly stupid and get fired. Or thinking about it I could have written an email Ccing everyone in and asking for a clarification - "I am a bit confused when you said I was to teach at a Year 8 level to this particular class, and keep them in if they don't do enough writing? Do you really want me to do that? Aren't they Year 2/4 and in need of one on one attention?" One of the case managers aid to me if you can keep him in that class that will be a big achievement. All preferable options to what I then did which was try to teach at a Grade 8 level, and the class resisted this, and then one of the boys behaved in a threatening and intimidating manner. The Head of Department told me I was to have "High Expectations" to keep in any student who didn't complete enough work for a detention. So punish kids for whom literacy of all forms is torture with detention until they finish being tortured. But it was just a mindgame.

So I have about 25-30 days in the classroom - I am a provisional teacher - and you know this class was a little too hard for a newbie. Also the class is meant to have a teacher's aide at all times. I didn't have a teacher's aide for one the subjects that I had. A lot of them need one on one to get start in their writing, to remind them to sit in their seat, to stop them from throwing things at other students and to prevent them from leaving the classroom. There is a huge amount of anxiety around learning, writing and struggling with feelings of being dumb. I was doing so well with them. I brought in art and craft activities to engage them. Rewrote feature articles with their classmates were in them so it had some relevance in their lives. Like I came up with some great stuff to work around their challenges/disabilities/traumas/emotional dysregulation

So she wanted me to enact the behavioural management plan with kids I had been told not to directly approach because they have serious emotional regulation issues. Bit of a Catch 22.

So as the Head of Department wouldn't assist me. I found out about a mentorship program. I then asked if I could have a mentor. So she said she doesn't believe in fluff, or saying positive things. It didn't matter because she had the goods for that class. So she was brutally honest about my set up, and I typed that up and it worked a treat next lesson. She said I was great with the content and engaging the class once I got settled - you see it is a bit different when you are a relief teacher you have to do it differently. She's been at the one school for a long time, but it really helped. I felt so much relief that there was some assistance available. Then she said I could have someone come for their period to assess my teaching of the more challenging class and I said great - usually you want to have your best game on for an observation, and you best lesson planned but hey I was desperate, and if they could give me any hints to help me manage better I was for it. It could make me a better teacher and help my students. So the woman who came to observe said to me was it okay that she was there. I said absolutely I was so grateful that she had come. So she didn't cope with the class. She interrupted me several and yelled at them (which you CANNOT do with these students), and she left the class early. She wrote a positive appraisal and then said she had no idea on how to manage the behaviours and referred me back to my Head of Department. It was after she left that the male student behaved in a threatening, aggressive and intimidating manner. And it was such a shame because even though his behaviour was totally inappropriate they should not have been asked to do that work.

Anyway I got upset after the male student behaved that way. So I was thinking of when I had been punched in the face at the other school (to which my analysis was finally - instead of ringing the office I should have rung the police) This was misquoted as I was going to ring the police if any students got in my space. So the Head of Department - not asking if I was okay, if I needed any help, did I need some time out - bailed me up and told me off about multple things - she never spoke to me that way when other staff members were around. So I had to defend that I made a comment and there was a context to it. Anyway it was all gaslighting I realise now, and not really good gaslighting. Luckily for me she is a pretty dumb person about what she was doing. She didn't say things in front of other people. But she wasn't so smart either. She didn't give me a teacher's aide and there was a lot of concern over that.

The Head of Department told me to stop asking for help - after I got two class observations.

On that last day I was there, when the Head of Department told me she was going to take out the four most challenging students out to buddies classes, didn't then turn up to laugh at me then leave. Well I cried after that to another teacher, who took over the next class of mine with the very challenging students, and she bailed me up and told me to stop asking for help. She talked to the class and told them off in a very calm and professional manner in stark contrast to screaming at them before I walked in on my own. And asked me to write a list of the "Bad kids" in front of said students, which I did, and which of course she didn't even pick up because she didn't care. It was an act for the teacher that had come to help me.

On top of that everyone kept giving me different directions. You can't talk to this student, as this student doesn't talk to anyone, but you must make that student do X. And you must use behavioural plan X.

I was told to ring or contact the case managers of certain students - but I didn't know who that case manager was (like one was actually sitting next to me) and some of the student's had the Head of Department as their case manager.

So the problem was there was no winning in this situation. And at first I thought was acting a bit odd, but then it dawned on me that she was bullying me, some of it was a bit pathetic, but some of it did really upset me and I spent a fair bit of time in the women's toilets crying because I didn't want to get punched in the face like I did in the last school. I had developed really good rapport with the kids until the Head of Department told me to punish them with Year 8 work. Which she didn't say anything about when we were all mutually sent Grade 4 work for the Year 8s that can't do Year 8 work. So it was all a set up. Sadly I didn't work this out in time.

I then stayed up on Tuesday night to write up lesson plans, get resources ready, and drove them in at 5.30am so I didn't have to see anyone. So Wednesday's classes were immaculately prepared, I got a shock when I went back on Friday and they had not moved an mm. I got a text and a phone call saying can you email the stuff in, and I thought oh they will get my second call telling them I am emailing stuff in (then I was told that to cover up bullying if someone is friend's with another teacher, they will cover it up - so should have rung them on Wednesday - but I did email it all in and I will get a copy of all that off the school computer before I hand it in).

So I did lessons for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and on Friday I stayed up most of the night doing them - and I should not have - because they probably didn't print it out and give it to the supervising teacher. I printed it all out and dropped it off at 5.30am in the morning, and was really shocked to see the Wednesday work still there, not used Wednesday or Thursday. So that was weird.



Other interesting challenges included:

I went to observe a class of student with less disabilities, trauma and challenges, and they had three adults in the room. They said to me we don't have the challenges that you have of course.
Some anxiety is situationally appropriate.
I had technology failures.
My sign in wouldn't work.
The electronic roll would have students not on it that were in the class - I was told this was strange and not really possible. But it happened.
My presence on the network got deleted at one point.
I had room changes with emotionally volatile students who are difficult to manage if they are in their routine and almost impossible when you take them out of their routines.
The photocopier wouldn't work for me.
The Head of Department kept bailing me up to have a go at me, but always alone.
I was teaching a line with challenging students with no teacher's aide.
I asked for help from one of the senior people and she told me you get your teacher's aide to do that and I told her that I didn't have a teacher's aide and she looked at me skeptically. I was like it really isn't even worth talking to you if you don't even believe me.
Then one of the younger teachers told me to just teach this content, at least this senior teacher said to her ahhhhhhh that will be a challenge with that group to get that much done.
Most spares I had where I could have prepared for classes I ended up doing supervisions.
I got comments from a teacher who said you asked me where that room was yesterday - on my second day.
I was totally lost a lot of the time.
I couldn't find my way around, and everyone I showed the school map interpreted it differently. Told me to go different ways.
LUnch duties were a matter of Zen - I would go on one point where I thought my lunch duty was and I would be sent somewhere else by another teacher, and then somewhere else by another teacher, some of whom said to me they were not really sure where their lunch duties were either.
I was rushing from one place to another.
I had to have lots of physical activities for students with low literacies so I had heaps to carry around.
If one student went off - well that was the end of the lesson so I had to rejuggle all the content.
Some days they were just all over the place.
Towards the end I actually shouted at several classes. I had had enough and I never wanted to be a shouting teacher.
I became more and more nervous about what the Head of Department would pull next. I just didn't know what the next set up would be.

The Head of Department would not give me information on the cases she was managing so I didn't know how to approach those students. I have several volatile students prone to violence so I was shooting in the dark with these other students. A couple were obviously trauma but I didn't want to invade their space but I didn't want to ignore them either. The students that I got detailed knowledge about I made special lessons/accommodations for them.
I also got in trouble for doing too much work, which was at once so bizarre and so hilarious. Like seriously? I have such a complex class/group of students - hell yes I am turning up at 5am so I am TOTALLY prepared before I walked into that classroom. They said just teach the Curriculum - but they give me all their different abilities, cognitive challenges and disabilities, and their lack of emotional regulation and their traumas - but yeah I am going to be able to fit those kids into little boxes of goddamned awfully boring content. So I jazzed it up with ways for them to engage with stuff that they might enjoy -
And no one in their first year out of teaching is going to get the life/balance thing right - if you think you did you have been teaching too long to remember your first year. Not realistic.
One teacher told me that she refuses to go into a classroom that one of my male students is in. That she won't teach him anymore. She is a totally brilliant and experienced teacher, and I sat in on her class - and it was as loud and as rambunctious as mine - so I felt good I was getting them to do quite a bit of work at times - which they saw as fun - so as far as they were concerned they were not doing much work. I wish I had known I could trust her but at that point I didn't want to tell anyone I was being bullied and that person be the bully's best friend.

Lessons learnt:
If they ask you to do the impossible strategically brain storm with many people how to manage this.
Refuse and get the sack - it's better than what happened.
Email the group and ask exactly how am I meant to do this?
Or email the group just confused - just clarifying - do you really want me to do this?
Keep sending request via email for information - you have a record of what information they are denying you.
Pretend to be dumb - this is Australia - what the f*ck were you thinking ms spock! BE f*ckING DUMB. This is Australia and being dumb is important. You don't want to rock the dumb people's boat.
Never take a contract without knowing what it is - just miss out.
Run and save yourself! Sometimes it is the only thing you can do.
It is never a wise idea to tough it out in these situations - because you could get seriously injured.
My commitment to non violent civil disobedience is pretty strong.
Sometimes the stupid people are too stupid to deal with.
I need to get smarter dealing with the stupid people.
I am not a small child with no options anymore.
If other teachers refuse to teach a class it is a red flag that you REALLY need to pay attention to.

 

[ms spock]

So my options are

1) legal
2) formal complaint at the school
3) complaint to TRACER
4) complaint to the Dept of Education
5) go to the media
6) quit and walk away

 

[ms spock]

So other challenges
I didn't know how to use OneSchool. It ruins a school's statistics if you enter in threats, intimidation, aggression, violence or swearing of any type. I ruined their statistics.
I also didn't know how to use IDAttend - and I didn't know that you had to stand in certain parts of the room to pick up the Internet.
The school campus is so huge that even teachers there for a decade still don't know their way around.
No induction of the processes, protocols, computers systems, work culture, who to ring in the case of an emergency, who to find my way around (other than a crappy map), who to ring if things went wrong, access to programs, the ability to use the programs. How to manage when the technology failed and I had to write all the students names out. So extra back up rolls which they told me I wouldn't need due to being able to use the electronic roll. I would just print them out if I had my time again.
Students were telling me things, and I wasn't sure if these were disclosures or information known to their Case Managers.
Being told to take all the fun activities of the challenging class until they did work - like that is why the building gets evacuated when one of them has a melt down.

I didn't trust my gut.

There was a kid in my class I was pretty sure needed mandatory reporting but the Head of Department would not give me the details of that situation. I have written out a SSS form, and when I am sure I won't go into the school again I will send that off. The Head of Department kept laughing at me and saying I am all over that one. I do have emails requesting the information after I twigged she wasn't giving it to me. That kid is a serious suicide risk. But she wouldn't listen to me, laughed and walked off. It was really stressful. I did mention this to another teacher about the suicide risk.

I didn't get to speak to my psychiatrist for two weeks. I needed a bit of guidance. Like how about you quit or put in a complaint?

 

[ms spock]

I was told repeatedly that my name was in the system and just use the resources from G drive, just do this from G drive, just scroll down to the second folder nestled inside four other folders. Eventually I went to technical support who said my name had been spelt incorrectly. Then I could no longer access the resources - I arrived at 5am in the morning because I just had to get on top of the situation with all the help that I wasn't getting. I was there when Tech Support opened and my details had been deleted from the system which "should not happen".

I was then told I should know where X was because someone told me that on my first day.

I got dozens of pieces of paper on my first day. I laminated the majority of them and read through them.
Head of Department is yelling at my students before I walk in the classroom.
Head of Department walks in to the staffroom and asks me if I am more settled than yesterday in front of whoever was there.

So I printed out a lot of resources out of my own money and laminated to have colourful items for students with ADD/ADHD
I bought lots of pens and pencils so I could just give them to students with ADD/ADHD/Trauma/Cognitive disorders
I made up worksheets - with some colour to try and interest students.
I got a set of Annotation Keys from the office as directed by the Head of Department - but she sent me to one person that sent me to another person, who then sent me to another person, who questioned if I could have those resources because I haven't had the training, so then she asked me who had told me to come and get the resources.

Students got upset that I forgot their names - I was doing supervisions as well as doing the challenging classes, as well as another class and doing PD as well as doing four lunch duties during the week. I was taking a class of Year 7 for Futures which is an important program for the school that no one told me about before I went to it. I thought it was about Self Compassion and Mindfulness, sadly no, and when I asked the Deputy who dropped in with awards at the beginning of this lesson, he was not impressed when I asked what this program was about, but he didn't help me find the files on G Drive or locate the Powerpoint or even help me connect my computer up to the overhead projector.

 

[ms spock]

I felt confused when speaking to the Head of Department as her comments seemed to be contradictory. Her manner was very different towards me when other staff were around. This was perplexing to me. I didn't understand why she was interacting with me in such a wide range of manners.

I heard whispers that other staff may not have the highest regards of the Head of Department's leadership skills.
I didn't say anything to anyone because I didn't know who was friends with whom, and I didn't want to tell someone who was the bully's friend that I was being bullied. I did not know who to trust.

The Head of Department demanded that I use the behavioural management plan on students. I was confused as I was told to NOT to approach some students when they were emotional or reactive. So I tried gently to implement which was not good. Then the Head of Department pulled me away and spoke to me in a fashion that she did not speak to me when other staff members were around. She told me not to approach students when they were aroused. Then she told me that "I had to have high expectations and must teach the Grade 8 Curriculum I said but they are Grade 4 level, Grade 2 levels, and she insisted I must teach at a Grade 8 level". I was puzzled that when another teacher sent through an email with Grade 4 Curriculum work for Grade 8 that she was not chastised by the Head of the Department.

I was told by one teacher "Well you asked for mentoring so you will get mentoring!" I was puzzled by her attitude. I was most grateful for the mentoring that I did receive. The Head of Department later told me not to ask for any more help. At least with an observer there was another adult in the room. A lot of these kids were one on one. If there was anything in my teaching to tighten up I would be so grateful.

I was pulled aside by a senior teacher? and she said many instructions to me. I said I had four hours sleep last night - this was the day after the intimidating and threatening behaviours of the male student. I am lucky I am a Vietnam Veteran's daughter who started to teach me unarmed combat when I was three years old. I am proficient in dodging. The student concerned came at me three times. I felt distressed at this situation.

The Head of Department then seriously had a go at me about a comment I had made which was out of context. She offered me no support, solace or even asked if I was okay. I was instructed not to waste time and make complaints. She appeared very angry. She said to be careful what I wrote on OneSchool. Another staff member said that senior management gets very angry when you put in threats, violence etc in OneSchool. Later on I found out you should use words like "incidents".

I sat with the senior teacher again and she went through and changed my OneSchool entries. She said they had to be more "factual".

 

[ms spock]

So I was seriously losing the will to live at this point. I don't know what I did to get the Head of Department offside but there was no pleasing her. I wasn't contributing to the educational outcomes of the school. I

So on the last day I was there. One 30 year veteran of teaching suggested that I quit. She is retraining and is going to quit as well as she always feels like she is drowning all the time. She said have a sick day, which was great advice. I won't tell the lawyer that. Anyway I did take a sick day - wrote up so much work and lesson plans for the next day for the various students, which hadn't been moved when I dropped of a whole other stack of work on Friday.

So now I want to talk to the lawyer and put in a complaint.

When I arrived there I thought I was in the English Dept. It was not the English Dept.

 

[ms spock]

I wish the lawyer would ring me back. They said it would be soon.

 

[ms spock]

So I was told if one male student was activated the building might have to be evacuated. Another male student was coming back to school off a suspension for violence. (Yet I was meant to use the school wide system of behavioural management. Head of Department said they all know it, and other staff members seemed to think students were learning the new school wide behavioural management).

Issues with the School wide behavioural management system.

You either need to know the student's names or
have a roll with the student's names on them.
The electronic roll did not always work.
have to know what is going on in that student's life - has someone recently committed suicide recently or a parent die?
the posters are so small and you can point them them and the students can't see them. They need to be bigger.
The posters were often away from where I am teaching
I can't spell all the kids names.

Before the first NAPLAN day the Head of Department said she would let me know if we needed to move classrooms in one period and the students would know where to go. I came in early and found out that we were moving in both periods, but as the Head of Department had told me that she would let me know where to go I had deleted that email. So I went up to the Technical Staff and one ofthem found out for me. Students didn't know where they were going. They were pretty excitable when they arrived. Then the class roll did not have all the students that were there on the roll. So I wrote the names of the students not on the roll on a piece of paper, which was sent back from Student Services saying that all names needed to be written down. My students said I was meant to pick them up from SAC.

The other class was the first time the male student who came at me aggressively was in the classroom - as the Head of Department had told me the four most disruptive students were going to buddy classes. I was shocked when they turned up.

For my challenging class I was never able to get an answer of which was my buddy class and who was my buddy class teacher? My Head of Department didn't answer me. I asked, and I asked other teachers, at least one actually emailed me back that she didn't know which was useful.

It seemed to me that some of the students might have Reactive Attachment Disorder.

I got a new student with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADD, ADHD with some trauma in his background, at least his case manager emailed me and let me know. So I had some idea of how to approach him. Another staff member thought he was low all way around and she has a lot more experience than me. But I thought he was pretty clever. He was just sitting back and watching what could be gotten away with. He was an expert avoider of doing any work. This case manager discussed some of the kids in my more challenging class and it assisted in my just letting some things slide, and keeping out of the space of this young man. It was most helpful. And when he started to lose it I would say "Hey mate, do you need to go outside and have a drink of water?" He would settle pretty well then. He didn't like attention being drawn to his issues, so his case manager told me that was the way to approach him. This was invaluable information.

There were two kids in Grade 8 at Year Two level.
A girls so anxious and shut down I was told never to get in her space, and if I really had to see her work to knock two times on her desk. She was selectively mute.
There was another young Grade 8 female with terrible anxiety.
Male student with trauma and divorce
One kid whose Mother knew she was dying and told him a couple of days before her death. Anniversary approaching.
Artistic kid who internalises a lot and needs to be monitored.
One kid whose Mother does everything for her and won't do anything at school.
One kid who was terribly witty but resisted work and I was told to make him do work as he is capable, and even with a teacher in the room when was I going to get time to sit with him one on one for a prolonged period? And the classes I had no teacher's aide - what was I meant to do then?
Another female student - who for some reason decided she like me and did work. And scribed on the board, which was great because every time I turned around they through stuff at whoever was being bullied that day. Helpfully the Head of Department turns up and says to me in front of the class that she would OneSchool X being thrown at Y and maybe they could sit down the back from now on? I had been told to ignore X when he was activated at her very insistence the day before so whilst I started to feel the will to lose the will to live the students were actually doing some good work, and we had gone over the stuff enough where I could ask everyone in the class a question and they were really proud they could answer it. They did backdoor bragging like OH Miss we already know this! But put their hands up to answer the questions.
One boy I was told had relationship issues with Student B and C and Z kept banging his head on the desk so I made a deal with him that he could wear his hoodie instead of banging his head on his desk. The Head of Department asked me why a student was wearing a hoodie in the classroom?
So the two Grade 2 students weren't as innocent as they made out a couple of days to realise when they were being the instigators. They were clever about it.
Another kid had terrible trauma, and his brother was on a drug and had been kicked out of home. He was in an emotionally challenged state.
Kid who came back off a violence suspension was on the Spectrum. He loved computers so I printed out a stack of coding articles to do with natural disasters and technology and said he could choose one and then do his natural disaster feature article in that. He told me no he would be doing each and every article. That he had been asking for more work and no one gave it to him. I gave him heaps of work. If he finished I then said he had time to do coding. He loves coding.
One kid had been so bullied in the class that he didn't come to school and I went to the Blue Room and the woman there said well he could come back to class soon and I said no not with the way the class is at the moment. Come when things have settled down. We were on the verge of multiple meltdowns on regular basis.
Other student had hearing loss which was considered to be minor but in certain directions he did follow instructions better.
One kid with no diagnosis but seriously on the spectrum.
Another male student who was complex, ADHD, no independence to do work who spent one class just jumping up and down on the spot. At least he wasn't being as disruptive as he could be, so I took that as a win. Ironically it was the lesson he wrote the most in.

So when the woman who came to observe me teach this class she said how long have you had this class. I think it was four days at the time. She said you know a lot about them for four days.

What was a bit frustrating was there seemed to be an expectation from some people that once I had heard some brief details I could manage that student. When I got management plans that was excellent. I was trying to remember names as well as all the complexities and the interactions of conditions in one students nevertheless the ways in which they set each other up.

I am a first year out provisional teacher who has about 25-30 days experience in the classroom. I told them this. I said I am not history trained. I got two history classes. I am really good with the gifted and talented and it is true that many of these students are gifted and talented, but there are not many coders in Australia for the coding kid he would have to go to America to find someone of stature and expertise in coding that he is moving toward. Just because of population numbers we don't have many of those high level coders in Australia. One of the girls will be able to get published. I told her that and gave her a book where she can start getting her work published as a student. I worked in publishing. She will be able to make a living out of it.

My brother is on the Spectrum if you told him to do something he has no interest in, he won't do it, and nothing will change his mind. If you push he has a melt down. His brain is not the same as a neurotypical person's brain. This confused me a lot that there were neurotypical expectations for students who did not have neurotypical brains.

Anyway if TRACER ever rings up and says they don't know what the contract is I will say no thanks. I thought I was in an English Department obviously I was not.

 

[ms spock]

I rang at 11.30am this morning.

I rang at 6pm and they said someone would ring tomorrow, and I thought I didn't wait all day for this so I said could I even speak to you, because talking to someone is better than talking to no one.

 

[barefoot]

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

First teaching jobs are tough. And you will find yourself working long hours to try to keep on top of things, to make sure 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.

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.

 

[barefoot]

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

Hope you get to talk to the lawyer soon.