Have you tried to get rid of a lousy head teacher?

[growltiger]

It's been 18 months since the new HT started at my children's previously excellent school and I've been surprised at how fast she's managed to take the wind out of the sails of the teachers, infuriate the parents and baffle the children.

The teachers are on the whole not the kind who gossip with parents but it has become apparent that many are very unhappy. This is really sad since under the previous (dragonish but fabulous) HT, the school fizzed with dynamism and pizzazz.

BTW (sheepishly), it is a private prep school. DDs are 6 and 8 and will theoretically be here for another 4.5 and 2.5 years respectively.

I've held off condemning the new woman; had to give her a chance. But the fact is that she is clearly not up to the job. (Don't want to go into all the details.)

My question is how does one go about getting rid of an HT so universally loathed before she damages a once-great school for a generation? Has anyone been in this situation? What did you do and how did it turn out?

Have you contacted the governing body? ISI?

yep! our school did it relatively recently. Don't want to go into details but the school owners were slated by staff and parents for the appointment and they realised they had a mutiny on their hands when roll fell significantly amongst staff and pupils. The person concerned never made it past the probation period.

New head now who is fantastic and the roll is higher than it has ever been in the past.

You need evidence of the incompetence or whatever it is you are unhappy with. Not liking someone is not enough you need to have a case. The governors can't/won't do anything without evidence.

Thanks for that eatyourveg - that's rather encouraging. The dossier is growing.

at my old school the governors sat on their hands until the results (and roll) had fallen such that the head had to go
then they gave her a GLOWING reference
and a very high profile school hired her - but had the sense to sack her after a term
this was BEFORE the days of league tables and computers!

This is the DM article on our local primary where the parents got a petition against the HT, who then accused them of racism, but she is no longer there as head!

The head at my children's school does not look at, talk to or acknowledge about a third of the parents. Wheras I have previously got on ok with her from a professional point of view, I have now fallen into this category as I complained how she had dealt with a situation with one of my children. I am suspecting this will not be resolved but my youngest has 3 more years at the school and I do not want her penalised in any way.

Surprising title really for a thread as presumably you do not work in the school and cannot know all the facts. And this is someone's livelihood you are contemplating. If you have facts that you have not disclosed as you have intimated then you must take them to the governors, confidentially rather than discussing it with anyone else of course. As it is a private school then your options are rather more varied than they would have been and you can go elsewhere.

We will have a meeting with her in new term with chair of governors and I do not think I will have same issues with my second child but other parents that have complained have not been spoken to for years. I am assuming governors would show bias to the head anyway but it is the next step to go down. I do not want to move my children as they have friends at the school and I it is 5 minutes walk away.

My sister's kids are at Moorlands school and they were furious when the headteacher tried to play the racism card.
The reason they got that petition up was because the head was arrogant, unapproachable and infuriated so many parents that they were withdrawing their kids in protest. Absolutely nothing to do with racism - for heaven's sake, it's a multicultural school in Reading! Parents of all races absolutely loathed her!

I am astounded by the power some children and some parents have in school and this has never affected either myself or my children before but it has this term. My respect for the head & year head has dropped to zero. I do appreciate a head has to keep a lot of people happy but it seems to me that she is prepared to upset & treat very unfairly the children of less powerful parents (i.e. myself) so as not to upset others. I will struggle to stomach her standing up in assembly and giving one of her speeches in future.