“We were treated like numbers on a spreadsheet”, says supply teacher now being paid 80 per cent of salary not to work

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Below is the first-person testimony of one of the 11 teachers who are no longer working at Bushey Academy, Hertfordshire, which is run by Future Academies. See main story here.

 

"To receive an email, after what turned out to be my last day at the school, saying that I would no longer be needed at Bushey Academy, effective immediately, was a shock. 

The way it was done was very poorly executed, an email at the end of the day before a long weekend so that no questions could be asked. I had been planning on uploading Monday’s work for some of my classes on the Friday morning even though it was a public holiday.

The work was planned but not uploaded. But we were cut off from the network early the next morning, so the google forms activities I had planned were not only not set but not accessible to me to pass on to colleagues. There was no opportunity for handover, so I ended up having to communicate via social media with other teachers to let them know what my classes needed moving forward, which students were succeeding, which needed more explanation via email, and so on.  

Although Future has since said that they were confident that the staff left would be able to support students’ needs without us, the timing was horrendous as we had just started, as form tutors, contacting students in the two weeks before and we had all just set times for google hangouts calls with students. So when my form and the forms of the other 10 teachers had finally figured out a routine it was all ruined and again, due to lack of opportunity to hand over, we couldn’t even communicate to other teachers which students needed to be contacted in what way i.e. email, hangouts, phone call. 

The way this was done was detrimental to staff still at the school, adding stress and work for heads of year and each of our departments. It was detrimental to students: when the one area of stability in their education during coronavirus was their teachers, they have taken several of those away, adding more stress as students will need to resettle into new routines and expectations with new teachers. In the lead-up to this I had been receiving positive feedback from my line manager on how well I had handled the transition online with my classes, and generally felt well-supported by the school. I had no reason to believe my job would be in jeopardy.

My personal view based on this situation is that Future Academies is a business and treats students and teachers like numbers on a spreadsheet, not teachers with talents and compassion or young people with a need for stability and encouragement from trusted adults to flourish.”