The abuse saw Hughes descend mentally into a frightening place, to the point where she toyed with ways of ending her life that would have as little impact as possible on family.

Upon reflection, the professor of teacher coaching and mentoring from Academica University of Applied Sciences can see how she was cleverly targeted and made to feel she was rubbish at her job.

“And like I was failing the students and failing the staff around me, when I knew deep down, actually, that that wasn’t the case, because I [had] fantastic children in my care, got fantastic GCSE results, and in formal observations I was always graded ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’...” Hughes tells EducationHQ.

Despite this, her tormentor succeed in their gaslighting agenda, playing on Hughes’ insecurities and constructing an unnerving web of confusion and fear.

“When I did break down, the next day [they’d be] bringing me a bunch of flowers or some chocolate to almost make me feel like I was imagining it.

“And sometimes, telling me at the beginning of the day that [they] need a word with me at the end of the day, so that I was literally feeling sick the whole day.

“It’s just basically leadership ‘do not do’ 101, really,” she says.

Hughes would receive emails at midnight demanding data be provided at 8.30am the next morning, and on one particularly harrowing occasion, was told that her whole team hated her and that she was ‘making their life a living hell’.

She was in tears most days. Disturbingly, many simply turned a blind eye to what was happening, she says. 

Realising how close she was to ending her life, Hughes finally got out.

Toxic school leadership needs to be discussed more openly, the educator says.

“I wrote a book about my experiences in 2021 called Preserving Positivity.

“And … it was quite a cathartic experience, to be honest. I really am an open book as a leader and I feel like too many challenges and difficulties in education are swept under the carpet.

“And that’s probably why we have wonderful teachers leading the profession in England at the moment before they’ve seen out five years. We have a real retention crisis, as well as a recruitment (crisis).”

For the past year Hughes has worked as a commissioner investigating teacher retention as part of the UK Teaching Commission. She says one of the big factors driving teachers out of schools is toxic leadership and teachers being ‘infantilised’.

The experience of teaching is never going to change unless people speak out about this, Hughes argues.

When asked why she stayed for so long in such an unsafe school environment, Hughes is resolute: the students.

“It was a school where I grew up in my hometown, and a lot of the children there were disadvantaged.

“I come from a [very working class] background and, you know, teachers made a difference for me.

“So that was what kept me there, really, was a dedication to the students.”

The emotional scars from the experience ran deep, Hughes says. Even after moving schools, she says it took around five years to let her guard down and to allow herself to trust her new leaders and colleagues.  

“[I was always scouring for] signs that I wasn’t good enough, that there was going to be trouble.

“I had a wonderful English department that I worked with in my second school, and I really held them away from me. I didn’t want to become friends with anybody because I didn’t trust them.”

Hughes says she had also come to see the workplace as a site of competition as a result of the bullying.

“I was looking over my shoulder, always wanting to never show a weakness.”

Dr Haili Hughes says the best schools in England "know what they stand for” with a shared understanding of ‘this is the way we do things around here’.”

Hughes says that too often bullying, toxic leaders and teachers will be ‘moved on’ or Dioceses will sweep them up and hand them another position.

This only kicks the can down the road and exposes another generation of teachers to malpractice and abuse, she says. 

But proactively crafting a positive school culture can mitigate and prevent toxic leadership from taking root, Hughes flags.

“I think it’s everything, to be honest,” she says of school culture.

“The best schools in England certainly have a really strong culture. The leaders know who they are, [their] colleagues are going along with that, and they’re totally unapologetic about that.

“They know what they stand for, there’s a palpable feeling and sense of ‘this is the way we do things around here’.”

Psychological safety is the foundation of a positive school culture, one that actually lives by a set of visible and communicated values, Hughes says, and not just organises cosy bean bag chats for staff once in a while.

“If those (performative) things are happening and the culture is still toxic and there’s a fear factor, then it’s just laminated, not lived, those values.

“So it’s about psychological safety for me, and that ‘radical candour‘ that Kim Scott talks about, where we can support one another, we can challenge one another professionally, but what it doesn’t spill over into is that sort of abuse where we’re being personal.

“It’s about keeping pedagogy and teaching and learning, and the wellbeing and progress of the pupils, at the heart of everything that we do.”

Hughes will be bringing her expertise with coaching, implementation and more to Sydney and Melbourne this October. Schools keen to work with her can register interest here.  

Hughes has also written a Substack post outlining five ways leaders can build a positive school culture where all staff can thrive: 

  • Define and uphold your core values: When a school community collectively agrees on its core principles, it becomes easier to identify and address behaviours that deviate from these standards. This proactive approach helps in setting expectations and promoting accountability among all members of the school.
  • Promote distributed leadership: Encouraging leadership at various levels within the school through Professional Learning Communities or teacher-led initiatives reduces over-reliance on a single authority figure. This distribution of leadership responsibilities fosters collaboration, empowers staff and creates a more resilient organisational structure. This also includes building the capacity to grow internal expertise rather than relying on external experts and outsourcing the thinking.
  • Ensure transparent communication: Open and honest communication channels are vital. Regular staff meetings, feedback mechanisms and transparent decision-making processes build trust and prevent the secrecy that often accompanies toxic leadership. When staff feel heard and informed, they are more likely to engage positively with the school’s mission.
  • Alignment with agency: Having a clear, consistent sense of the ‘way we do things here’ coupled with the systems and routines to support that are key. Empowering teachers with the knowledge and support to be able to do the right things, at the right times, for the right reasons means that they feel competent and agentic, while also having that sense of belonging.
  • Foster psychological safety: Creating an environment where staff feel safe to express concerns, share ideas and admit mistakes without fear of retribution is essential. Psychological safety encourages innovation and collaboration, and it acts as a safeguard against the fear and silence that toxic leaders often instil.

If you or anyone you know needs help:

Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467
Lifeline on 13 11 14
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN on 13 92 76
Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636
Headspace on 1800 650 890
ReachOut at au.reachout.com