To want a headteacher who is a good man

[AhBiscuits]

We have a new head starting at my child's school in September. I know people who have worked with him in other schools and he has had extra marital affairs with at least 2 younger, attactive teachers.

Is this irrelevant if he is a good headteacher? I would prefer a head who is a morally decent person. Not that I will say or do anything obviously, I will just quietly have zero respect for him.

or her .....🤔

On the whole I want someone to be good at their job, and their private life is private.

But presumably the affairs with colleagues do affect the whole school, it isn't the same as affairs outside the work place.

Yeah, this. Normally I'd say the state of someone's marriage is none of my business and irrelevant to their work, but a HT who is fucking other teachers, and teachers who ultimately report up into him? 1) That is going to affect the job, and 2) Ugh.

Headteacher affairs with staff are an abuse of position surely. I’d not be happy with that.
Who appointed him?

Staff, not student. Still morally repugnant but not an abuse of position

The boss having affairs with lower ranking staff absolutely is an absuse of power

I worked for a depute who had an affair with a staff member and it caused carnage, he was pushed sideways into the first depute job that arose elsewhere. He lost all respect from his staff and it definitely impacted the entire work environment, including the older children who knew about it and commented! (Small area, word travels fast!). Staff members who called out the preferential treatment of his affair partner etc were accused of bullying her, one got a formal warning for pointing out that she is teaching morals and ethics while not displaying any. He’s doing fine in his new role and she still works with me - enough time has passed that we are all civil and it’s been “forgotten about” or rather brushed under the rug.

I’d be concerned, it does impact, but I’m at a loss as to what you can do - we shared our concerns on deaf ears.

They'd be better off hiring a woman, less chance of her shagging her way round the junior staff members. Male teachers are overrepresented in headship positions as it is .

As a parent, it wouldn’t bother me as long as he was good at the job.

As a teacher, I’d worry about someone coming in who was a head.

Doubt it will impact the kids at all, unless he drives staff away.

Has he really had two affairs, or is this just malicious gossip?

It's abysmal behaviour from a headteacher. In other workplaces it would lead to disciplinary action, I hope, or redeployment, at a minimum. The effect on staff morale could be horrendous. Also, like it or not, most people expect teachers to be role models and conducting an extra-marital affair with a younger member of staff when you are her/his line manager is just wrong, on every level.

Yes I'd be very concerned.

It's absolutely an abuse of power and demonstrates poor judgment at best.

Very short-sighted on the part of whomever appointed him if it is common knowledge.

This would not concern me. Just run the school well and hold everyone to account to do the same.

I'd quietly have zero respect as well, while hoping he would be a good headteacher.
People have affairs and it doesn't have to affect their ability to do their jobs, but it seems kind of grubby to me for a headteacher to have an affair with another teacher. I'd be imagining it happening on the school premises - even if it didn't!

The teachers involved confided in the person I know, as well as a few others, after things turned sour. It didn't take long to get around.

I assume those involved in hiring him were not aware.

I remember in the 90s when "Tory sleeze" (probably all party sleeze but that was the headline) was a thing my mum not wanting to vote for candidates who had affairs. I didn't understand it then but basically why would we expect people who lie to and cheat on their spouse to treat the public with more respect?
You can't do anything but mark his card.

If he's somewhere new for a fresh start, where this hasn't all happened, then I think it's unreasonable to hold against him.

If he's moved on, he's no longer in a position of power over the teacher he was/is in a relationship with or affecting the school or it's staffing systems.

In my last school the female headteacher had an affair with a younger ,male parent . Thst caused a whole shit storm.

I wouldn't expect them to last long in the position if they continue this behaviour. If they start shagging around, this will cause a vipers' nest to form amongst the staff and people will start jumping ship. Or if things go tits up, and sides are taken, all it will take is someone shopping him to the Governors and then he'll be on his way.

A Head having an affair with a junior member of staff without declaring it to the Chairman of Governors would, in most schools, be grounds for disciplinary action at the very least. This suggests that he hasn't been reported for this behaviour in previous schools, as it would have come up when he applied for the job otherwise.

Well you’d think their private life would be private but amongst the schools I’ve worked in one head (male) was caught shagging the cleaner ( female) in a store cupboard. Apparently it happened frequently.
Another head (m) had had an affair with a woman not then working at the school but he appointed her into a senior role she wasn’t really sufficiently qualified or experienced for but they were old friends….
Another was female head having an affair with male teacher, they used to meet up after school in a lay-by they thought was well hidden ( it wasn’t)

I actually do think it matters that he has had multiple affairs in addition to the very glaring issue of having them at work with direct reporting staff.

As said above, the head of a school is supposed to be an 'upstanding citizen' suitable as a good behavioural role model to the children, and also if he would throw his spouse under a bus for his own interests he could definitely be expected to do the same to the staff and schoolchildren if he had a whim to.

I'd see it as similar to having a conviction for fraud, at the level where you might not be in prison but you are also barred from becoming a charity trustee etc as it is now legally held that you can't be fully trusted.

Morally bankrupt. Hardly a good spearhead for the school, cant control his lusty desires.

Headteachers are appointed by the board of governors of a maintained school or the trustees in an academy. Different in the independent sector.

Governors meet initially to conduct a needs analysis ( what does the school need in its next HT) so that candidates can be scored against the criteria during shortlisting and again through a range of activities in the process.

It is a fair and very rigorous process and follows safer recruitment protocols. It takes place over two full days, in my experience.

There can be additional background checks using publically available information ( SM, news etc), these can inform governor questioning if need be.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6628c402b0ace32985a7e516/Recruiting-a-headteacher-v2.pdf

I'd be a bit concerned about his priorities.