Asked to resign

[Mossiebonbon]

My husband works in a secondary school in pastoral care, whereby each year group is assigned a support member of staff. There are 5 Members of staff with the same role as him, he currently works with Y11.
Next year he has been assigned to work with Y8 , the year our daughter is in. My husband does not feel comfortable working with our daughters year group , potentially having to reprimand her friends for behavior or liaise with parents that he knows personally.

The head teacher has suggested he will have to resign if he doesn’t work with this year group. There is no explanation , to our knowledge, for why the other pastoral members of staff can’t swap to be with Y8. Headteacher just says she wants consistency.

AIBU to think headteacher cannot threaten my husband like this? I appreciate your comments

I think he should consult his union. Perhaps he should formally respond to the head outlining the all conflicts of interests he has identified and ask the head to respond to how these can be mitigated. He may need to involve the governing body.

If your daughter wasn’t in the school would he normally be expecting to take on the Year 8s next year?

The headteacher isn’t threatening him. She’s being very clear - if he’s not happy with her expectations, which sound completely reasonable, then his option is to resign.
in all honesty I think he might need to get over himself. This is what it’s like working in education - people know people.

This!!!

Surely professional boundaries mean that this isn't an issue? Or is that just in real life and not applicable to schools? Manager's often have to deal with friends and family in their jobs including disciplinary action and handling confidential information.

However, it's not ideal and the HT's suggestion to resign could be construed as constructive dismissal.

I knew this would be a school from the thread title.

Some HTs are very petty.

@Ljhunt
“even just classroom teachers wouldn’t teach the year group their child is in”
This isn’t true. Of course teachers teach the same year group their own child is in. Some have to teach their own child in niche subjects.
As a class teacher, the DH will possibly have to administer sanctions to the DD’s friends. As a head of year, the same too. It’s really no biggie - if he feels uncomfortable then it would be very odd if someone couldn’t deputise for him.
If her friends have all seen him moving the lawn in his speedos, of course, that might awkward as fuck - but his fault for not thinking ahead!

I wonder if the headteacher meant resign the post.

Exactly. I taught in the school my children went to and was never placed in the same year group. Tell him to speak to his union asap - it's absolutely not a resign situation.

This.

As long as he's raised concerns in writing any issues he could then point back to that if any issues do arise.

Agree with this too. Head teacher is being a dick making a massive deal out of this and suggesting the teacher resigns etc. Not a very supportive or caring head teacher from what is said here. And as pp has said could be seen as constructive dismissal.

If he is Y11, then in theory he should be going down to Y7. Is there a reason he isn’t doing this? I can understand the current y8, y9 and y10 heads of year going into y9, y10 and y11 not wanting to switch. You get to know the children and parents very well and that type of consistency is good and needed. The main question is, why is the person chosen to do y7 not able to do y8 instead?

Is he actually a teacher or some other type of just pastoral role? It may be that the headteacher doesn’t want him in the role at all

@Fairydustandsparklylights the op hasn’t said he is a head of year

If it's the case that they take year 8 through to 11 (which is what happens at our school) then I don't think they're being unreasonable.
The thought is that children, especially the vulnerable ones, can build up a relationship with the head of year who can give a degree of consistency.

The Op said each year group is assigned a support member of staff which I just asssumed to mean head of year. No school I’ve ever worked at had an extra pastoral assistant or assistant heads of year for each year group, normally just a couple of pastoral assistants to cover all year groups. Apologies if I misunderstood.

She isn't threatening him. She's giving him a choice. If he can't fulfill the role he's contracted to do, then she's right. He should resign.

Weird way of thinking on his part as well. That he doesn't want to reprimand his daughter's friends. Maybe should have thought of that before sending her to the school he works in.

The head has not threatened him. They have assigned him Y8 and the reason being for consistency.

Is their reasoning correct? Is the current Y8 pastoral person moving to Y9. Y9 to Y10 etc...?

What about this year's Y7 pastoral person? Why are they not going to Y8?

Ultimately he is employed in a pastoral role and therefore can be assigned any year. He can either accept or resign.

My reply would be that I would not resign however I am raising a conflict of interest concern which should be taken through relevant governance in order that the management team can ensure that the manage this conflict appropriately.

I would also ask that they recognise that their request for resignation is inappropriate

Consistency is a rubbish argument - I can see why in an ideal world a school might want this - but teachers leave all the time and not always at the end of the school year. I don't understand why the head can't be more flexible. As I said already head teacher is not going to win any awards for their management style and support of staff!

If he is head of year, can't he just say he doesn't want that role? Presumably it would mean a pay cut though.

I can see both sides - after all, you might have 3 kids and you couldn't refuse to work with all their year groups. But I would have thought there would be an alternative option if the head looks hard enough.

Is he a Head of Year OP? A qualified teacher? Or does he have a "learning mentor" or similar role. It makes a difference if he's asking to change the main pastoral lead / HoY for a year group or if he's one of several adults assigned to the year.

Idiot headteacher. My child was in the same year group a few years ago- that was awkward enough.
The HT is also undermining your husband even before the job starts- his ability to be seen to be treating all children fairly. He is also putting your daughter in a potentially difficult situation. You as the non teaching parent could complain about that as a parent to the governors- not about your husband but the situation from your daughter's point of view.
I don't even think it would count as a 'reasonable request' from the HT- although I'm a union rep for the NEU I'm not a knowledgable one- maybe one could come along and say if they considered it to be unfair dismissal if your husband refused to be HoY 8.

In my school teachers do not tend to teach classes in the year group their child is in. Seems to me the Head is being unreasonable here and I would contact the union for advice in this case.

I suspect they may have a transition team for year 7 then year 8 a new pastoral lead takes over and follows them through to y11. Any other year groups would have had a lot of work put into relationships etc so I suppose they could be asked to change but the head would have to consider what plan is in the best interests of both year groups.

Asking him to resign is abit excessive though, but I suppose if there is no other job role available what other choice is there?

1. He hasn't been asked to resign
2. Totally reasonable to be asked to work with Y8