I have worked at St. Thomas for a number of years and can whole heartedly say that the reason I stay is because of the dedicated and welcoming staff. The support staff go above and beyond to help the teachers with their programming. All staff work collaboratively, and support each other. When there are issues, in my experience, maturity and integrity reign, and they are resolved. It is for these reasons I stay. It is my second home.

This school had so much potential and for years was run by incredible admins. The last few years however have been an absolute dumpster fire! Constant staff changeover, kids running around ,students frustrated ,staff frustrated and needs increasing. Recipe for disaster!!!!!
They have lost their best staff and this is just compounding the problem. The school board needs to make some changes to admin but would rather see over 20 staff leave. Run away from this school.

Never in my years working have I experienced a low staff morale (in the last 2 years )as at St. Anne’s. Staff are mentally and physically exhausted with little to no support from admin. There are far too many students in the school with no clear boundaries or consequences for misbehaviour. Which in turn puts staff in dangerous situations. Staff are beat up(one sent to hospital) because a dangerous situation was not made awareness to staff, slapped, hit, kicked, spit on, verbally abused…etc. Staff really do their best to provide each other with support when needed but there is a lot of segregation in the building, there’s no “team” playing. I truly think this is from admin not listening to the needs of staff. Things are not dealt with properly and in turn, people are hurt. It really feels like an unsafe place to work. Sad to say.

Multiple current and former staff have spoken out about the ongoing issues at this school, yet nothing has been resolved. The fact that so many staff have left to work at other schools is telling. The toxic culture was felt from day one and observed by many staff.

It often seemed that certain team members were deliberately trying to undermine others or make them appear incompetent in front of colleagues, despite the fact that everyone was meant to be equals simply trying to do their jobs. The work of an EA is already challenging enough, dealing with high-needs students and frequent violence. But when staff don’t have a supportive team to back them up, it becomes deeply discouraging. On top of that, being micromanaged and constantly monitored by program support made the day-to-day experience feel tense and exhausting. Staff were under a microscope from the moment they walked in.

It takes a toll on mental health. Coming in every day stopped being enjoyable and became mentally, physically, and emotionally draining. These are very real and very concerning issues that lead to burnout and job dissatisfaction. Nobody should be treated this way.

Something needs to change. There needs to be some accountability and honest self-reflection at all levels. Good staff are being driven out due to unchecked negative behaviour, and that should concern anyone who truly cares about creating a safe, supportive, and professional environment for the safety and wellbeing of both students and staff.

On a daily basis staff are subjected to verbal and physical abuse from the students. This means special needs students and non special needs students. If your child attends this school they have seen staff get hit, be cursed at and be treated with utrer disrespect.The staff feel stressed and like there is nothing they can do about it. We do not feel supported by administration or the board. The board needs to provide more support staff. The current support staff are being asked to watch multiple special needs students at a time or are being pulled to deal with an emergency situation in another area of the school. This is putting the staff and students in unsafe positions.

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