Extract 1
Management
style is extremely poor. She is leaving the school in a much worse
position than when she arrived. She had absolutely no vision for the
school and hasn't tried to get to know staff members properly. She
doesn't motivate me and I find her to be quite curt and offhandish, and
very insincere when she 'praises' staff.
A very difficult person to work with, by all accounts.
Knows the ins and outs of running a school, but does this with such distance from the staff that she is virtually invisible.
Like many other colleagues that I have spoken with, I was very happy when it was announced that she had "resigned". The school will be much better off without her, and people can get on with their jobs without a sense of fear hanging over them. She won't be missed at [School name edited out]!
Extract 2
I
find her to be... Micromanager. Authoritarian. Distant. Blunt.
Pedantic. Hypercritical. Bureaucratic. Data-driven. Callous. Totally
lacking in empathy. Insincere. Patronising. Dogmatic. Unapproachable.
Highly untrustworthy… I could go on…
Often claims her decisions
are made ‘for the benefit of the kids’ or ‘in the interest of school
improvement’ but I believe the decisions she makes reflect her own
self-focused agenda, and how she wants to run the school, irrespective
of the opinions of other (often more experienced/knowledgable)
professionals further down the ladder. In fact, she rarely devolves
decision making powers to those lower in the management chain. She does
not appear to have trust in those managers, and therefore those in
middle/extended leadership roles are not empowered to ‘lead from the
middle’ as the school falsely proclaims is happening. These are a just a
few examples of Ruth’s management style that, for me, make her an
extremely ineffective and highly dislikeable senior leader.
If
teachers or middle leaders disagree with Ruth, or if they challenge
her, those individuals face difficult times ahead, as she has been known
to target members of staff who have the temerity to oppose her. This
approach towards teaching staff has been common during her time at [School name edited out]
and it has been very upsetting to watch this happen to popular,
hardworking fellow professionals who have contributed great things to
the school. There is an entrenched culture of fear at [School name edited out] and I
feel Ruth’s behaviour has greatly exacerbated this and further widened
the gap between teaching staff and school leaders. Trust in her is at a
very low ebb (only 51% of teaching staff said they could trust her in
the staff survey) and the feeling of job stability/ security (that was
once widely felt throughout [School name edited out]), has now evaporated due to Ruth. SHe
lost a total of 8 Head of Department last academic year, and a total of
about 25 teachers in secondary. Its hardly a ringing endorsement of Ruth
Sanderson's headship
On her very first day at [School name edited out]
Ruth introduced staff to her personal mantra, a Maori phrase which
translated as ‘What is the most important thing in the world? The
people, the people, the people.” Nothing could have been further from
the truth. This is a prime example of how Ruth likes to parrot
soundbites and platitudes such as ‘assume positive intent’, but does not
actually have the people skills to demonstrate these ideas through her
own actions. Simply put Ruth Sanderson is NOT a people person!!! I could
not believe my ears when I heard her repeat this claim on several
occasions and to other members of staff. Her inability to form
relationships with staff members has been a hallmark of her headship.
From my perspective, Ruth is socially challenged and her presence tends
to intensify a meeting, rather than put people at ease. In the three
plus years that she has been Headteacher, she has failed to form a
meaningful relationship with me or those within my department, and I
simply can’t imagine her attempting to do so in the future. I doubt that
she even knows the name of my partner, which part of the UK that I come
from, or any one of my personal interests. But don’t worry… I’m sure
she’ll soon send out a Google Form to capture that data!
Made a number of ethically questionable decisions last academic year during the CAG process.
Ruth did not interview me. I was interviewed by the last Head of Secondary. He had the ability to value good staff, and recognise their successes - qualities that Ruth Sanderson simply does appear to me to have. He is much missed amongst many [School name edited out] staff.
Ruth
Sanderson is an outsider in the [School name edited out] community - a community that she
does not appreciate or understand. She made not any meaningful attempts
to integrate with the staff body or to show that she values people
within it or give praise to those who have helped make the school such a
huge success. Instead she chooses to remain distant and aloof, making
decisions that dismantle the community, erodes goodwill and damages the
reputation of our school. Her treatment of some staff has been so
dreadful, that no amount of 'growing together' postcards will ever be
able to bring her in from the fringes. Sadly, she is has become a source
of great ridicule, rather than someone who musters professional respect
and admiration.
The worst headteacher I have ever had the misfortune to work for and, in my humble opinion, an absolute disgrace to education.
Extract 3 (Comment on School)
[School name edited out] is, on paper, a very good school. It has well behaved, academic
children. Teaching in the school is very strong and students always
achieve outstanding exam results. Children who attend [School name edited out] thrive and that
is largely due to the dedicated, hardworking teachers.
However, this is despite its dreadful management team who have made [School name edited out]
quite an unhappy and isolating place to work. Communication is dismal
and decisions are often made with little care or thought towards staff
wellbeing. In fact, wellbeing strategies are very poorly conceived. Note
to management - a free phoneline and a wellbeing committee does not
remove the root causes! Much more is needed, as attempts to improve have
been very half-hearted.
Some staff members have also been
treated very poorly by the current leadership team and this has added to
the general air of unhappiness, and low sense of wellbeing felt around [School name edited out]. I do not enjoy working under the current headteacher. She is a major
problem, and I am sure that many more will leave because of the
dreadful way she runs the school. Staff turnover has been very high at [School name edited out] over the past few years, and it’s not been because of
covid! You only need to ask outgoing staff and they will soon tell you
about the negative impact that RSA has had on secondary.
I am
really torn about recommending [School name edited out] to potential new staff. On
one hand you will meet some amazing colleagues, and teach some
outstanding students; you will enjoy a good life here in Doha. On the
other hand, the Leadership team have the power to make it a miserable
place to work, and routinely abuse that power and mismanage the school.
Best advice – proceed with extreme caution!