Tick Tock
We just found out our Head, Mrs Kerr, is resigning, with more or less immediate effect. The letter home said nothing about pastures new, so I’m guessing the post must have really not worked out as she hoped when she took it on. Whatever quibbles I may have had with the school, I know Mrs Kerr has given a large part of her working life to the school and you have to feel sorry it’s ended like this. Mrs Fisher, the acting deputy, is also leaving, to a promoted post in another school.
Recently there hardly seems to have been a time when the management team was all completely in place. First Mrs Kerr was Acting Head filling in for the previous Head on a - 2 year? secondment, then still Acting for a while before getting the substantive post. Meanwhile her post of deputy must have been filled by an acting deputy. Then when she was on long-term sick leave there was Jill Wareham as Acting Head except when she wasn’t there and the Acting Deputy Head Eileen Fisher became Acting Acting Head, and the Acting Principal Teacher became the Acting Acting Deputy Head, and…. Well anyway we’ve now got Freda Ross from Pencaitland Primary, who is Acting Head until the Christmas, when she’ll stop acting though possibly still available for panto. I heard it whispered in hushed tones this morning at the school gate that she runs Pencaitland like clockwork…all ears turned westwards for the sounds of ticking. Clockwork or not, I don’t see any way a new permahead can be recruited to start much before April, so there will presumably be another secondment to cover the spring term. It’s a lot of changes on top of what’s already been an unsettled few years. Does this mean the school will sit still? How much like Heads can acting Heads act?
I feel a certain amount of frustration about this as I was optimistic that the new Parent Council would have another go at reducing the lunch hour (and a quarter), either by ending the day earlier or having an afternoon break. Will an acting Head want to take a decision that rocks the status quo like this, or will any hope of change have to be put off until the new one has settled in?
October 30th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Welcome back, Mumble! I was getting a little worried that you’d gone and left us and we would then need an Acting Mumble. My kids’ primary went through something very similar and it wasn’t until there was a strong head, appointed in her own right, in place that things started looking up. It was very difficult for Acting Heads to do anything substantive as they really didn’t have the remit, and possibly not the staff backing - although that is difficult to say from the outside. It’s very worrying as a parent as a couple of years may be a blink in the life of a school but it’s a huge chunk of your childrens’ education. Let’s hope it gets sorted out soon and that Freda Ross takes the school by the scruff of the neck in the meantime.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Is anyone ever actually appointed or do they just move people around like chess pieces? I understood (from school gate) that they had appointed a Depute Head (ie advertised, interviewed and democratically appointed)Anyone any the wiser? I agree with guineapigmum - we need a strong head and changes might take place.
November 13th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
[...] seems to have spread like bird flu. First Mumble’s headteacher went and now I hear that other nearby heads are leaving, replacing, [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
I think it is a real shame that certain individuals are sad enough to write such comments, you could at least find out the correct facts. Any parent who feels that the staff at the school are unqualified for the positions that they hold should have the courage of their convictions and come into the school and discuss the matter face to face.
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:11 am
Alan, did the school not tell us the facts?
I wasn’t intending to cast doubt over anyone’s ability to do their job, and if it came over that way I’m really sorry. What I meant was, are acting HT’s sort of looking after the school so nothing bad happens while a permanent person is found? Or can they really move it along? I mean it must take them a bit just to work out what’s going on surely?
Also, I would personally find it massively difficult to come into school with concerns over senior staff. If I can be unintentionally rude in a blog I can sit and think about god knows what I’m capable of in person. Rightly or wrongly I’d worry that it might affect the children. I know staff are professionals but they are people too (I hope!). Are you marked? I don’t know. I don’t mean that as an aspersion either.
December 20th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I’ve just read Alan Blackie’s comment and wonder what the problem is. Comments like what? Was it mine, or Spike’s or the original post? It doesn’t seem to me that any of these were casting aspersions about anyone’s qualifications for the post. They’re simply pointing out the difficulties of holding any position entitled ‘Acting’ anything. I’m not involved in the school in question but from AB’s comment you would immediately suspect that 1) the post has touched a raw nerve and 2) the parents haven’t been told all the facts.