The Pressures We Face

Morning, everyone. Hopefully I haven’t been set up for a fall. For those that know me, obviously my name is Dave Bausor. If you don’t, my name is Dave Bausor.*laughter*

I’m not going to go through everything on this slide. When Trudi asked me to contribute, I thought I’d sit down and write out everything I’ve done over the last 30 years. I’m still at the coalface. I still teach, 36 hours a fortnight, to Year 7 all the way through to Year 13. When I was writing the list, I started to get a little bit emotional, because there’s quite a lot on it. I think I’ve bought and worn quite a lot of the T-shirts. I think I can now say that I’m an experienced teacher. Some people would say I still need to grow up, which I do appreciate.

Unfortunately, though, what I’m going to talk about this morning is the pressures that we face.

This is what I used to be, and hopefully I won’t get too emotional about this. I used to be very thumbs up, very dynamic. I used to run around. I do still take a few selfies. I was very vocal on social media platforms, and I’ve been involved in lots of things with colleagues who are sat in front of me this morning.

This is the current state of play as far as I’m concerned. I apologise to the people in the room who are having wonderful experiences, but for the last two years, the picture on the left basically sums up my situation. There are a significant amount of plates that need to be spun. And if I’m brutally honest, quite recently I’ve been feeling like the picture on the right hand side. Is it time for me to just let the plates smash on the floor, drop the mic and walk off into the distance? I’m almost 54. I’m aware of pensions and things like that. But with the way I feel about the system and everything else that’s going on at the moment, it’s not a fun place to be as an acting middle leader.

There’s the constant expectation to ensure policy implementation, the continued wellbeing of staff, and holding people to account, the excessive workload, the checking and rechecking that colleagues are conforming to routines, systems and processes. There’s the relentless use of data. I’ve seen a massive shift in the use of data over the last few years, and its continued in-depth analysis. Targets are often set significantly higher than in some other schools. Why? To set the aspirational bar as high as possible: to be in the top 3%, to challenge, to push, to go above and beyond, to be the best, to be outstanding, to get that top Ofsted category, maybe to have the kudos. Then there’s the need to rationalise, justify, explain, compare and contrast. That’s not to mention the internal reviews, MAT-led inspections, lesson observations and RAG rating of SEFs. I could go on, and I’m sure some middle leaders in the room could give more examples.

So what of the teaching? As I’ve said, I’m a trained teacher after all, and I do consider myself to be at the coalface. But I don’t feel like I’m teaching at the moment. I feel like I’m conforming, merely following routines. Teaching was once at the top of the list. When I started in 1996, the first thing you thought about was what you were actually going to teach. Now we have to think about lots of other things before we get to the root core of the actual teaching. We’re mental health nurses. We’re parents. We’re a shoulder to cry on. There are loads of different things that sit underneath that, and the last thing we come to is the teaching. It’s significantly down the pecking order. And obviously, this is my opinion.

What I’d like to be is this. That is what I’d like to be. I’m hoping that after I’ve listened to some of you this morning, I’m going to get some of my mojo back, because that’s what I need. Ultimately, I’d like to walk back into my school and feel that these plates can spin independently.

Thank you very much for listening.