Extracts from the website:
Extract 1
[School name edited out] has fantastic students and many good teachers which are just
about holding it together. The salaries are still relatively good,
however recent housing allowance cuts and having to pay contributions to
school fees definitely places it below some of the other ‘top’ schools
in the region. Doha is a great place to live and you can have an
excellent standard of living. Singles and families alike have plenty to
do, despite its reputation for heat, the weather is lovely for most of
the year. Water sports, sports, international sporting events, shopping,
nightlife, camping, dune bashing, beaches are all available and
reasonably priced (well drinks are quite pricey, but the good salary and
cheap petrol makes up for it).
The school is a British
Curriculum school. The students are the highlight of teaching at [School name edited out]. They are bright, ambitious and extremely well-behaved. They are
enthusiastic and you really can teach and have a bit of a laugh and a
joke, which is particularly refreshing if you come straight from the UK.
The parents can be demanding and the school panders to them, often
ignoring teachers and educational experience to keep them happy. The
days of waiting lists are over and money is more important than ever so
keep the clients happy regardless. The majority of parents are however
very supportive.
The school moved into a new campus this year,
which has sucked the budget dry (and the spirit) and along with COVID
will affect the school significantly for a while. The move to the new
campus has not been a smooth one. Despite the marketing, the campus has
been designed to be incredibly isolating with buildings separate to each
other. Coupled with this, all classrooms face outwards, many over
wasteland so the attractive parts of the school and the [School name edited out]
community are rarely seen. In addition, most specialist facilities are
not ready and there has been no communication with teachers about when
they will be.
Sadly, during this difficult academic year moving
to a new campus and COVID restrictions (members of staff not seeing
family or even losing family members), the Leadership Group (LG) took
the opportunity to hand out disciplinaries, non-contract renewals and
warnings to a significant number of staff, many with years of experience
in the school. They seem to be having a bit of a clear out of
experienced staff. There is now a culture of fear, staff are afraid to
speak out on professional matters for fear of seeming confrontational.
Even members of staff who have been happy for many years are planning
their exit strategy. It feels fairly miserable to go to work these days
(and the big prison walls of the new campus don’t help).
The
LG seem to think this is ok and staff are told that we should expect to
find change difficult, inherent problems have been blamed on the new
campus and covid. There are constant questionnaires about wellbeing and
engagement and despite the results clearly showing there are problems,
absolutely nothing changes, and the same points are raised again and
again. Communication is particularly poor and getting worse. Important
and helpful information about day to day running of the school is kept
by the LG until the very last minute in some kind of strange power move.
Their favourite thing is keeping teachers in the dark about all plans,
leaving teachers floundering when being questioned by parents and
students. Strangely, this has bred a camaraderie between the students
and staff. The kids often say “Have THEY told you yet?” and we say “no,
of course not, don’t be ridiculous”. The top-down approach reflects the
of lack of experience in the LG. There are members of the LG who have
been continually promoted into their positions, which were simply handed
to them without the need to apply or be interviewed. The current Vice
Principal for Teaching and Learning who has been responsible for the CAG
process for the last two years is actually a primary school teacher
with no experience of secondary who was moved over after the collapse of
one of the primary campuses. Rather than allow experienced secondary
teachers to apply for the position, it seems she was simply given the
job (qualified or not). Likewise, the Vice Principal for Student Welfare
has also been promoted in a similar manner, promoted from Head of Sixth
Form, to Head of Pastoral to his current position, much to the surprise
of many of the staff and without these positions ever being made
available to better suited staff. Since the move to the new campus, they
have now added another layer of management, which now means we have no
idea what any of them are up to.
The principal loves the sound
of his own voice, he often makes promises he cannot keep. He has
mastered the art of talking at you without allowing you a word in
edgeways. He has a knack of telling staff too much information about
sensitive subjects because he can’t help himself which fuels gossip but
then tells staff not to gossip. It was a big joke for a long time that
we couldn’t get through a staff briefing without him mentioning that he
was Vice Chairman of COBIS or that he had met a member of the British
royal family recently. He is totally out of touch with anything
happening on the ground at [School name edited out], many new members of staff have
never even seen him in person. The LG have now positioned themselves
well away from the rest of the school in the central hub, affectionally
known as The Capital. His car is the only car in the carpark who doesn’t
follow the rules to reverse park and also has shade whilst all of the
other staff cars melt in the heat. This may seem trivial, but it is
little things like this that put a divide between him and the staff (and
the fact that we never see him and the kids certainly don’t). A rather
brutal (but a truthful reflection) blog was written by an anonymous
person/people this year and the Principal responded by lashing out an
innocent members of staff and essentially throwing his dummy out of his
pram.
There really doesn’t seem to be much self-regulation
going on between the Principal, the Head of Secondary and the rest of
LG. The beginning of the end started several years back when they
introduced something called the HPL teacher. This was sold originally by
the Principal as a reward for experienced staff to aid retention. It
was likened to the upper payscale in the UK. By the time it was rolled
out, it had changed to the HPL teacher and staff had to apply for the
position. Only staff who had worked at the school more than three years
and who had only ever achieved ‘exceeding expectations’ were eligible to
apply. The staff handbook stated that the majority of staff at DC
should expect to be an HPL teacher (this was quickly deleted from the
handbook during the process). The leadership group selected a handful of
staff to be given the HPL role and decided that this was an opportunity
to really tell the rest of the teachers what they thought, with hurtful
personalized and negative feedback. The HPL teacher has now been
scrapped and HPL has taken a quiet back step, however the cracks between
LG and the staff body are deeply embedded.
In the staff
engagement survey, 51% of teachers voted that they had trust and
confidence in the Head of Secondary. In the Principal’s review, he
brushed straight past the fact that 49% did not have confidence and the
data was even shaded green as a satisfactory result. If 49% of my
students didn’t have confidence in me, I’m sure I’d feel another
non-contract renewal coming on. In addition to this, she likes to hang
words like malpractice over staff. She has made some deeply ethically
questionable decisions this year regarding popular and experienced
members of staff, leading to deep mistrust and the cracks have turned
into a crevasse.
The Head of HR has been around for a year or
so but is rarely in the country, we are always being told she is on her
annual leave. There has been a real shift since her arrival and she
wants to move away from the community orientated family school and
towards a more corporate clinical college. She definitely contributes to
the toxic culture of the college and the recent staff engagement survey
also highlighted the significant drop in trust of HR since her arrival.
The principal likes to blame her for many of the poor decisions made
but she likes to blame him back.
In conclusion, if you have
children, they will be happy here. You will have a wonderful life
outside of school and you will have great colleagues in your year and
department teams. If you keep your head down, don’t speak out and do
what LG says, you will be fine (probably, for a while). If you are
progressive and looking for a school that is at the forefront of
educational research and pedagogy, then this probably isn’t the place
for you.
Extract 2
When
I joined [School name edited out], it was like stepping back in time by 15 years.
The teaching methods and resources were old and lacking innovation. The
staff however were lovely and nothing was too much trouble for anyone.
Someone was always on hand. Unfortunately in 2018 we got a new Head of
Secondary who is like Miss Trunchbull. She is not people oriented, rules
with an iron fist and couldn't be further removed from the classroom
and understanding staff wellbeing if she tried. In this year's staff
survey she got 51% positive and 49% negative confidence and I should
remark that this survey was not wholly anonymous. One wonders what it
would be if it had been totally anonymous. 12 Heads of Department have
left this year for various reasons, some have been forced out for trying
to be innovative, others have been bullied by SLT and others are moving
on. I think 29 people in secondary left this year which is huge for
this school. Even the Head of Primary moved on this year and he had a
very positive confidence rating in the survey.
The school moved
to a new campus this year and because they went considerably over budget
there has been a great number of cost cutting exercises. I think the
turnover next year will be large again next year. The school is really
lost, isn't moving forwards, spends too much budget and time on
marketing and if you look at the marketing material take note at how few
students are ever in the announcements... it's all about SLT you see.
And as for HPL... it's a non starter here. Don't be fooled by the
principal dropping in a few words like "perseverance", "integrity",
"flexibility"... this SLT do not show integrity, flexibility, innovation
or honesty. They have each others' backs and that's all you need to
know. Apply to this school with sincere caution and try not to get
suckered in by the high salaries (which are very likely to be cut next
year).
The one thing I must note is that we are the school with
the biggest video screen in the world! (Not that anyone knows how to use
it!)
Extract 3
Runs the school using fear as the only way to get staff and students in line. There is no vision for the school, staff are generally unmotivated and scared to think outside the box and innovate. This is shunned.
Teachers are not supported by Ruth or the Leadership group. They are told to get back in line or get out (or fired). We are seeing excellent staff moving to new schools where they will hopefully be valued.
I was not interviewed by Ruth.
I think the school has now got a progressively worse reputation since Ruth started running the secondary school.
Extract 4
When
Ruth Sanderson started at [School name edited out] three years ago as Head of
Secondary, she stood on stage on INSET day to introduce herself and told
the staff she is a 'people person'. This could not be any further from
the truth. Fundamentally, I think she is a bully. She targets and picks
on people. She doesn't renew contracts of anyone who speaks out, or
bullies them into resigning. She micromanages and if anyone dares share
their opinion she gets rid of them. She seems to be trying to get rid of
all staff who were at [School name edited out] in the 'good old days', ie. before
she was there.
In the recent staff engagement survey, only 51%
of Secondary staff said they have confidence in her. Quite impressive
to have lost that many peoples confidence in such a short period of
time! It just shows she should not be in the role and is not fit for
purpose.
She is, by far, the worst thing to happen to [School name edited out] and let's hope the Principal or Board of Govenors wake up soon
and realise the damage she is doing to what used to be a lovely place to
work.
She does not support staff with any aspect of the role or staff wellbeing.
I was not interviewed by Ruth however I would not recommend anyone work for her.
Extract 5
I
believe Ruth Sanderson has contributed to a growing wellbeing crisis at [School name edited out]. I find her to be deeply untrustworthy and only 51% of
teaching staff rated her as a leader who could be trusted in the most
recent staff engagement survey. This speaks volumes and is highly
embarrassing for her! Staff I have spoken to do not feel comfortable or
safe in her presence, and many are fearful that she will sack them
without merit or due process. She does not support staff properly and
she is a well-known bully! I think her unpleasantness has created a
toxic work culture at [School name edited out] and am hopeful that she will soon
leave, or be removed by the Principal and/or governors. In my eyes the
Principal’s reputation has been irreparably damaged as a result of his
unwavering support for Ruth, and I can't quite understand why he
continues to allow her to damage the school’s (and his own) reputation
by supporting her terrible choices. I have lost respect for Dr Sommer
because of his failure to rein her in.
In my opinion, Ruth is a weak and uninspiring leader, who has destroyed the well-established community spirit at [School name edited out].
Cold and awkward.
The one thing that I think unites [School name edited out] staff, is their collective disdain towards Ruth Sanderson. She seems to be deeply unpopular. A terrible appointment for DC.