If a pupil is being bullied, schools take action straight away. We know, as teachers, that no child should feel the mental pain and isolation of such an experience.
And yet bullying is endemic in our profession at an adult level and runs through every aspect of the lives of teachers. It seems that, as a profession, we are reluctant or unable to do anything about it.
A survey by the teacher support network in 2015 backed this up, finding that 24 per cent of teachers who leave the profession do so because of “unreasonable demands from managers”. Another survey of the same year commissioned by UkEdChat found that of 200 teachers, 49 claimed their departure was because of “bullying and SLT behaviour”.
These senior leaders no doubt claim they are following orders from above, whoever that might be... the head, the local authority or academy chain or Ofsted.
But what form does such bullying take? There are many different forms but excessive workload, the ignoring of opinions, hostile management, constant criticism, excessive monitoring and, of course, the being bombarded by email.
All can ultimately lead to health issues and often to excellent teachers leaving the profession.
Excessive workload and hostile school management
There are too many heads who need to be more proactive about dealing with such bullying, but there are also too many who are the instigators.
These are the heads who hide behind the excuse of “capability”, even when there are few issues. For them, capability is not there to promote better practice but it is an instrument to be used to get rid of teachers. Many of these will be teachers who have not “failed” as such but for some reason have fallen out of love with their school. It becomes a vicious circle.
Bullying chips away at teachers. If unresolved, it continues until there is nothing left other than a shell.
The underhand way in which bullying is carried out means the individual seldom seeks the support they need. Victims seldom speak out and thus the perpetrators are free to move on to their next target.
Too often, teachers - being the professionals - put on the “face”, and just get on with it when they are in front of the children. But, slowly and systematically, they have all life driven out of them until they are unable to continue.
Teaching, as a profession, should have compassion at the very heart of all it does. And yet too many seem to have lost it. Instead, we have a business model, which encourages driving out individuals who don’t fit the required template. Often these are the brilliant teachers.
It is time that, as a profession, we tackled the “bullying culture” in our staffrooms. We don’t expect our children to tolerate this, so why on earth should teachers?
Colin Harris led a school in a deprived area of Portsmouth for more than two decades. His last two Ofsted reports were “outstanding” across all categories
To read more of Colin’s articles, visit his back catalogue.
