I am sure one of the current year 4 teachers at my school is after my job. She taught year 2 before me and makes no secret of the fact that she wants to return to it.
Our professional relationship has never been cordial, but now she’s going out of her way to find fault with my work even – and perhaps especially – when my teaching strategies are successful. Since I’ve known she’s had designs on my job, I worry that if I do slip up in any way, she’ll be ready to pounce. I find myself watching my own back and thinking about what I would be prepared to move on to, if it came to it.
So just as the Sats ordeal descends upon us, I am worrying about next year. We haven’t even made it to Easter yet and I’m anxious that if my class’s results are in any way disappointing, the senior management team will move me from my current post.
Am I paranoid, or do others out there feel the same? While I don’t know what I can do about it, I do know that by Whitsun it will be too late to do anything. If I delay manoeuvring into a better position job-wise to concentrate on Sats, senior management’s plans for next year will be made before I’ve had time to draw breath.
All around me I sense others starting to set themselves up to get what they want. The tensions are already evident both within my own team and beyond. At one recent meeting two members of the school’s senior management team had an open and acrimonious dispute about which of them should chair our weekly meetings. They were daggers drawn over this apparently trivial issue – and it was evident to all of us that this was really about which of them will be head of key stage 1 next year. I try to keep out of all of this, but that’s just not possible. If you are not aligned to any faction you are liable to attack by everyone.
The headteacher did once tell me she would never force anyone to move. I’m sure she wouldn’t; instead, like Mario Puzo’s Godfather she makes them “an offer they cannot refuse” so they “volunteer” to do whichever job is at least tolerable.
Moving around to “gain experience” is, I am told, a good thing and, I suppose, it does help broaden one’s teaching skills and experience. I don’t dispute this, but it seems evident to me that what is actually happening is that teachers are being moved around like pieces on a chessboard. I feel like Alice, the white queen’s pawn, in a looking glass world. My only route out of the maze is to get to the eighth square and join senior management myself. Then I will have to do the same thing to some other poor pawn struggling across the board after me.
It seems to me that teachers ought to have at least some say in the direction their career development takes at any given time, in any given circumstances. But, as I am still relatively junior and quite low down the pecking order, I fear I may not even be consulted.
None of this is of any use to my students and only takes my mind off my real work at a time when I can least afford such a distraction. This form of Byzantine politics also makes it unwise for me to take the loyalty of any colleague for granted. This comes at a time when the all-important Sats are looming, and the advice and support of colleagues is needed most.
You might say I just need to be more politically savvy to avoid being trampled by those who won’t hesitate to use me to further their own designs. Or perhaps what I really need to do is ally myself to some strong upcoming member of the senior management team and get them to watch my back while I watch theirs. If you can’t beat them, join them. But does it really need to be that way?
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