Another interview lined up for next Friday - school that I could walk to and is peripatetic / based around primary to secondary transitions so it would be quite unique and a cool new challenge.
I've put an application in for the special school my brother works in and I should get an interview too as I've worked in there on and off for years.
Sorry but I'm about to go on a bit of a rant. I doubt any of you are bothered but it's hit me like a train today and I want to get it out there and be done with it.
I've been trying not to expend too much energy on why I wasn't kept on but following an incident today I think I've maybe part sussed out why I've been shit canned in this place.
The time table changes for every kid next week - for your average child this is a bit of an inconvenience if you're not going to be with your pals most of the time or you get stuck with a shitty English teacher you don't like - for a kid with profound autism it's quite literally a traumatic event.
Today at lunch one of our seniors, who isn't actually one of my pupils, was down for some chill out time at lunch and even by his physical demeanour you could see that he was upset about something.
I don't know him particularly well but I got him to come and do a wee task for me to get him away from everyone else then asked if he was OK.
This kid is 17 and, without being facetious, the easiest way to describe his normal operational state is like Rainman when his show is rescheduled - this kid was distraught about the fact that he's going to be stuck with the same kids (all with severe autism too) yet again, he doesn't like them, they're considerably higher tariff than him so he spends his days getting frustrated at them and their behaviour and he can't stand the thought of being stuck with them for another year.
For someone without autism the reality is that you suck it up and just ignore these people. For this kid - the next year of his life is going to be hell whenever he's in school.
He then started breaking down and getting upset about the fact that he doesn't have any real friends to turn to outside of school and his parents basically can't be arsed with him when he goes to them with a problem.
I was doing my best to reason with him whilst, genuinely tearing up a little, when the dickhead teacher the next class over came out and "asked for a word"
This essentially translates as: I've got some sort of bullshit to say, can we do it out of earshot of the kids?
He then goes on a big rant about how this kid is pestering all the staff who support him with this issue and the bossman (i.e. the cunt that has shitcanned me) has decided the best course of action is to deflect the conversation by saying - you'll need to speak to mr bossman about these issues, at which point he can fob him off and kick him into the long grass.
I lost the fucking plot - During the conversation with this kid I was at times having to query whether he was self harming or considering doing it and the head of service has basically said - palm him off - the kid is hard work to deal with due to his condition but you're not going to tell someone in a wheelchair just to suck it up and get on with it because the lift is broke..... that's basically what they've done with this kid.
I had a go at dickhead next door and the bossman and then it struck me - my face doesn't really fit here and that might be why I've been papped out.
I can't name it obviously but this school is one of the top in the country and there's a certain "ethos" that permeates the place - you do what you're told and that's that. Some of the most nervous colleagues I have run faculties with 20 teaching staff below them but are shit scared of senior management coming down on them!
I was brought up in a scheme that was ranked in the 50 worst areas (of 3,500) for deprivation and poverty, my dad was brought up in a scheme that was so rough Panaroma made a "shit look what's going on here!!!" documentary back in the day.
I make no bones about the fact I can be rough about the edges and I'm not going to put on any airs or graces or hide where I came from or what I'm about.
Then I wind up working in a school where they run specific classes for those kids who are gunning to get into Oxford or Cambridge and we had an ex pupil on university challenge not too long ago... in the meantime I'm the token guy on the teaching staff who'll stop and chat to the janitors or ask the canteen workers how their day is going when most of the teaching staff completely ignore them.
I'm the guy that will call out my boss (when most of the staff are so crushed under the expectations of pupil performance that they'll work until 11pm just to keep the powers that be happy) for some bullshit move that only takes a modicum of human decency to try and look out for a kid who's really struggling with the idea that he's stuck in the same classes with the kids he doesn't like for yet another year.
So yeah, I think it's maybe a lot to do with the fact that I really didn't get with the programme as expected.
he did say later on that he was joking and for all the "horrible" things he says about me we've bonded and he doesn't want me to go.
