It's just work...

[franceslievens]

Now where did those holidays go to? I was looking forward to them, but seems there's only half a week left and I'm not as well rested as I wanted to be, nor did I do anything worth remembering. I dread going back to work. There's this tiny war going on between Crazy Headteacher and the team of lowly figures standing in front of the class. Crazy Headteacher wants to be in charge. She wants the noses of her soldiers pointing in the same direction: her direction. Of course the teachers disagree. A team works democratically, and makes decisions together. Meetings unfortunately end up being strings of announcements.

I'm used to working on an island. I only come in on Mondays and Fridays to teach my course. Usually I don't have much to do with the shenanigans going on at school. I'm busy and don't attend staff meetings because they're most of the time about stuff that doesn't affect me.
But the vibe at the school is nice. The team works well together and they're quite helpful, even though I'm only half a member of their staff.
Now two teachers who've been part of this team for years, have decided to leave. After the break the whole school will have been changed because of this. These were teachers with a big impact on how things went in the school. There will be a void. I wonder how the other teachers will be able to fill it anew.

Comments

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Some thoughts:

Schools are not democracies and while the team structure works for year groups and sometimes even departments, there are people who are in charge and who are the bosses of the other teachers, which can make things awkward. Here, there are some semi-democratic structures in place, which make it possible (but not always advisable) to vote against the heads.

(I'm currently missing big drama in the Social Studies department and boy, am I glad that I'm not part of that particular kerfuffle, with people accusing each other of ideological bias, laziness etc....)

But it's getting really bad when people are leaving because of the drama, so I'm hoping that the vibe at the school won't be affected too much.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Okay, viewing the decision making process of a school as a democracy might have been a bit short-sighted on my part, but hearing your colleagues describe the head as a dictator doesn't feel right either.

Of course the Headteacher has the final responsibility, but in this particular school she seems to impose her ideas on the teachers, who then end up with a bigger workload or implementing things they don't wholeheartedly agree with. There is some other stuff going on as well, which I don't really know about and am glad I don't know about it!

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

It's a fine line...

Headteachers shouldn't be dictators, but on the other hand they can't extract themselves completely from the decision-making process. I do hate the word, but "leadership" skills are what is needed and sometimes that means putting your foot down, while in other situations compromise is necessary.

But the situation you're describing is clearly one in which this process doesn't work at all.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

It starts to look like my sister's observation at her current work place: that's another person in a leading job without leadership skills. The vibe I get is that the headteacher wants to do everything her way, without acknowledging the existing school climate (she started at the school three years ago). The headteacher at my other school is the opposite: everything needs to come from the teachers and he never puts his foot down. *sigh* These are the moments when I'm glad I'm not really part of the school team. But on the other hand is sitting on my island not always as fun as I make it look out.

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see how belonging to one school and being part of it, being able to shape it, is better than 'just' being seen as a visitor at two schools.

But with the added info that crazy headteacher is a relative newcomer, the situation looks dire - she doesn't seem to be a good fit for the school, if she wants to change things without the cooperation of the other teachers. That can't work out well.