Zahra Bei had been working as a teacher in London schools for almost two decades when she began to see education in a new light. She started her career as a business studies teacher in a secondary school and was quickly promoted to head of department. She loved teaching, she loved the kids, but as time went on she began to notice changes.
Bei had come to London alone at the age of 16, leaving her Somali-born mother at home in Italy. She went to college, studied for a BTec, got herself into university, then did a PGCE and started teaching. It was a massive personal achievement and she felt “really proud” of herself.
The job was demanding, the hours were long and Bei was also raising a young son, but as the years went by she detected a shift in the way pupils – and staff – were being managed. “We started to see behaviour policies beginning to clamp down. You’d have a long corridor of kids, sitting in isolation at these tables, bored out of their heads,” she said.
