Sonic'

Ooops if you dont want to read the long post, a quick question

What is the best way to get rid of a Headmaster through official proceedings?


The Kids current school had a new Headmaster at the start of the previous school year (so he has been in for just over 12 months)

The previous Head did wonders for the school turned it around and got it the best ofsted reports and results for the school and kids that she could

Now this new Headmaster has been in place he has started to ruffle one hell of a lot of feathers between teachers and parents, and there is talk of a petition now to get him booted out

Some new rules have been put in place involving Social Services who are now monitoring who is late

Now it works like this, if you use the rear of the school (now desginated entrance) and get there before 8.55 then all is ok, if you use the front entrance you will marked as late regardless of the time (sometimes it is a necessity to see teachers/drop notes in, pay money for school trips etc)

The Bell goes at 9am, the rear doors get locked at 8.55 so if you arrive then you have to go round the front entrance and be marked in late

Any lates are to be reported to Social Services and is now to be classed as Truancy

This surely cant be right, truant for being on time but going in through the front door ?

Other rules,

School Trips there used to be a voluntary contribution of 5 quid per child, now this has gone up to 7 quid per child as quite a few folks dont pay, but by law they still are entitled to go, so I am pretty much fed up of funding other kids school trips, so took a stance on the current one to refuse to pay, and it also looks like many other parents have now took the same stance, and the school are now considering cancelling the trip and future school trips

Other stupid goings on from the Head

One teacher was ill with a contagous bug so stayed off school for the day so as not to infect the kids, she got a warning, so has now resigned as a result

The caretaker is being pushed out (siding with parents I think is the reason)

The Staff are now becoming distanced from parents as they have recieved bo**ockings for being friendly to parents

Everyone is complaining about having to use the rear of the school (not just parents, teachers as well) as it has open gates directly on to the road, and no staff are there to watch the kids, so once you drop them off (as you are not allowed in the playground now to walk them in) there is nothing to stop the kids running back out of the school

He has now set goals for the staff to compete against each other instead of working as teams and together

He has also done the same now for the kids, and you are considered bad if you dont get on the league tables and forced to work harder and harder to get on the league tables he has now introduced

Kids are no longer applauded during assembly when they get certificates, until all children are on the stage and they only get applauded whilst they return to their seats

Quite a number of the Teachers have now recieved warnings for the most trivial of things too

It looks like there is some serious unrest brewing, as he is *only* focussed on budgets and targets, and pretty much everyone and everything else can go to hell

It isnt practical for us to take the kids out of this school, but I feel a petition being started to out the current Headmaster

We cant really report him to the board of governors, as he is in a few of their pockets

Eeek, bit of a rant there

pwhittle

souns like very valid reasons to complain - I'd try the LEA
I seriously doubt social services would care about late, and may well complain themselves when they keep being sent reports
if you think using the rear door poses a threat, go to the local paper, it's the sort of story they love, and wills how the head up for what he is

Sonic'

Thanks

The social services woman has already been in going through the late report book and collaring a lot of parents and warning them that letters will be sent out regarding truancy

Ofsted state that certain codes are used depending on lates/absence/booked illness time off etc etc, it seems like these are being dropped and the children being marked as truant

Also once recorded these records stay with the child for life (at school) and can never be changed too

Good idea on the local paper, hadnt thought of that one

EddScott

Maybe they should copy Stalin and have a bell to tell people when to stop clapping (this is true!)

What a shame one person can cause so much grief to others.

ricardo

In one sense the Head reports to the Board of Governors. Approach the Chair of Governors and ask for these issues to be raised, it might be that the parents can force an extraordinary meeting. There should be teacher governors and parent governors, and they actually have a lot of power as a group. Take it calmly so that the Governors are made aware of all the ways that this is causing problems.

fast bloke

If you can't get the board of governors on your side, find out when the next meeting is and get as many parents as possible to show up. You will probably struggle to get a spokesperson, so it will more than likely have to be you.

Being a PITA might help. Gets as many parents as you can to use the front entrance, and get them all to complain in writing to the headmaster every time a child is marked late or absent. If they don't get a satisfactory response from the head to each letter, complain in writing to the board of governers. (None of them will be able to give a sensible justification anyway, and they won't easily commit to looking like a halfwit on paper) Next step is ofsted to find out why they are ignoring the complaints.

I would also complain about the safety aspect and lack of supervision at the rear entrance. Bring attention to the recent case of the headmaster (James Porter IIRC) fined because a kid fell off a step.

'Voluntary contributions' are just wrong. We have a £20.00 per child per term 'voluntary contribution.' All the kids names were put on a notice board and marked off as they paid up. I didn't mind the 20 quid, but it was painful to see three or four names not marked off three weeks into term. There are some parents who genuinely can't afford it, but it isn't fair to those parents or kids to make them stand up and say that this is the case. I decided to take matters in hand and stood up at a joint parents, PTA, governors and teachers meeting and tell them that I didn't agree with it and that I couldn't afford it. In the discussion that followed, every other parent in the place including the ones who couldn't pay said that they didn't mind.... b4stards..... so I was left looking like the school pauper.

Not much you can do about the certificates/applauding or the caretaker.

Sick teacher should be encouraged to start unfair dismissal proceedings

Alternatively, you could just brick up his front door while he sleeps

Leslie

He sounds like a full on NL, leftie, target setting PC plonker to me "blest with brief authority" and is hiding behind his position to bully others into doing his wishes.

We had a Wingco like that once and when he got found out he was given a very lowly posting and given to understand that he would do better to find another job-which he did!

I think the idea of publicity sounds best to me too, a letter containing all you said in your first post should do some good Sonic.

Les

DCI Gene Hunt

Headmaster Engers by any chance

scoobynutta555

What's all this voluntary contribution crap all about. It was simple when I was at school, you either paid up or you didn't go. Tough luck if you can't afford it I'm afraid. Who on Earth can't scrape together £6? I bet some of these people find the cash for lottery tickets and ****.

bugeyeandy

Same here scoobynutta.

There seems to be something very wrong about the entrance debacle. Surely if this new guy is chasing targets he'll want all the kids in on time and an extremely low truancy rate. Can't work that one out myself.

Sounds like he's running the place more as a business than a school.

scoobynutta555

The more targets reached the bigger his pay packet more than likely. He's obviously cherry picked the best paying targets to go for. This governent seems to be obsessed by targets and not the best ways on how to do things.

mark engers

If by that you mean that the headmaster has guts for trying to instil some discipline and punctuality into the pupils and their oafish parents then you would be correct.


If that were the case then pupils could buy plus membership whereupon they could give their peers tardy demerits. Any protests would have to go through head<web>master... who will not respond due to being too busy spending their Jamie Oliver lunch money to fund his lavish lifestyle.

MinnieMouse

I sympathise with you.

From our experience with a dodgy headteacher at school, when you go further nothing gets done. We had trouble last year, in a tiny village primary school (50 max pupils), my eldest was told by a kid that he would bring in a gun and shoot my son and most of his class including various teachers, this was from a child whose father keeps guns, the school did not want to contact the police though I made them in the end. The child never even lost a minute of his golden time! There was no continuity with punishment given out.

40% of the staff left in one week.

We also had the crap about which door to use (used to change often) and voluntary contributions when others paid nothing. Bullying was rife but certain parents were bullies themselves and the head would not stand up to them.

Head of Governors - he was no good when it came to problems with headmistress, I will leave that one to your imagination! About half of the school wrote to the head of the local LEA who did nothing and then retired. We voted with our feet and took the kids out, it was the best thing we did as they are so much happier now, the week we left 5 children in total left, various others have since gone.

Ofsted went into the school and gave a bad report, the head is still there!

Good luck with whatever route you choose.

MK5

get the kids to strike/protest at the front of the school and call the local papers

Sonic'

I agree entirely, why we should we as paying parents fund the ones who would rather not pay purely because it is voluntary

the Head has said that he cannot by law/government make it a statutory payment, and the law/governement states that children cannot be excluded from going on trips if the parents dont pay

yes there are some cases were it cant be afforded, but the lastest trip they gave the parents 3 days notice, now in our case it is £21 payment, but this time on principal we refused to pay and told the teacher we simply cannot afford it this time

I am quite happy to pay for school trips for the kids, but I refuse to subsidise those who dont pay, apparently one parent asked could they only pay £5 instead of the £7 as she couldnt afford the full amount, and was told no, £7 or nothing and I have heard some stories of the teachers ripping up and throwing away the trip forms of those who havent paid, telling the children they now cannot go because they have been naughty

Sonic'

Definately the case, he has also appointed himself as the SENCO so he gets paid for that as well, and as a SENCO he is dire (thats a seperate issue we have with him)

The one to one teachers are non existent and often get moved from class to class becuase he feels that they should be utilsed elsewhere and one to one's arent really required (boils down to cost essentially)

Leslie

Whats a SENCO?

Les

Sonic'

Special Education Needs Co-Ordinator

We need one for our lad as he possibly has Aspergers and ADHD, but the Head being the SENCO means no one gets benefit from it

pwhittle

is he statemented? if he is he has a legal right to the support stated in there, though schools can and do appeal against them if they think they can offer support within their budgets. I'm sure you know that
we're getting one at the moment, as our girl will need full time support (since they've closed the special schools down). I've been looking at caselaw incase we have to fight them. Quite happy to do that, depite having the same employer

Sonic'

He isn't statemented, its such a nightmare long drawn out process to get done, we are working on it though

The kids school trip is today, and found out this morning that they have demanded money from everyone who hasn't paid or the kids stay sat in the classrooms, and only those who have paid can go

This completly contravenes the letter they sent out, saying by LAW, NO ONE will be refused school trips, as the payment is voluntary

So if I find out the kids havent gone on the trip, a letter to the LEA & the Local Paper will be sent

speedking

Try and construct your arguments better than this:So no-one is allowed to use the front gate, but they must if they want to pay for trips Can't they make their way round once they are within the school boundary?

Does "The Bell" signify time they have to be on the premises, or in their classroom? If the latter then it doesn't seem unreasonable to mark as late if they can't reach the classroom on time.

Do the kids get marked as late if they arrive at the front at 8:45? How can there be someone monitoring the front to mark lates, but no-one at the rear entrance?

Why can't you just imagine the bell is at 8:55 and get the kids to school by that time?

I understand it all has to be taken together, but the above does seem a rather minor thing to try and get someone sacked for What if the new head said that all kids had to be at school by 8:55 instead of the previous 9am, would that result in seeking his dismissal?

Sorry to come over as argumentative but it seems more minor than you are making out.

Leslie

Thanks-never heard of that one before.

Les