Chrissie was offered a £30,000 settlement agreement by The Active Learning Trust to settle out of court after raising serious bullying and safeguarding concerns. Chrissie declined the money as she had only ever wanted a formal written apology from her bullies for the psychological damage and distress caused to her and her immediate family. She experienced suicidal ideation because of the repeated actions of her bullies which included name-calling, fabricated meeting minutes, sinister emails and letters. Her disability was referred to as ‘mind vomit’ and she was even sent a fabricated disability calculation. She was warned by HR that it was ‘dangerous’ to hear the names she had been called and received threats of disciplinary action two days before Christmas Eve. Chrissie also felt that too many teachers were being silenced and exiting the teaching profession in shame through no fault of their own. She decided to go against the grain and speak publicly about her experience which led to a full Sky News investigation into bullying in education. Chrissie was contacted by hundreds of Teachers and support staff who had experienced bullying by senior leadership. The Sky News report exposed that such bullying is costing the tax payers millions of pounds. Chrissie is leading a campaign to monitor the use of nondisclosure agreements in education which purely protect the bullies and often result in teachers leaving the profession for good with serious mental health issues.

My Background 

I’m a qualified English teacher with over 17 years of experience. I completed my GTP at The Faculty of Education, part of Cambridge University. Like any teacher, I worked relentlessly on lesson plans, schemes of work, resources and understanding assessment criteria. I sacrificed family and social time to train aswell as during the first five years of qualifying. On top of this, I have diagnosed OCD and PTSD stemming from an abusive childhood where I witnessed and experienced domestic violence. I feel proud of my contributions to young people and society, despite living with an exhausting disability. I was the first family member on my father's side to go to University.

My Teaching Career 

I worked at Impington Village College for 8 years, Ely College for 3 years and my final school before leaving Education for good was Neale Wade Academy, part of The Active Learning Trust. During those years, I had gained many additional qualifications. I held TLR positions and gave my all to the wider community of school life. I ran the BBC school news report for ten years consecutively and was chosen to meet Prince Charles for my continued support.

How the bullying started…

It was at Neale Wade Academy between 2022 and 2025 where I experienced a sustained bullying campaign by several senior leaders including the Headteacher, Acting CEO, Director of People and the CEO. Along the way, these leaders engaged others to facilitate the bullying such as Marilyn Smyth from Making a Difference and EPM.