Toxicity

The Culture is Breaking Teachers

Posted on 17-02-202513-05-2025by admin

I have explored this topic before, but every year I am reminded of the mess, and every year it makes me question whether I or indeed anyone else should consider this a viable career. The mental health strain is undeniable.

Education should be about young people. Yet, in many schools, the toxic culture takes root—one where certain members of leadership dedicate every waking moment to the institution, and they expect everyone else to do the same, as Aldous Huxley said: ‘Community, Identity, Stability’. These individuals often don’t have the same responsibilities as classroom teachers, but their overcommitment becomes the standard. If you’re not staying late, taking on extra duties, or responding to emails at all hours, you’re not “dedicated enough.” The result? Guilt. Exhaustion. Burnout. This is not commitment—it’s coercion.

Leadership Resources Toxicity Workload

Propaganda Over Progress

Posted on 13-02-202513-05-2025by admin

Academy leadership are obsessed with their own image, fact! and yet they still need to take a fucking look at themselves in the mirror. Rather than addressing real issues of concern—behaviour, engagement, workload—they are funnelling resources into self-congratulatory propaganda BS. Video idents, overproduced interviews with the CEO, and large-scale events designed to sell leadership like a corporate brand are the norm. Schools are fucking struggling mate, but the priority seems to be massaging the ego of those at the top rather than fixing what actually matters. It’s not great and the optics are shocking. I would love to see the fucking PR company bill!

Expectations Toxicity Well-Being

Escaping summer

Posted on 19-08-202413-05-2025by admin

Summer—a time most teachers eagerly await: the mental break, , sleeping past 6.30am, the sunshine, beach trips, and endless social activities. But for me, summer is a fucking prison sentence. While others bask in the costa del fuck you, I’m trapped in a cycle of depression and anxiety. The longer days, the pressure to entertain my kids, and the financial burden of holiday expectations all weigh heavily on my mind. Instead of enjoying a break, I’m overwhelmed, unmotivated, and consumed by a feeling of being stuck, unable to escape the monotony, and not worthy of the good things and people in my life-I’m a fucking let down. The expectation that summer should be a time of joy only amplifies my malaise, leaving me feeling even more isolated and lost and damaging family connections amplified by the fact that my wife and kids, and seemingly everyone else in the world, lives for the summer!

Expectations Leadership Toxicity Well-Being

From Silent Hill to the Classroom

Posted on 23-07-202419-04-2025by admin

Parallels in Psychological Horror

Based on a recent post I, akin to Carrie Bradshaw, ‘got to wondering’ whether the video game series, Silent Hill is an accurate analogy for working as a teacher. It’s tongue in cheek, it’s a little fun but it’s not without significance. Dare you enter the fog?

Communication Expectations Leadership Support Toxicity Well-Being

False Martyrs and Fallacies

Posted on 11-04-202418-04-2025by admin

Confronting Toxic Mindsets and the Dismissal Epidemic

It’s a dilemma that’s as insidious as it is ubiquitous, as destructive as it is dismissive. It’s a dilemma born from the lips of our own colleagues, echoing within each department and reverberating through the corridors of our schools with the unsettling frequency of the Silent Hill radio static. This dilemma, my friends, is the casual dismissal of complex issues through language rife with logical fallacies.

Expectations Leadership Recognition Toxicity Transparency Well-Being

C.E. Oh, who the F*** are you?

Posted on 08-04-202418-04-2025by admin

The Wizards Behind the Curtain

Beware of those pulling the strings in our schools – these multi-academy trust CEOs, seemingly elusive until they need something, embody a leadership vacuum that cripples morale and suppresses progress. But much like the Wizard of Oz presents himself as an awe-inspiring figure, CEOs similarly rely on trickery and deception to maintain authority. This serves as a useful guide for this gripe and a powerful metaphor for the importance of seeing through illusions and recognising the true nature of those in positions of power.

Behaviour Engagement Expectations Toxicity Well-Being Workload

The Grade Alchemist

Posted on 21-03-202418-04-2025by admin

Turning Water into Wine

At this time of year, teachers often find themselves in a modern-day parable akin to Jesus with his baguette and tin of Aldi sardines. Just as Jesus performed a miracle to feed the masses, teachers are expected to perform similarly, magically elevating students’ grades to meet the student’s target. Yet, behind this show of divine intervention lies the devil: the guilt-laden question that pursues teachers – “What can we do to get their grade up?” NEWSFLASH: if you have ever said this phrase, then 1. you are a fucking dick and 2. you are part of the fucking problem within education.

Expectations Leadership Recognition Toxicity Well-Being Workload

‘But you’d already gone’

Posted on 14-03-202418-04-2025by admin

Guilt-Loaded Phrases in Education

The education system: quiet, peaceful, serene… that is until I wake up screaming ‘FUCK YOU’ as I tumble through the treetops (kudos if you know the reference) *and cue title music.

The system is actually a place where exploitation thrives like a North American pine forest, and teachers are guilt-tripped into sacrificing their sanity for the ‘greater good’—or rather, the greater exploitation. But honestly, the postal version of Burt Raccoon is exactly how it makes me feel. Behold the guilt-laden phrases that chime through school corridors, leaving teachers to Syril Sneer as they are torn between their duty and their own well-being. One such phrase, “but you’d already gone,” encapsulates the subtle manipulation used to guilt-trip teachers into giving up their precious time, unpaid, for the system’s demands. Fuck you – let’s call this shit out!

Behaviour Leadership Toxicity Transparency Well-Being

Weaponised Ignorance

Posted on 11-03-202418-04-2025by admin

Blindness and/or Bullshit

Behind the curtain, school leadership apparently wields wizard-like power, but their decisions more often resemble a game of drunken pin the tail on the donkey—aiming for ass but hitting fuck knows what. From ignoring critical issues like misogyny, harassment and toxic behaviours to treating valuable expertise like unwanted leftovers, the fallout is ionising. Don your hazmat suit as we wade through the toxic swamp of leadership ignorance that’s contaminating schools.

Expectations Leadership Recognition Toxicity Transparency Well-Being

Good Will Hunting

Posted on 04-03-202418-04-2025by admin

Exposing Schools’ double standards: Economic vs social relationships

A stark dilemma haunts the corridors but it is not the foul stench of SLT polluting the corridor as they come to deliver a fresh set of laminated bullshit that “must be displayed in every classroom”. Instead, it’s a paradox where goodwill, vital for harmonious school-staff relations, is now treated as a commodity. This isn’t an abstract concept; it’s a predicament with real repercussions for teachers, students, and education in general.