Headteacher giving yr11s alcohol

[doggy12245]

I am a teaching assistant in a secondary school. Today I was told that at the Year 11 prom last year the head teacher was calling students over to give them drinks with alcohol in. I don't know if he was handing out drinks or just sharing some of his.

The staff member who told me said other teachers were aware, including at least one member of senior management.

I feel this was highly unprofessional and should be reported to the head of the trust.

Am I overreacting?

I suppose the only Problem you'd have reporting it is that you have no evidence. You have only heard about it second hand...

Gossip in schools is common (as you well know OP) and not all of it is true. The problem is, if it was true, you have no proof so what could happen with a complaint?

If it’s true then I agree that it is wrong and should have been reported. It should have been reported by one of the, presumably numerous, staff who were present and witnessed it at the time. Who told you about it and why now, the best part of a school year after the event? Why didn’t they report it?
I suppose what I’m saying is that this is such outrageous behaviour that you have to wonder why it hasn’t been reported already. Proms are big events with lots of staff and students there. I find it hard to imagine a situation like this that wouldn’t have been the talk of the school on the Monday morning with a staff member or parent reporting it pretty quickly. Are you 100% sure it really happened?

I do completely trust the staff member who told me, it came up when discussing standards in the school.

The head teacher has a "lads" personality, I suspect people just accepted it as part of his usual somewhat unprofessional persona.

I also heard that the headteacher and deputy head were thrown out of a pub later that night.

It might give something of the culture at my school that I am not remotely shocked to hear that. But giving drink to students is on another level.

So you need to follow your safeguarding procedure which is likely to be to report as a safeguarding concern to the head of governors. Not your place to try and investigate if it is true or not. If someone told you they’d heard the head done something else that was abusive ie had kissed one of the pupils, this is the route you would take surely?