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

@Whysomanyexcuses

Do you think talking to the media in the way she did was professional or appropriate?

What action would you expect the head to take if a member of her staff spoke to the media about the failings of the leadership team at their school?

@greentreesdream

I don’t think every post questioning a teacher is a teacher basher angelina so shoot me and I don’t understand why the screaming every single time.

It’s turning education topics on here absolutely fucking toxic.

I agree. It supposed to be a discussion. I’m not a teacher basher, I’m a teacher myself and I truly love my job. I am just sharing what I have experienced and the truth is that I am just so utterly disappointed in some of my colleagues and I am exhausted and distressed by what has unfolded. It feels like you cannot be honest about what is happening as this then puts you in a teacher hating camp. It’s simply not the case. There are fantastic teachers and there are others who are very much not.

Perhaps we should never criticise or question another living being. But this would cut both ways and we couldn’t use some of the language being flung about on this forum by people who can’t bear to read an opinion which doesn’t match their own.
I am remembering why I left Mumsnet in the first place.

@Witchcraftandhokum They don’t care. Not sure I do I’m so used to it.
I love that people think teachers take much notice of unions. Most of us are in a union for protection and we decide what we think is right. Let’s hope all the Mumsnet teacher
Haters keep their kids off forever so we can have (much) smaller class sizes.

I think lockdown, unfortunately, has been an opportunity for some shirkers to hide. I can see that in the educational settings I am in, and I work for a few. Some staff are shining however.

I understand the difficulties if it is felt this Head could have said something identifying about her own staff but I don't think she's wrong to try to make the general point.

She's like a whistleblower for education as a whole - I imagine she feels a larger duty to children and parents everywhere. The silence and refusal to point out the larger problems because you are expected to have the backs of your colleagues even when they are failing - that's a bigger problem to me.

@suggestionsplease1

I think lockdown, unfortunately, has been an opportunity for some shirkers to hide. I can see that in the educational settings I am in, and I work for a few. Some staff are shining however.

I understand the difficulties if it is felt this Head could have said something identifying about her own staff but I don't think she's wrong to try to make the general point.

She's like a whistleblower for education as a whole - I imagine she feels a larger duty to children and parents everywhere. The silence and refusal to point out the larger problems because you are expected to have the backs of your colleagues even when they are failing - that's a bigger problem to me.

This ^^^

And FWIW I don’t think in maybe 98% of cases it’s so much shirking as lack of direction and lack of whole school vision. So I do not hold individual teachers accountable for that for a moment and will challenge anybody who does.

However, teacher bashing as a phrase is pathetic and embarrassing.

XingMing it's very kind of you to volunteer your services and I'm sure that you meant very well, but it's not as simple as schools asking you to have a DSB check and giving you a few classes.

To make a substantive impact, you'd need training in the schemes of work that the school uses, access to confidential student information, training in documenting progression/assessment/interventions, someone to supervise/mentor you, plus training in safeguarding, fire safety, school policies, CPD etc. I'm sure there are other things too.

This would require a significant amount of work from someone at the school and a financial impact in terms of providing training etc.

I'm not sure that a volunteer questioning received wisdom or questioning the daily data download would be all that helpful in all honesty, however well-intentioned it was.

Primary schools are often appreciate of adults who are happy to listen to children read though.

Given the volume of teachers there will be bad/lazy ones, I just don't get why they aren't called out by their colleagues
I’m sure they are. I wouldn’t be impressed if I met a lazy teacher, I just genuinely don’t think I have. I think some professions are more likely to attract lazy people than others and whilst I’m sure there are crappy teachers out there, the recruitment, training and performance management procedures must surely stop plenty in their tracks. You’d have to be able to turn it on whilst training, during recruitment processes and whilst being observed on the job, and then turn it off again when you can’t be arsed. Which is obviously possible, but I definitely met more incompetent people in job roles that didn’t require qualifications, just an interview.

I would be happy to come in as a TA and look after the slower or faster children in a secondary school, but having gained QTS, I do think it's a waste of money to have trained me and not used my skills.

@LifeIsHardButSoAmI

It's the same as how you can't say a bad word about people on benefits or women who choose not to breastfeed - they're completely untouchable

What is it you would like to be able to say about these groups that you feel too can’t?

Point proven ha!

It's the same as how you can't say a bad word about people on benefits or women who choose not to breastfeed - they're completely untouchable

Eh? Untouchable? Both disabled people and women who choose not to breastfeed (or are unable to) have been victims of nasty judgement, mean spirited comments and unwarranted criticism for decades and decades. Hardly untouchable.

@brakethree

We all know that there are a lot of outstanding teachers out there, those that go above and beyond and have continued to do so during the lockdown. However it is also very clear that there are many schools and teachers who have done the minimum or less. Government guidelines are frequently blamed however then we read what staff have been doing that isn't in the government guidelines. If teachers think that the general population will blame the government then they are sadly mistaken, whether it's right or not, the schools/teachers that have delivered the minimum or not done much taint the whole profession. I am still amazed at the number of clearly very dedicated teachers on mumsnet defend the whole profession. There is NO profession that is 100% perfect, given the volume of teachers there will be bad/lazy ones, I just don't get why they aren't called out by their colleagues.

I thought teachers were professionals who acted in a professional manner. The Gov set down the minimum standard - suspending the curriculum...providing only childcare for key worker and vulnerable children - for people who are supposed to care about the education of the next generation, to think that this minimum was enough, has left me feeling that professional conduct expected amongst teachers is too poor and too variable and all the shouting down from teachers on here doesn't change that - it's time they listened and demanded more from their colleagues. I expected better - the Gov were shoddy and quite few of the schools/teachers were happy to follow.

Thank you for the condescension @averysuitablegirl. I did all that, during ITT and my PGCE year.

@greentreesdream

I don’t think every post questioning a teacher is a teacher basher angelina so shoot me and I don’t understand why the screaming every single time.

It’s turning education topics on here absolutely fucking toxic.

I don't recall saying it is. And who is screaming?

It’s turning education topics on here absolutely fucking toxic.
Well, they're certainly toxic, but it's not the teachers who are making it so.

I think a lot of posts are people asking questions and they immediately and vocally are deemed to be teacher bashers. The phrase is embarrassing.

The teachers in our school worked 1 day every 3 weeks to look after 8 key worker children. The rest were emailed a weekly sheet with no interaction/feedback/marking, so I do feel they could have done more. Even a weekly phone call as a welfare check would have gone a long way in how I viewed the school (which I previously thought was good). These teachers haven't been stopped in their tracks @VashtaNerada
We've emailed and asked for support but the school say they are unable to provide more. Disappointing. If you were a teacher at this school, would you raise your head and say it wasn't good enough?

Such a shame for the motivated and hard working teachers.

XingMing then you need to apply for a job as a teacher then!

If you want to work as a TA you need to apply for that role as well.

You said that you'd retired - fair enough and good for you - but I don't understand why you don't want to be a teacher but do want to go into schools and teach.

If private schools are more open to help from benefactors, why not approach them?

It's ongoing XingMing.

You don't have training in a scheme of work in one school and then never need it again. Ditto safeguarding and every other policy going.

I think that she has shown pretty poor leadership skills. Firstly, if she is the headteacher, why are they sat at home doing nothing and not organising online lessons. The teachers at my children's school are working hard - setting plenty of work, marking it, uploading stories every day, doing Zoom group work, phoning to check that the kids are ok etc. All whilst having to look after their own children. Secondly, calling her staff lazy and pestilent children on a public radio station is a very unprofessional thing to do and is never going to motivate those staff. She's in the wrong job if she can't bring out the best in them, whilst expecting them to bring out the best in the children.

@XingMing

I think I’d decline your offer of spending 10 hours a week dealing with your arrogant attitude as well. It just screams ‘more trouble than it’s worth’.

I'm sorry but it's up to school leadership to ensure that staff are doing what they should be doing. If her staff have not been directed to prep full timetables with resources AND ensure lines of communication is open with parents then she has failed as well as they have. All schools have online platforms where work can be left for kids/returned for marking and she would have had access to that from the off. She has always known exactly how much work her staff were sending out to kids and could have easily been speaking to parents to ensure that they were happy with what they were receiving and instructed staff to make changes as needed.

It's literally ridiculous to say teaching staff were only working the 2 days a week they were in with keyworker kids etc and 'watching Netflix' on other days when it's HER JOB to make sure they are doing what is needed on other days! Literally her job!!

She has not only put parents off sending their kids to that school and made it look shit (which is probably why she's actually been suspended) but in doing so she's also admitted she's shit at her job!!

She sounds like an incompetent head with piss taking staff. I'd be mortified if my kid went there.

My intention was not "a substantive impact", just a "lets keep the wheels turning" temporary fix. Which from this thread is more than some are prepared to do.

Having read through quickly she is already working her notice as her outdated views are no longer fit for purpose, good. All the school staff I know have worked hard throughout the pandemic and will continue to do so. That is not to say you will get people who will play on this but in this profession people have children's best interests at heart, they are in the bottom few. Thanks to all the teaching staff.

She went on the radio and slagged off her own staff. The people she's responsible for managing. She's basically just turned her whole team against her and publicly declared she's a shite manager in the process.

If I, as a manager went on the radio and said the people who work for me (and named my business) were taking the piss it would be a pretty cut and dry gross misconduct issue for bringing the business into disrepute. They'll have policies for that which are pretty clear. Basically, she's an absolute idiot.

YABU because she said it about her school and you are making it about every school.