When I reflect on the things that make my blood boil, nothing comes close to matching my irritation with the amount of hypocrisy shown by the senior leadership team (SLT) at my primary school.

The level of excellence and consistency expected from children is also expected from members of staff, and is very closely monitored (read: micromanaged) by members of the SLT - some more than others.

In my particular year group, the head of year expects his team to go above this - to show that our we do things best. I can understand and appreciate his desire to stand out. However, I detest when these expectations are enforced and monitored to a degree that the rest of us deem outrageous.

Planning is to be on the shared system every week for everyone to see, which is fair enough. However, there’s more. If our weekly timetable isn’t up by Monday afternoon, he is straight on it. If your differentiation isn’t clearly laid out for each lesson, and changed day-to-day to show “variety”, he is immediately on that too.

If the children in your class eligible for the pupil premium aren’t listed on each one of your plans (even if you know who they are anyway), he’s on it. If resources aren’t put up Monday morning for a lesson later in the week, he’s on it.

Double standards

So imagine my frustration when my head of year’s plans weren’t updated on the system by Monday (or even by Tuesday) afternoon one week, and when his resources weren’t ready to go for the rest of the year group.

Of course, these shortcomings were chalked up to being too busy. He will never admit that he messed up or forgot like most human beings on occasion have a tendency to do. What he fails to acknowledge is that we are all busy.

The rationale behind the timing of our required updates is also often a mystery to us. Our class scores in reading, writing, and maths on our ladders system need to be updated on a rotating schedule, and we’re required to tick specific boxes based on our children’s performance. However, when my colleague updated his a day early, he was told he was being too eager and that he should hold off.

Funnily enough, our head of year hadn’t updated his, which was likely the cause for him telling off our colleague. The message we heard was: we need to update our scores according to the schedule, but don’t you dare update them before the head of year does. But if we update them a day late, we “need to do better at following the schedule”. It’s a farce. These ridiculous double standards are not only driving us to despair but also leave us treading on eggshells, trying not to be too keen and not daring to miss a beat. How can we give our all to teaching our pupils and ensuring they progress when we’re struggling against such micromanagement?

The writer wishes to remain anonymous

Tell us what keeps you awake at night. Email: chloe.darracott-cankovic@tesglobal.com

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