Hi BabyQ – I have been reading your posts regarding your teaching position. It sounds really awful and by the sound of it you wouldn’t enjoy working there regardless. They have treated you with little compassion or support. It is disappointing that the union were unable to better assist.

If I were you I would try to see what else is out there. I don’t think this is typical of schools (although I am not a teacher!). Hopefully this experience helps you identify what you don’t want to see as qualities in a school / principal for future employment. In my opinion the principal creates or allows the culture of a school to develop. So your principal, by allowing bullying, not supporting you or even inducting you properly has allowed a certain culture to be part of the school. When you look for another school, keep this in mind.

As far as letting them know about how you feel about the situation, personally I would write a letter to get it all clear in your head first. Last year I left a job that I was very passionate about, partly because of the culture of the organisation and I wanted them to know exactly why I was leaving and have a think about the potential for other good staff to leave for similar reasons (although I can’t say it has worked – the place is leaking like a sieve with people ready to get out – LOL!). However, it did make me feel happier that I had clarified the issues in my mind and made them clear to the regional manager.

As I said, I first wrote a letter to him to clarify in my mind why I felt so awful about the job. Then I made an appointment time to discuss with the manager why I was leaving. We did this fairly casually over a coffee. I made sure I had the letter with me (not only to help me out, but this guy is notorious for missing meetings, having them late, needing to leave early etc.). Having the letter there and in concise paragraphs of the issues I wanted to address meant that I could bring up each point rationally with him. And to my surprise he really listened! He added comments where he knew there were issues and also showed surprise when he wasn’t aware of certain things. So I definitely felt very understood (unfortunately for the organisation, it sounded as though very little was actually done about things, though, but that’s their problem). I then left the letter with him, which went into more detail.

I guess, think about whether this is a way you would want to go, but it certainly felt good for me to be heard on this. And the least they can do is be appreciative that someone actually cares enough about their job and the school to come in and make an effort to do this. Good luck!