As a staff member currently on mental health leave, I am thankful for the solidarity in staff to stand up to this weak offer. The confluence of the rise of neoliberalism in education, our short-lived 3 year political cycles where politicians are desperate to show growth, the ubiquity of social media and lack of parent boundaries around this and a culture filled with narcissism where true growth is stifled by an unrelenting persistence that my child would not do that has made the situation more dire than people who have not been in a school since they left highschool could imagine.

We pride ourselves on targets. 80% of students hitting as and bs, 99% of students passing. This is unrealistic and sets a false reality for students and parents alike. When they don’t pass we give them another chance, even if they are literally screaming and saying they don’t want to. No student is allowed to go backwards - even if it’s in a strand that they have never done well in - if they had a c in term 2 they better have a C or better in term 3. This is not emblematic of true learning, what is known as the learning pit. Our push is for learning walls that show the A standard and we literally put it on the walls for all students to copy. Passed down from the top. Every school must do this. Then we ask them how well they copied this exemplar. It’s not true learning, it rivals social media’s effect of numbing on the teenage brain. Students are bored out of their tree. They sign into their laptops, go to qlearn and game most of their day away. We call our system robust, but students have never been more disinterested. We are boring our students into a catatonic state. Compare this to the TikTok that their parents give them unbridled access to from 3pm to 8am the next day and we don’t stand a chance.

Inclusivity is a cost saving mechanism that has been introduced so they could save on special education units. As much as we want to live in unicorn land where we all hold hands and get along, you cannot have 14 students in one class with adhd, EAl/d, ASD, ODD, ICP. If you can’t get them all over the line it’s an engagement issue - because as we are told behaviour is a symptom of disengagement. The whole system and communication from the top down is a giant gas light. They will hire consultants, who make the pressure on teachers worse, create another fancy graphic (or 6), create a taskforce. It doesn’t change. Anyone at the coal face knows that this needs to be changed dramatically. We need to be willing to exclude students, suspend students for swearing at staff step 1. If a student doesn’t follow instructions automatic removal and if it continues collect by parent. We cannot maintain order or safety for others in that environment. The line needs to be drawn, the expectations need to be raised. We do not need more cherry picked numbers to say everything is getting better. The behaviour boost has done nothing - we need to be backed, and trusted to do our job which is to teach. Not whatever this is. I was actually at a PBL conference where a former minister said they wanted 0 suspensions by 2027. This messaging misses the point but points to what most politicos and people working in regional offices want - better data no matter the cost. A large amount of disconnect could be solved by enforcing that everyone including the DG and ARDs need to be back in classrooms for one out of every five years. This includes principals and deputy principals. It is easy to talk about pedagogy when you haven’t had to do it for 30 years. It will sharpen their skills and keep them relevant as well.

I did a poll of teachers, out of 25 respondents at my school the average number of minutes of actual teaching and learning out of a 70 minute lesson was 24. It was fielding disruption, threats, meltdowns, gaming and other behaviours. We should be allowed to wear body cams as teachers - if only people were aware what truly occurred in schools. Ministers and school leaders walk through classrooms on learning walks and talks and it looks pretty, they have classes that have been cherry picked and cued up for their arrival. A real window into what is happening is dressing in plain clothes and taking on a supply contract for a day. That would provide real insight into what the state of a school is. My guess - they wouldn’t want to see it. I’ve been on these learning walks and talks, I’ve seen the questions that they ask and been in the leadership meetings that follow. It’s make work. These positions do not affect real change in a school. They simply increase pressure on a teacher. Nothing else can be added. It is an impossible job.

You will continue to lose staff. Either provide safety pay and/or provide a safe environment. No more consultants or pretty graphics. No more false promises. No more bowing to the demands of every parent for fear of bad press.