On 01/02/22, two articles were published about the school. I have previously posted an anonymised version of the article about staff issues (25/05/22). Here is an anonymised version of the other one about parent issues followed by online comments left on the newspaper’s website.
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Parents of pupils become increasingly
frustrated at lack of action at (…) School
A school which has lost almost a third of its staff in almost four years has denied staff were victimised and parents ignored. Teachers and families have spoken to the [newspaper] about a deteriorating relationship between [the head] and the school community since she arrived. But the governors say she has been commended by Ofsted and that the staff losses are normal wastage.
Parents at a school were shocked to hear the headteacher is going on maternity leave – just as the [newspaper] asked for a comment about her regime[1]. The announcement was made in a letter to families circulated this week from the chairman of governors at [the school].
Parents of pupils had become increasingly frustrated at the lack of action when they complained about [the] headteacher.
Governors, in a response to a request for comment (…), issued a statement saying the school was oversubscribed and pointing out [a recent] Ofsted report said: “The headteacher, well supported by the senior leadership team, has successfully transformed the culture of the school. This has led to the rapid improvements seen.”
The chairman of governors said in the letter to parents: “I am writing to you with the happy news that [the head] is expecting her first child and will be going on maternity leave from early July. Plans and contingency plans have already been thought through and agreed to ensure the leadership structures needed to secure this will remain in place.”
Before the announcement, a parent, who did not want to be named, said they felt they had not been listened to. She said: “A parent would ask for something to be carried out for a particular child and it would not happen. It was still a very difficult decision to move our child but when we did, they really blossomed. The teachers were once relaxed and nurturing. But then it was like the school had gone back to the Victorian era. It was regimented. People were not seen as individuals but as business units.”
Her partner said: “Our child had to be coaxed to school. They didn’t want to go. It was very stressful when you have a job to go to. Our child was always happy to get home. I would try and get them to say something good about their day and they would always say it was the lunch break. They could not find anything positive to say about lessons at all. I did not join the Facebook group of unhappy parents because it would just make me more angry.”
A third parent, with one child there and another already
at secondary school, said: “I was told ‘If you don’t like it, you can leave.’ I
thought that odd – because she is supposed to be working for us.” The parent
said they raised the high staff turnover with governors but felt they didn’t
get anywhere. “It does not surprise me if teachers are being shouted at,
because the way she speaks to us as parents is atrocious. There are rules upon
rules upon rules. She is trying to tick boxes and the nurturing of children is
lost.”
The parent said she got the feeling the children couldn’t stand her whereas, she said “They loved [the former headteacher] and it was oversubscribed. But now it is not a happy place.”
A fourth parent said: “I’ve found so many people with worse experiences than me but who did not want to come forward because if they specified anything, it would be obvious who was talking to the paper. [The former head] had been amazing. It had been such a warm community school. But that has gone. Parents have concerns but I feel as if our feedback would not be welcome. We don’t expect any action to be taken. I don’t think she realises she is so intimidating. Some parents are actually physically nervous to raise issues – so how are the children likely to feel? It is like we are in Victorian times or in a Dickens book. There is no running in the playground. Everything is stricter.”
[The head of governors] said this week: “No formal parental concerns or complaints have been made to the governing body about the current headteacher. Parents are encouraged to follow the school’s complaints policy if they have any concerns. A complaint to governors was not made as claimed in one of the statements you received. Complaints are taken very seriously. There are currently just under 800 parents and carers with children in the school. The school is one of the most popular in the local area and is consistently oversubscribed. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school, as can be seen with the Ofsted Parent View that was undertaken at the last inspection.”
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Here are the comments that followed the publication. In fairness, I have included all of them, including those supportive of the head. However, it must be noted that these all came immediately after the publication, and one was written by a governor despite not stating her position. Almost as if people had organised themselves…
02/02/22 - ‘Shocked she’s going on maternity leave.’ I’m shocked anyone thinks parents shouldn’t have the right to parental leave[2]. I’m even much more shocked that this newspaper thinks that’s a suitable lead to a story and that it’s even worth mentioning. The takeaway to me seems to be that whoever has commented is ‘shocked’ that women of child-bearing age should be allowed to have careers[3] – and why this paper is giving airspace to that sort of misogyny is beyond me. You should be ashamed.
02/02/22 - I’m really shocked by the bullying and intimidatory tone of this article[4]. Any human has every right to go on maternity/paternity leave.
Singling the headmaster[5] out with such spiteful comments makes me feel very uneasy reading this article. The article comes across more like gossip than reporting.
Every parent has the right to complain through the proper channels[6] but this article feels totally out of place.
02/02/22 [7] - This is a deeply misogynistic article. Shaming a headteacher for her pregnancy has no place in a news report.
All schools will have a handful of disaffected teachers and parents, but this is not a school with a bad Ofsted, Parentview or a particularly startling staff turnover. I find your reporting deeply irresponsible.
18/02/22 - And your comment shaming the journalist and twisting the point of this article (clearly deliberately) is a responsible action as one of the governors? 😂
03/02/22 - This head teacher has a perfect right to go on maternity leave – as no doubt these disaffected parents did for their children. It is outrageous and discriminatory that a woman should be criticised for taking time off to have a baby. Your company has invaded her privacy by announcing that she is pregnant and worse still airing criticism of her for being so. It is appalling that this personal news should be published and vilified in this way. It sounds like she has the backing of the governors and approval of Ofsted (no easy achievement) and is running the school to their satisfaction. There really is no case to answer here – there are always moaning parents, judge her on the results. This story is a rubbishy, muck-raking piece of work[8] which ought to be taken down immediately and an apology issued.
04/02/22 - In reality, no one is shocked by she is going on maternity however by a lack of comment (still now) regarding of what is written on this article. It is funny all the commenters chose to focus heavily and only on head’s right for maternity leaves. Never mind her treatment on the staffs – who cares about their right? Clearly no one! As for the Ofsted and school being arty, you will get the previous headmaster having awarded a MBE exactly for that. That was there long before the current one arrived.
14/02/22 - I had the displeasure of making a complaint to this school and watched the people involved get away with doing something wrong. I left it all behind me (until now), often I regretted not sharing my experience with [The school] further. I hope [the head] has a healthy pregnancy and good maternity leave, this is not what the article is about, the comments high above sound off. Maybe it’s time for reflection and accepting accountability that others have been hurt. Maybe you are a good person, but on this occasion, your actions have been wrong and hurtful. It’s OK to acknowledge that and move on. I want to make clear that my child does not attend this school, and I don’t work here. My complaint was about [the head], her use of the school after hours, handling of information, and also the personal impact on my child and me. My one complaint was found to be rubbish by [the head of governors], I was accused of making several complaints, but I made one complaint and then the format I used was wrong and there was a few back and forth about how to submit. I backed off, I didn’t have the will to stick up for myself, I was on anti-depressants and I’m still being diagnosed to this day. [Head of governors], if you see this maybe you would like to ‘discourage me’ again since I’m daring to post on this article? I’m not taking that quietly again. I wish all a bright future. But the truth always comes out.
17/02/22 - The maternity leave surely had no place in the article. I am the father of a child attending [the school], and I had the misfortune of seeing first hand the way the current headteacher handled my issue. I found her arrogant to say the least without going into details. I did want to escalate my complaint to the governing body but felt i did not want to risk putting my son under any pressure because of that. What strikes me of this story is the lack of interest from the governing body to get to the bottom of this. Maybe she is an outstanding teacher, and maybe I am just a demanding parent or worse. Nevertheless I would have expected some real interest in finding out the truth from the governing body. Best wishes to her and the baby before anything else.
18/02/22 - I, too, was shocked – by the fact that the first four online responses chose to dwell, some at considerable length, on a single sentence early in the article, and call out misogyny. Let us be clear, misogyny has no place in this world, but on my reading of the article on 4th February nothing in the comments and complaints reflected misogyny in any way. The article was about the performance of a headteacher, gender immaterial.
For me it is significant that the Head of Governor’s evidence of [the head]’s standing was supported by an Ofsted rating of ‘good’ very early in her tenure and by parents’ response from that same Ofsted in 2019. I was a coopted junior school governor for 18 years and I am certain that both the ‘good’ Ofsted and parental approval would have reflected more fully the operation put in place by her predecessor, rather than any change [the head] could achieve in that time. An MBE for services to teaching being awarded to her predecessor, and a very recent Ofsted under [the previous head]’s tenure which rated the school as ‘good’ and on the verge of outstanding, does indicate that [the head]inherited a successful school.
18/02/22 - I’d like to know why the governor who left a comment about the ‘spiteful’ tone of this article did not identify herself as holding this role at [the school], and why she thinks the installation of solar panels has got anything to do with what’s being discussed – something that was included in the Chair of Governor’s official response…?
05/03/22 - Sadly this is our exact experience of the school. We raised concerns about certain issues and despite chasing never received a response. I raised again and still have not received a response from the SLT that answers any of my questions. We have now removed our children from [the school] and have already seen a huge difference in the mental health of our kids. Shutting parents out, not listening, being rude to parents in the playground (we have witnessed this), ignoring concerns raised is not only completely incompetent but also extremely sad for all the parents and children involved.
[1] A regrettable paragraph as it led to accusations of the journalistic being misogynistic and bullying which they are not. I understand that they were trying to put forth that the announcement came just as scrutiny was being brought to bear on her, but it was very clumsily done. All the more regrettable as they had agreed to let an ex-colleague and me read the article before it went to publication. This never happened.
[2] Not the point the journalist was making.
[3] Very odd interpretation.
[4] Conveniently omitting to mention the issue of bullying of staff, parents and children.
[5] Interesting mistake.
[6] This historically has not been the case.
[7] Comment made by the governor, as previously mentioned.
[8] It was not. It was factual.
