Disney Destinations International

[Year6teacher754]

Hello,

Disney Destinations International, the team that market and promote Walt Disney World Resort In Florida, Disneyland Paris and the Disney Cruise Line in the UK, will be moving their PR team to a new office in the UK.

They have secured rental space in a primary school in the north west and will be moving the PR team there.

They are moving due to lack of space in their current office.

Does anyone else think it is inappropriate for them to have an office in a primary school (I personally think it is inappropriate)??

I shouldn't imagine they're moving into a spare classroom!
Still, think of the opportunities- year 6 end of SATS trip to Disneyland anyone?

@spanieleyes

Disney Destinations International are not moving into a spare classroom. They are renting a few of our offices.
I personally feel it is inappropriate for the following reasons:

1. They will have access to the school during school hours. Safeguarding risks e.t.c
2. They will be able to book our meeting rooms for meeting for Disney Destinations International.
3. They will be able to book our halls for stuff that has nothing to do with the school and school staff won't be allowed in the hall while they use it.
4. The reception staff will have a lot of time wasted by dealing with visitors that are there to see the Disney Destinations International staff.
5. The reception staff will be have time wasted by answering and sending phone calls on to the Disney Destinations International staff. They will also have time wasted by having to take messages and email them on the Disney Destinations International staff if they are not available when someone calls to speak to them.

Never heard of them. Probably just a small independent company. It's not like The Walt Disney corporation have upped and moves from Orlando into your classroom.
If you have serious safe guarding concerns, bring this up with the school, board of governors and council.

@weeklycubrun

Disney Destinations International is the UK PR and marketing department for Walt Disney World Resort In Florida, Disneyland Paris and the Disney Cruise Line.

1. As long as they don't have unsupervised access to children this is not a problem. The school should clearly define no go areas and keep them secure. It should ensure that DDI has appropriate safeguarding checks, policies and training in place if their staff are going to come into contact with children.

1. Surely they can only book your meeting rooms when they aren't needed by the school?

1. See 2.

1. Only if DDI has a lot of visitors which, given the nature of their business, I doubt. It also depends on how it is set up. If DDI has separate access, their visitors may not trouble reception at all.

1. Are you sure? I would have expected DDI to have their own dedicated numbers so that reception staff aren't bothered.

If your reception are going to provide services for DDI I would expect that to be factored into the rental fee.

I'm not sure what you hope to achieve by posting this on here. Even if everyone agreed with you, we don't have any influence on your school's policy. This is a matter for the school's leadership team and the governors.

@prh47bridge

1. Yes the school will be doing that and will be ensuring that DDI has appropriate checks, policies and training and procedures in place.

1. No. We have been told that DDI will have priority access to use and book meeting rooms and the halls. With the only people having higher priority than DDI being the headteacher and the deputy head.

1. We have been told that DDI has on average 2 visitors per day. They will not have separate access, so therefore will trouble reception.

1. No, inbound calls will come through reception. Unless the person calling has a close relationship with DDI, then they will know the direct number for that persons office phone. However most calls will come through reception.

I am posting on here to see if other teachers would be happy if this was going on in their school and to see if I should make a formal complaint.

Presumably they are paying rent for the space.

Therefore if you are working in reception it is a bother with the extra calls and visitors (do they get many calls - or is it mostly online?)

The school as a whole benefits massively I imagine from the extra rental income.

Would I be happy if it was my school, not necessarily as it's not ideal. However if it paid for resources and TAs that are desperately needed, then I can see why they'd do it, the budgets just are there.

Might be more to this than meets the eye, exactly the same opening post is on TES but there it is the poster's husband who works for Disney!

@ramblingfar
Yes they are paying rent for the space.
They moved in last Tuesday.
I don't work in reception, I am a year 6 teacher and also head of year 6, therefore I am already feeling the effects of having less meeting rooms available.
I am aware that about 60% of Disney Destinations International's is via phone calls. The reception staff are feeling the effects of this.

Might be more to this than meets the eye, exactly the same opening post is on TES but there it is the poster's husband who works for Disney

Indeed. And on TES it seems the poster was teaching Y4 in December and Y2 in February. A few days ago she appeared to be involved in Y11. Those posting on TES think the OP is the same person as is posting there.

It does seem a little odd, to say the least, that Disney would move its PR team from London to the north west. Moving the office over 200 miles would result in them losing most of their staff.

Those replying to whoever is posting this story on TES certainly don't believe it.

Of all the spaces in London....of all the money Disney has....they’ve decided to rent space in a school.....yep

Let me just get this absolutely right
A division of the huge corporation that is Disney is moving to The North West of The Uk and renting office space in a school?
Of course they are

I saw that post on TES as well. I thought it very odd, and the posters were all commenting similarly.
I'm not sure what OP expects to gain from posting here.
If there are genuine safe guarding issues, or problems for the pupils and staff, I'm sure it will be addressed appropriately

Sounds like a way for schools to earn much needed cash. They shouldn’t have to but they have to do what’s needed.

I am aware that about 60% of Disney Destinations International's is via phone calls. The reception staff are feeling the effects of this
How come Disney don't have their own phone number but are using the school phone number and receptionists?

How come Disney don't have their own phone number but are using the school phone number and receptionists?

I suspect because the whole thing is made up. I struggle to believe that a corporation the size of Disney would move a PR operation from London to the north west, losing most if not all staff in the process, that it would rent rooms in a primary school instead of proper offices and that it would want to use a school phone number for incoming calls. It sounds extremely unlikely.

Can you imagine
“Yes, Mrs Smith, I’m aware you need to report Timmy being off with a cold but if you could just hold on while I put the CEO of Disney through to his Head of Marketing”
In other news Richard Branson is working out of the disabled toilets in my local Lidl

😳

Why would someone make this up? It’s bizarre.

@Hoppinggreen Haha, laughed out loud reading your post

What a bizarre post. Disney has a large office in Hammersmith in London, yet the poster tells us that in the whole of London they can't find more office space and have decided that a primary school with a few spare offices in the North West of the country is their chosen new location. Also somehow they don't seem to be able to afford their own phone lines so are using a few spare extensions running through the school switchboard?! Anyway I shouldn't worry too much about visitors, I think any visitors to the PR arm of a huge theme park operator who end up having to sit on a chair in reception next to Katie from Year 2 who has thrown up and is waiting for her parent to collect, and Josh's mum who has come in to complain that her son has been overlooked yet again for a speaking part in the class production, won't be coming back in a hurry.

They'll all be working from home now anyway 😂