Woodville High teachers strongly criticise school leadership in internal survey

Desperate teachers have used an internal staff survey to unload on their leaders, describing their school as “the Golden Grove of the west”. Read their incendiary comments.

Woodville High School students walk to its St Clair campus. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Woodville High School has been dubbed “the western version of Golden Grove” by its own teachers in a damning staff survey.

Dozens have complained about disengagement with their leaders, inadequate support to tackle bad student behaviour, continuing safety issues and unmanageable workloads.

Written responses obtained by The Advertiser included claims the year 7-12 school was “haemorrhaging staff”, with one teacher saying staff had been “shot down when they raised concerns.

Another told The Advertiser one senior teacher had left without notice while others, especially technology teachers, were “completely fed up”.

“The students film fights and get aggressive with teachers,” she said. “It’s just the western version of Golden Grove, it's disgusting.”

Posts by teachers on the Woodville High School internal staff survey. Supplied

Posts by teachers on the Woodville High School internal staff survey. Supplied

Posts by teachers on the Woodville High School internal staff survey. Supplied

Golden Grove High School has been the centre of controversy over students fighting each other and posting footage on social media.

Teachers told the survey there were serious problems controlling bad behaviour by some students at its St Clair campus, including fighting, vaping and truancy.

“The rate of suspensions and exclusions is probably due to a lack of nipping the bad behaviour in the bud,” said one teacher.

Another teacher said nobody was available to help when critical incidents unfolded at the school, which has 1000 students.

“Leadership arrives flustered (understandable) … it does not make me feel safe or my students, not having confidence in strong and calm back-up.”

Posts by teachers on the Woodville High School internal staff survey. Supplied

Post by teacher on the Woodville High School internal staff survey. Supplied

Posts by teacher on the Woodville High School internal staff survey. Supplied

One teacher questioned whether the school’s leadership team “is aware how often staff are actually in tears of frustration, dealing with repeat behaviour from the same students with what feels like no support?”

Other posts described inadequate enforcement of the school’s uniform policy, heavy administrative workloads, poor internal communication and disconnection between teachers and their managers.

Posts by teachers on the Woodville High School internal staff survey. Supplied

Posts by teachers on the Woodville High School internal staff survey. Supplied

Woodville High principal Anna Mirasgentis discussed the results of the survey at a staff meeting on Wednesday.

Ms Mirasgentis earlier had sent an email to staff describing the results as “concerning”.

“Of the 154 staff that were invited to participate, only 68 completed the survey,” she said.

“Thirty four feel disengaged in all four sub-climates – learning, community, decision-making and leadership.

“This is the lowest in the inner-west portfolio and it is our responsibility to understand the current climate, why 34 staff feel disengaged and take the necessary action for improvement.”

Ms Mirasgentis said she was “still strongly committed to creating a school where everyone is visible, heard, feels valued and has agency”.

The main administrative building at Woodville High School. Picture by Kelly Barnes

A department spokeswoman said the department’s culture survey gave employees “working in our public schools, preschools and children’s centres an opportunity to share feedback about their experiences at work”.

“This survey provides leaders with valuable data and feedback from their teams to help them identify what’s working and what can be improved,” she said

“Designed as local feedback for local action, when they receive their survey results leaders work collaboratively with their staff to identify the actions that will support an engaged workforce.”

The spokeswoman said while the feedback received from Woodville High teachers “raises issues that need to be addressed, our site leaders and principals take the data seriously and will put in place steps to address it quickly”.

“As is seen from the email in this case, that is exactly what is happening at Woodville and is a reminder of why these surveys are important,” she said.