How does Consultation work in your school??

jayo76

As the topic title says for teachers here I am interested to hear how consultation works in your school. Do the teaching staff get a say in decisions? Are staff meetings places where discussion is encouraged as healthy and teachers have a genuine voice. I hear of many such schools and thats great but it is so far from our experience.

Random sample

We have committee systems, where the committee meet and discuss until they come to the decision that management have already decided on.

Staff meetings are for teaching and learning issues only, if a teacher adds something to the agenda they will talk down the clock on rubbish until the time is up and then call it, because nobody wants to be kept after the 2 hours. If it’s management issue that needs to be covered, we are told it is very important and they are sure everyone understands that it will take a few more minutes...

On paper, consultation looks great.

solerina

We get lots of online polls to vote on things, no one bar the principal ever sees the results of these votes. We are not allowed to add things to meeting agendas. I’d imagine the Principal considers the polls as consultation but I certainly don’t !! Things are planned which we are then asked to ‘volunteer’ for but we are never consulted in advance.

starlady1

No say in any decisions and no consultation on anything. Very much an autocratic approach from the principal.

Not unusual from what I hear about other schools around the place.

Icsics

Survey monkey polls & nobody ever sees the results. ‘Middle management’ meetings every week (with the compliant post holders) & decrees are issued via email. It has eroded goodwill. Staff meetings are via teams now, chat disabled & there is no discussion

WWMRD

And here I was thinking that my school must be the only one where the boss is the most micromanaging person I have ever worked for.

New principal....new laws. Middle management are involved in discussions that would have once happened in an open discussion at a staff meeting. The non post holders, the non ambitious crowd as we have been told, are surveyed within an inch of our lives but surveyed on ideas that are already in progress so it doesnt matter what our opinion is.

Good will is gone out the window. Staff are at their wits end with the amount of work being placed upon us with various meetings, committee meetings, reports, emails etc etc

Personally our school has turned into a place where I'm sad to say I treat as a job now...and I never thought I would ever say that!

rainbowtrout

Seems that this approach is commonplace now which is sad. This didn't just come about magically that so many principals are turning into dictators. Our principal has disabled the reply to all function on the staff group email because he doesn't like people replying to all (I'm one of those people!) questioning him on anything. Some of the stuff is quite innocent. He's also banned staff sending out group emails to staff, even for innocuous stuff, everything has to be sent to him to be forwarded to staff. I suspect I would have more freedom in a communist country under mass surveillance.


We also have the ubiquitous online polls that we never see the results of, but he can see who answers the poll and what answers are given. When challenged on it, the attitude was an aggressive 'what have you got to hide?'.

TheValeyard

Id bet money they are picking this sh1te all up from the principals conferences.

scrubs33

So glad to hear that I'm not alone in experiencing this (although very sad in another way). Our consultation involves the principal deciding things with the GAA/sports loving post holders and then relaying the message at staff meetings. Lone voice of dissent is the DP but they have their time nearly done and the appetite to fight just isn't there any more. Morale at an all time low but applying the veneer of consultation is clearly a tactic coming from management bodies, conferences etc

rainbowtrout

scrubs33 wrote: »

So glad to hear that I'm not alone in experiencing this (although very sad in another way). Our consultation involves the principal deciding things with the GAA/sports loving post holders and then relaying the message at staff meetings. Lone voice of dissent is the DP but they have their time nearly done and the appetite to fight just isn't there any more. Morale at an all time low but applying the veneer of consultation is clearly a tactic coming from management bodies, conferences etc

How did schools arrive at this position though? Why do so many principals want to be dictators?

Icsics

Newer Principals are ( in my experience) out of their depth, they quickly forget that they are teachers & become managers, they manage the staff & expect the staff to manage the kids. The door to the office is closed & they are rarely seen on the corridors, they manage meetings & load staff meetings with LAOS rubbish, making the important decisions themselves, sometimes with the compliant post holders. They follow JMB advice. They’re younger too & just don’t have the experience behind them & very often their people skills are poor. Once they’re in position no one can touch them, they just need to keep the BOM onside & that’s another smokescreen!

jayo76

Thanks to everybody for the replies here. While it is terrible to hear the obvious frustration here, it is a little heartening in a strange way to know we are not alone.

I and a few others have finally had enough of the dictats that are sent via email to us from Management. In our place there isn't even the veneer of consultation. Two long standing work practises have been changed in our place in recent week, no consultation, staff meeting or consensus on either issue.