Secret Teacher: our 'perfect' school is just keeping up appearances

Staff collectively roll their eyes as a member of the senior leadership team says: “Diaries open, we are expecting a lot of visitors next week.” More visitors.

As teachers who often play host to training days for external schools, we’re no strangers to strangers being in our classrooms. However, the anticipation of visitors and the pressure to prepare has altered the atmosphere of the school, affecting teachers and students alike.

I recall my own school tour on the day of my interview. As must be the case for the guests we accommodate, I was swept away. Pristine classrooms, immaculate books and display boards that deserved framing. Little did I realise what goes on behind the scenes.

The reality became clear pretty quickly. I arrived to start the new year only to be told that my classroom displays, which I’d spent a week of my summer preparing, were not good enough. While my attention should have been placed on my new pupils, it was instead consumed by the pressure to create the Sistine Chapel of classrooms in the space of two full school days.

I understand the importance of making the classroom an engaging and welcoming space for children to learn in. But I can’t help thinking that the emphasis placed on the school’s appearance isn’t with the children in mind.

I’ve witnessed pupils’ work ripped up in front of their eyes, and criticised in front of the whole school. Teachers are warned to keep students well away from learning resources, should they end up looking worn for the visitors. Staff have even been asked to impersonate children’s work. Much like a show home, most of what you see is there for exhibition.

While the continual demand to keep up appearances adds strain to an already unmanageable workload, a bigger concern of mine is the ways in which it affects pupils. The word “perfect” is thrown around like a motto. Perfect presentation, perfect results, perfect appearance. Staff or student, if you don’t live up to the label giving your best effort simply doesn’t cut it.

I’m uneasy about this. As an educator, I do see it as my duty to encourage and help each child to reach their fullest potential, but so is instilling self-esteem. Publicly humiliating children is unnecessary and potentially damaging, and children should be reminded that imperfection is not something to be feared as it allows for growth in their learning.

While the tools are in place to report poor practice in terms of child protection, concerns about pupil confidence fall into a much more grey area. There does not appear to be an anonymous means of challenging this approach.

From a purely professional standpoint, there are advantages to working in my school. I have learned a lot and grown as a teacher. We receive regular and high-quality continuing professional development, which is beneficial to us as practitioners. Focusing on our results, which consistently exceed the national average, continual training is also valuable to students as they leave the school with good results. A good reference from our school will also give you the pick of teaching jobs in the area.

However, parallel to professional development is professional pressure. It’s no coincidence that the turnover of staff is higher than any school I have previously encountered. While the benefits are emphasised to visitors, the drawbacks, much like the reality behind the facade, are hidden.

While chatting with a colleague who has worked at the school for a long time and witnessed how its prestige has risen, they casually said that the school “used to be a happy place”. The consequence of becoming a school that is outwardly textbook is that, in many ways, we appear to have lost sight of the individuals we are essentially there to benefit: the students. Likewise, the guise that visitors are shown conceals the relentless exertions of staff to maintain appearances.

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