Pros
- Small school
- Opportunities for career advancement
- Lots of immediate support with challenging student behaviour
Cons
- Way too many senior staff who need things to do so you are constantly micromanaged (at least 25 in a team of 50-60)
- A sizeable chunk of staff are in leadership with only about 8 hours of face-to-face teaching, and the classes they have are smaller and mostly GCSE or A Level, totally out of touch with regular teacher workloads but constantly sending emails and dropping in to observe
- The timetable is insane. 25+ hours of face to face teaching, constant meetings where you then have to rush to teach back-to-back, large class sizes, constant duties and cover, form time does not count as face-to-face despite the amount of time you spend and all the pastoral time it takes. The expectation is you will plan lessons/call home etc in your own time after or before school or at weekends.
- There is absolutely a culture of suffering. Teachers are lauded for working late or coming in early but you are also told to "look after yourself"
- If you complain or ask for a meeting around workload, you will be given even more work. If you refuse a promotion, you will be given more work. If you appear in any way to not be a happy clappy team player, you will be given more work.
- Staff turnover is high so you will spend many, many hours in training sessions being taught the basics, like how to get students in and out of your classrooms, even if you are already fine with that and could do with the time for other things. If you do not attend these sessions, you will be sanctioned.
- You will be sent emails for perceived slights (turning up a minute late for a meeting) and your line managers will be copied in, instead of someone coming to talk to you like an adult professional.
- There is a very clear divide between the Oxbridge educated generationally-wealthy White staff and the ones who are not. A lot of this staff will not even say hello to you on the stairs. This is also their first experience with ethnicity or poverty, and they are clearly terrified or disdainful of students. Their whole aim is to lift them out of their circumstances and get them into Oxford or Cambridge, instead of allowing them to be the best version of whoever they are. The students know this and it's a huge source of tension.
- If you are no longer of use or they find someone they prefer, you will be managed out. Every little infraction will be noted.
- A lot of staff including the principal only work four days a week, not an option available to everyone, and the day they mostly have off is a Friday. Students know this, so Fridays are hell.