“You’re only as good as your last gig” is a cliche which one “superhead” jokingly shared when describing the rat race which our education system has become.
As the guffaws subsided, sadness crept over me because the pressure to play the numbers game with exam results has led many principled individuals to go up against their own principles.
As Ofsted’s new chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, deftly put it the other day: too many schools have a dangerously “corrosive culture” which can be seen in the way some of our most dynamic and passionate educator-leaders have been tripped up by them.
League tables have a power and a sway - almost of the supernatural - and can drive a sane man to distraction.
I have witnessed schools doing crazy stuff to achieve certain percentages: including throwing silly money at last-minute consultants, drilling the kids until they’re exhausted, dismissing pupils who won’t get a C in both English and maths, and even - dare I say it - writing pupils’ coursework for them.
On many occasions, I have been offered a rate of £400-plus a day, promised a highfalutin’ agenda of inspiring teachers and departments with methods of teaching and good practice, and then ended up in a smelly box room with the kids no one wants to teach: the ones who must get a C or “heads will roll”.
These are the schools where exhausted teachers see their workload double once they’re in special measures: where new management can be found doing all they can to oust the old and get some new cheap, fresh, graduate blood in.
The desperation to hit unrealistic targets is testing teachers and leaders to destruction: the destruction of everything that initially led teachers to enter the profession.
‘A supportive school culture delivers results’
The unstable movement of staff due to high levels of stress, the ill-thought-out policy changes which are a knee-jerk reaction to yet more government expectations, mean there just isn’t time to talk to your colleagues. The staffroom is desolate at lunchtime because everyone is so busy all alone, trying to keep up on their lap tops, in their separate corners.
Job insecurity is a malaise hanging over many schools due to education’s constantly shifting policy sands.
But now I find myself working in a school full-time where the vibe is something quite different. It’s a state secondary, but one which understands what makes humans thrive, where the leadership recognises that academic success becomes a natural off-shoot of a happy school.
Having time to listen to why children feel they’re not succeeding leads us to finding longer-lasting solutions. And it’s not another tick box on some Ofsted-ready list called “student voice”; hearing people and responding is a truly underrated quality.
Wellbeing is central, as is enjoying learning, a holistic educational experience: both staff and students feel listened to.
And what follows, of course, is that this culture of being cared for absolutely translates to impressive hard data.
After years of trying to turn around hurting schools, I am in an oasis of high-quality pastoral communication where it’s not a motto or slogan or banner draped across the school gates.
It actually happens and proliferates in many corners of the school: the tiny proportion of school-refusers, the increased wages for heads of year, the high profile of the wellbeing of pupils.
This is the kind of supportive culture we need to be aiming for in all our schools. Results will follow.
Mara Kibul is a psyeudonym. She is a former education consultant who has now returned to teach full-time at a secondary in South-Eeast England
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