Check with me first

 In the growing trend of falling standards at WCC, it has become ever more pertinent to ask why there has been such a drastic change. This change is especially of deep impact in the secondary school.

The change started just over two years ago when the new Head of Secondary joined the school. Never has such addition been this impactful on the normal functioning of a once decent establishment. There are a few reasons for this but we will touch on the main ones.

The new Head of Secondary has almost single-handedly united the staff in their disapproval of her ways. Stubborn, inflexible, lacking in warmth and genuine empathy, she has made some deep changes in the way the school works. Some teachers, heads of departments and heads of faculty have resigned themselves to the fact that presenting her with an alternative view would be futile. In a Borg-like style, she has recruited members of staff who are compliant and eager to please. The new teachers or heads of departments/faculties are perfectly comfortable with executing her orders without showing any resistance. We doubt they know any differently. They have been perfectly 'assimilated'. The health of any school is  measured by the inner dialogue that is encouraged among the teachers to treat any malaise, solve problems or amend unproductive strategies. With the absence of any real dialogue, the discontent and existing issues will only continue to grow.

Micro-managing, which is her most valuable skill, has become the norm lately. The lack of independent decision-making that the HoDs once enjoyed has made approvals of ideas, actions and executions of any plan a very lengthy process. Any issue would have to travel up some 3 or 4 lines of management to land on the discussion table of the leadership group. Invariably, when the decision is finally made, it travels back the same lines with any individual initiative or teacher suggestion becoming a long trail of paperwork and forms to fill out.

The eagerness to please from the new and inexperienced line managers has been the cause of much amusement among staff. It is not the experience with the subject taught or dealing with departmental data and stationery orders that we are referring to here. It is the experience of standing up for their colleagues, relaying their concerns and resisting any unproductive directives that is valued and constitutes good leadership. However, the fact that these new line managers have been handpicked by the Head of Secondary explains much of the problem. It is time these managers grew a pair of [...] and learnt from the experienced around them. Their legacy will be long-lasting and it had better be a positive one. 

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”