“I feel like a performing monkey:” staff survey at Astrea academy lifts lid on concerns about professional autonomy and alleged “culture of fear”

Teachers at a controversy-beset academy in Cambridgeshire have spoken of living in a “culture of fear,” with two thirds of those responding to a union survey saying they did not feel valued in their jobs by management.

A lack of autonomy at Longsands Academy, as the Astrea trust which runs it seeks to ensure compliance with the pedagogic textbook Teach Like a Champion, were among a host of concerns raised in a survey of National Education Union members before Christmas.

The details in the survey seem to raise further serious questions about the quality of an Ofsted report on the secondary school last spring, which improved its rating to “good” but without giving much indication of any unhappiness among staff.

The news comes with a further tranche of teachers having left the comprehensive at the end of last term, but with Astrea – whose strapline is “Inspiring beyond measure” – continuing to promote its work as improving standards for pupils.

The detail

The recent staff survey at Longsands, which has been featuring in Education Uncovered articles for more than a year, was carried out in November. Some 71 per cent of NEU members at the school at the time responded.