This headteacher is right - so why suspnd her

[Whysomanyexcuses]

This headteacher has said what many parents have been saying yet suspended .....
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8463765/Sunderland-head-teacher-suspended-saying-staff-sat-home-doing-lockdown.html#comments

We need more head teachers like this - our children have been failed.

YABU - she should say nothing - let it go - ignore the ones who have done nothing to help children
YANBU - she is correct to say it as it is - children have been let down

The school was satisfactory in 2005 under a different head.

Got found inadequate in 2007 when Mrs Woods was head , and turned around in 2011 still under her with an outstanding. The school has not been inspected in 9 years.

However , the issue here is that a head that is leaving brought the school's reputation into disrepute and made public dissatisfaction with the staff/shared confidential information.

How will her comments help the parent/school relationship?

It is her job to manage her staff and their tasks. If they are not being done adequately, it's her job to sort it out, not complain on the radio and ruin whatever confidence parents might have in the school.

Would you be happy if your employer went on the radio and moaned about your colleagues/you? Bring your childcare issues to everyone's attention?

@spanieleyes

The staff were on a rota to come into school to teach keyworker children for two days a week and then work from home on other admin/ home learning tasks for the other three. She wanted the staff to come in for one of the three days to complete their admin tasks in the school. This was then against the health and safety and government guidance which said workers should work from home whenever possible.

Ahhhhh that doesn’t surprise me! So she was pressuring people into working against guidance. Similarly her comment about “childcare” issues suggests she wouldn’t be supportive of staff who had caring responsibilities.

Sounds like an awful manager to work under.... regardless of what the school got in their ofsted.

She is absolutely right to say something. Our HT is normally on the ball but for some reason - let the teachers decide what was appropriate for their classes - their decisions were variable from the very slack to the brilliant.

Welcome to MN OP.

I think the truth more likely is some schools get outstanding because of the demands put on staff.

Good management doesn't get outstanding. Ticking boxes does. (Or did it's changed last year).

It has been 0 days since someone started a teacher bashing thread on Mumsnet.

Failure of management. I think we know where the buck stops.

People are misunderstanding the word "suspended".

Suspension is a neutral act to allow time for an investigation to be properly carried out. It is not a punishment itself, although the same word was previously used for when so school pupils were punished by what is now referred to as a fixed term exclusion.

If correctly reported, it seems that she is saying that some teachers have been working hard in very innovative ways over the crisis, whilst others haven’t. Which may or may not be true but is what is reflected anecdotally in the posts on this site.

The issue isn't whether or not what she said is true, but whether or not she should have discussed this in public (bearing in mind that some people perceived as doing very little may have genuine and confidential reasons beyond their control for this) and by doing so has she potentially brought the school into disrepute.

There may also be questions around her management as to how this situation occurred, if it did, and maybe other issues that are not being mentioned for whatever reason.

She is certainly right to say something, but to the staff not the media!

@Phineyj

I'm getting really bored of explaining this on these threads, but if your school is not set up for online/live teaching/delivering work packs/whatever (which would be the Head's decision - these things cost money and have to be centrally organised) as an individual teacher, you cannot teach. What are people suggesting - that a teacher would set up lessons independently of school? You'd get fired and rightly so! And if there is no childcare in a global pandemic, there's no childcare. I say this as a teacher who has taught my full timetable throughout. Because my school had the facilities.

It was our HT decision to let the teachers decide - big mistake!

I thought it was common knowledge that it is nigh on impossible to get rid of a crap teacher

It may be common knowlege but it certainly isn't true. I've been close enough to know the details of 3 sackings in my 10 years teaching. Two deserved it, the third was a victim of an awful headteacher.

What she had been suspended for is her utter disregard of professional boundaries and - possibly - incompetence in managing her staff competently.

This. She didn't just make generalised comments, she specifically criticised staff she manages for 'only' working in school two days a week and working from home the other three becuse they could not get childcare.

Would you enjoy your boss slagging you off on the radio while you were working full time and trying to look after kids. I've been doing it and I can tell you it's shit.

that is a myth brake

You don’t even need to sack, you just need to observe an ‘inadequate’ lesson.

Unless you’re a teacher OP or work in a school, I’m not interested in regurgitated daily mail opinions.

Tbh my kids school - it doesn’t feel like they’ve done enough. But the school has been open all the time.

However the thing that pisses me off the most is that people consistently fail to point the finger at the actual culprits.

The government.

Their guidance has been woeful, confusing, they haven’t thought things through. They haven’t consulted schools.

They’ve fucked this up.

@AnnaBanana333

YABU for reading the Daily Mail.

Yawn, wan, yawn

Surely we've moved on from thinking this is an original post.

Whatever the publication it raises valid points for discussion. I'm not sure what I think yet, I don't know if there is a clear cut view on this one.

I'm working pretty much as usual, my husband isn't. We're both doing as directed by our heads and both would do more if asked. To refuse to follow the direction of the head is a disciplinary action, but the gov have advised against this in lockdown ffs.

YABU. If my Head thought anyone at my school wasn’t doing their job I would expect her to follow the disciplinary procedure. Either this is what happened and the Head then bad-mouthed them whilst a procedure was in place (unacceptable) or she’s been letting people get away with shoddy work and then without warning bad-mouthing them in public (also unacceptable). I also think that these alleged lazy teachers (I don’t know any personally) are clearly being poorly managed. There is no way I could have got away with not doing my job at any stage in my teaching career, lockdown included.

So bored of this ‘lazy teacher’ narrative btw when I’m working bloody hard every day at school whilst so many of my friends are working at home in this glorious weather!

A good headteacher managed and directs their staff. They consult with their staff about performance issues and not the media. This headteacher was already working out her notice. She’s been very clever, doing something that will get her suspended, but not sacked, so she can sit out her notice period on full pay. Who’s the lazy one here?

Me too @VashtaNerada

Stifling hot classrooms and long hours. Some of us are working bloody hard. Come home knackered and see everyone’s photos of gardening and nature walks.

I'm surprised a head teacher would use such bad grammar. If the story is factual, the teachers were sitting at home.

Teachers who needed childcare not being able to commit to three days a week actually in school.

Yes, that'll be because there was a global pandemic and lock down, and everyone who was able to was told to wfh.

What exactly did she expect teachers with their own young children to do? There were no options that didn't break lock down rules (they couldn't have just taken them into school with them).

Well it’s kind of true isn’t it !!!!
It have had a few chatty emails and online work to do . I know that the staff looking after key worker kids are on their knees , and some are busy

But I’m working 8-10 hour days and I struggle to see how my kids dorm teacher is

@Hushabusha the present continuous participle has fallen sadly by the wayside. PS I don’t find split infinitives an issue in modern English

YABU. She’s not necessarily wrong in what she said, but she was wrong to say it on the radio! And if teachers are sat at home doing nothing, she’s the one that should be kicking them into gear.

According to the interview, she didn't like the 'lots of HR rules, regulations, unions' getting in the way of her telling teachers with young children to go into school.

These regulations are what should have enabled her to ensure that her staff were following her direction.

If they didn't, there are appropriate channels which aren't the local radio station.