The Secret Teacher (@DCSecretTeache1)

Now, the time has come to take a break. We all need it. It has been a difficult time at WCC for some years. The cracks have been seen, the responsible for them have been identified, the problems have been highlighted. Now, it is high time we protected and looked after one another. Maybe it is also the time to feel positive and hopeful. Although this blog has only voiced what the majority thought and felt, some may have seen it differently. It is a fact, however, that the blog registered around 34 thousand page views since its conception. Staff, parents and students read it. We apologise for not sharing all the 'articles' sent to us but we think we made the right decision.  It is our belief that expressing views and revealing outrageous practices of the leadership group are only the inevitable result of the frustration among us, staff. The blog is just a medium, a message. Do not shoot the messengers. Beyond the words - and there have been many - we think that the teachers shoul

With the incoming members of staff who are brought in to replace the outgoing, one thing is clear: the priority is to mend what has been damaged. After the damages caused by the outgoing, the highest item on the agenda must be to restore trust between the vast majority of staff and management. The so-called Leadership Group have not shown any leadership since the formation of that level of responsibility under the current headship. Hiding in offices and not being seen in the school where they work has been the topic of mockery for all staff. The school has no real vision when it comes to teaching and learning. It's only well designed slogans on school walls. The LG has been operating remotely and they might as well have been working from a chalet in Switzerland, no one would have been any wiser.  The new Principal must be visible, his Head of Secondary and Head of Primary must be around among the teachers and wider staff. Not just walking around all day, but observing and talking

 What makes a school special? We will have to look at the basics of the profession. Teaching and learning must be the centre of all endeavour in a school. When the focus shifts to other aspects, the imbalance is quickly felt. The management of any school must understand that the role is to promote learning in the best conditions. They have to understand that the working conditions of the teachers is the learning conditions of the students. Management, and most of them come from a teaching background, have the duty to stay in touch with the theories and practicalities of the classroom practice. The physical place has to facilitate learning and teaching. The teachers have to have the necessary expertise to conduct their daily business in an efficient and knowledgeable way. Experienced teachers may not be better than the newly qualified ones but experience teaches them how to deal with issues, how to foresee problems and quickly plan a new strategy to remedy them. Experience, whether with

It has been a very trying time at WCC. Without going over all what we described in the previous posts, staff are at the end of their tether. Morale is low, mental health is suffering, focus is lost and spirits are yearning for a break.  The new staff are already talking about how much more they can take and how much longer they can endure. The old staff, still breathing by some miracle of nature, have acquired a genetic defect that makes them chronically irritable and thus electrically charged like an Amazonian eel. Poke one of them and you will regret it. The students have used up the last iota of enthusiasm they had and now are walking into classroom with a zombie-like demeanor. No lessons, Merit Points, practical experiments would move them. The best you could get out of them is a grunt or a groan. The physical and mental boundaries have been pushed to the limit. Any more lessons and they would break down in tears. Management continue to be invisible. Even more so now. A natural sta

 Hello, Ex-pupil here. Attended said school until I “graduated” (cheers, Covid) in 2020. Among pupils at [WCC] there is a general consensus that the teachers themselves are great but the leadership is terrible. For us, the cracks really began to show following the implementation of high performance learning (whatever the f*ck that is). The senior leadership desperately trying to peddle this teaching structure/mindset (whatever you call it) that probably cost an arm and a leg and had absolutely NO use at all apart from making the school look good. I know HPL became a joke amongst teachers and pupils alike, and it was something many of us could tolerate although it clearly demonstrated the priority of the senior leadership to maintain a perfect school image rather than make any actual changes to learning itself. Many of us have long said that the current principal treats the school as a business/advertisement campaign rather than as a community of teachers and pupils of which their welfa

What can I say about my time at this institution? I remember when I found out I had gotten in, after seeing the glam and the glits that is presented through social media to us of the school, I was so excited. It was much to my dismay that from the moment I started attending the school, the cracks started to reveal themselves, I joined the same year as Dr Zimmer, so only have experience of him as principal, but from what I hear the previous principal knew every student and made the school a place you wanted to go to.  From my first week at the school, I was being bullied, much to say I was in KS3 so this is not a surprise, however, the lack of support was noticeable. Throughout my years at this school I have raised many issues I and those around me have experienced, they where swept under the rug, as a previous post mentioned there is protectionism over certain students and members of staff. From my experiences with the HOK (Heads of Keystages) besides the head of KS5 Mrs Cunning they h

 What makes us, humans, unique? Ego, because ours has no limits. It has been known for some time now that repeating the same lies does not make them truth. Blaming the others for their own failings will not change the outcome of the missed opportunity they had to make a real difference. If they are not aware of their failings (and we suspect they naturally are deprived of self-reflection, apart from when they admire themselves in the mirror), they have been told so many times how to make things right. Dr Zimmer of WCC, a formerly renowned school of integrity, keeps fantasising about his future prospects. Unbeknown to him, he is considered one of the most uninspiring principals the school has ever known. Ask the students. He is only interested in what he sees, his own perception of things. Even when he is reading these very lines, he is reading them twice to make sure he doesn't miss the between-the-lines innuendoes. There are a few, Dr Zimmer. Keep on reading. Bragging about his ne

Part 2 from Body Of Teachers sender   Whilst Dr. Zimmer might have resigned, and not too soon, sad his legacy will be the loss of what was a tight-knit staff community, a significant financial debt for WCC and a bland building. Where is the accountability for his actions and failings in leadership, other than to pass the buck? Robocop has been allowed to run amok in Secondary. High turnover of respected staff has been a sign of some rot for a few years now, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing. A clear example of this ‘rot’ follows. The following was an email that essentially shows culpability and implicates senior staff: “Dear colleagues, Some of you have noticed a potential risk to our data protection when they found a non-WCC e-mail address listed on the permission to access and edit CAG Google sheets with the assessment data summaries. This e-mail address, which is the administrator’s, has now been removed, and the account mailto:administratorCAG@wcc.com has been created and added i

 As the blog continues to see an increase in views and followers, we receive some feedback through our contact page.  Here's a slightly edited thought from one of us: There is a lot of bitterness within the community of the school. Staff are tired at the end of this academic year. They are exhausted by the work and continuous focus needed during the last stages of the courses and examinations. It is natural to see fewer smiles, more issues, more grumpiness. We do believe that with the natural sunny disposition in teachers, being grumpy is part of the teacher's DNA. We are doomed to correct mistakes students make; that is part of our job. We are constantly seeing issues and regularly trying to find solutions to problems. That is part of teaching. The other side of all of this is, of course, the joy of getting to these solutions and seeing our students, their parents and also colleagues come together in agreement. Never mind the countless emails back and forth, never mind the in

      We have enabled comments on this page. Please post a farewell comment to the leaving members of LG here. Thank you in advance for your heart-felt messages.

 A contribution from a staff member. Pertinent points. To read, definitely. BoT: (Body of Teachers) Part 1 A series of anonymous letters have been sent to the BoG over the last 12 months. “You Board of Governors, have the responsibility to the school community to take note and act in line with the role of governance bestowed on you. We see you as the bastion of governance representing and accountable to the teachers, parents, students and ministry. Forgive that I wish to submit this anonymously, but I am concerned of repercussions on speaking the truth, of raising concerns, as we have witnessed too many inexplicable, involuntary changes in staff that many of us staff would fear for the security of our positions. Much of what I describe is not my experience alone, I speak for many staff across the themes that I raise. The most obvious area to start with is the number of staff who did not have their contracts renewed. Many of these teachers were given no satisfactory reason, and reports

 We are appalled to see that an over-funded and oversized Marketing Department organise such a feeble attempt to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee. The proverbial piss-up in a brewery comes to mind. One string of bunting and a last minute communication to staff, students and parents do not constitute a celebration of such a British event from a British school sponsored by the British Embassy. The Platinum Jubilee's date did not come to anyone as a surprise and the invitation of Her Majesty's Ambassador could not be any less conspicuous.  Telling some staff to bake some cakes is yet another proof that management are broke, devoid of any foresight, dignity or commonsense. Well done to those members of staff who, despite everything, managed to produce cakes to mark the occasion. It poses serious questions about the Marketing Department's existence and validity in these times. They can't claim it was not up to them. Their social media posts are an eye-candy feed that leaves no

As we come to the end of an era - or as some call it the light at the end of the tunnel - we are left to look back at the past and the future of WCC. A lot has happened and little has remained to remind us of what it used to be. Here's a quick and tongue-in-cheek review of the legacy which a current teacher has sent us: The Building The WCC building has been described by its principal as the flagship of educational institutes, one of the largest in modern history and a symbol of modern post-commonsensical architecture. The world is at awe of its insipid grey walls and buildings that have been thoughtfully designed to keep teachers at bay of one another. One teacher was quoted saying: "Teachers at WCC have ample space to confine themselves to their classrooms or pantries. It is weird to work in the school for months and not run into a colleague. We often challenge visitors who seem to be lost, but we are surprised when it turns out that they are colleagues from other departmen