This is a tale of three Heads : not a three-headed monster but.....it could be!
I'm certain that somewhere there exists a good Headteacher, but in all my teaching career spanning over 30 years I never came across one.
I've blogged previously about the urgent need for democracy not autocracy in education, so I don't want to repeat myself. Suffice it to say that it simply does not work having one person at the top and ostensibly in total control.
If we need to educate young people for genuine democracy then schools and colleges must be the starting-points : let them learn to make executive decisions alongside staff ; give them the power to act responsibly and vitally, to learn from mistakes.
By way of examples here are three actual cases, two of which are on-going -
The first involves a Head still in charge of a large Cardiff school ( not where I used to teach, by the way).
He's highly regarded by the local authorities and would be given the title ' Super-Head' in fact.
Yet what this person did was to instruct a whole department to falsify their results for GCSE coursework and when one staff member refused she was forced out of the school.
Of course, we are still living in an era where results (especially at GCSE) are paramount and determine what colour ( or grading) the school gets according to Leighton Andrews' 'traffic light' system.....an alternative form of league tables.
Pressures on schools to improve results are enormous and - as I've blogged before - this destroys the very essence of education : sheer enjoyment in learning and discovering.
The second case goes back to the 1990s and the overriding desire to make a school into an 'achieving one'. and also this Head's personal ambitions above all else.
Once again, this person actively encouraged blatant cheating yet was never sanctioned as a consequence, despite the fact that the whistle was blown and the Education Dept conducted an enquiry into it.
In this instance the Head actually taught an English class who, despite being a top set, all produced the self-same essay, dictated to them by that person.
The Head then told the Head of Dept ( an inspirational teacher) that he had to let those results stand.
This Head of Dept soon left the profession to become a librarian, largely because of what happened! A huge loss to education.
That Head carried on at the school for many years, bullying those who refused to tow the line and making them leave.
Lastly, there is a similar case of a bullying Head who progressed rapidly in terms of promotion, despite a lack of teaching experience and without marking pupils' work properly.
Because of his incessant bullying he drove a number of very good teachers to utter despair and , following this, got promoted to the powerful job of Challenge Advisor, enabling him to deploy that bullying against whole schools and also to appoint his cronies to many posts.
People may assume I've been tainted by my naturally rebellious nature in my views here, yet I speak from experience as my very first job was in a school where the Head was an alcoholic who used to physically abuse pupils violently and became 'over-friendly' with female staff of an afternoon after a few lunchtime drinks.
Indeed, most other teachers and ex-teachers I know share my views on Heads.
I'm not saying the system can be reformed though.
It needs a revolution as it reflects the shamocracy of our society itself : consultation is minimal and people on the chalk-face ( digital-whiteboard now) are seen by government and councils as not to be trusted.
Until power's distributed, the system is wide open to the cheating and bullying I have described.
With the focus increasingly on results at any cost and at the expense of creativity, such practices will continue virtually unchecked.
Sadly, those who rise to the top are the very Yes-men or -women who place their own ambition before everything.
IT'S CALLED EDUCATION
Contrary to Floyd's 'brick in the wall'
most teachers actually like children
and desire to inspire them.
Those who don't just want
to get out of the classroom :
they are called Heads.
Heads who find they can't stand
the staff who to them are problems
become Challenge Advisors.
Challenge Advisors make their living
out of bullying the teachers
they used to find really annoying.
If they fail enough teachers
because of the results of ludicrous tests,
they end up with promotion.
They are then called Inspectors
who go into the same schools
and find everything wrong with them.
The teachers just cannot be inspiring
as they're busy training kids for exams.
And we call this 'Education'.
I'm certain that somewhere there exists a good Headteacher, but in all my teaching career spanning over 30 years I never came across one.
I've blogged previously about the urgent need for democracy not autocracy in education, so I don't want to repeat myself. Suffice it to say that it simply does not work having one person at the top and ostensibly in total control.
If we need to educate young people for genuine democracy then schools and colleges must be the starting-points : let them learn to make executive decisions alongside staff ; give them the power to act responsibly and vitally, to learn from mistakes.
By way of examples here are three actual cases, two of which are on-going -
The first involves a Head still in charge of a large Cardiff school ( not where I used to teach, by the way).
He's highly regarded by the local authorities and would be given the title ' Super-Head' in fact.
Yet what this person did was to instruct a whole department to falsify their results for GCSE coursework and when one staff member refused she was forced out of the school.
Of course, we are still living in an era where results (especially at GCSE) are paramount and determine what colour ( or grading) the school gets according to Leighton Andrews' 'traffic light' system.....an alternative form of league tables.
Pressures on schools to improve results are enormous and - as I've blogged before - this destroys the very essence of education : sheer enjoyment in learning and discovering.
The second case goes back to the 1990s and the overriding desire to make a school into an 'achieving one'. and also this Head's personal ambitions above all else.
Once again, this person actively encouraged blatant cheating yet was never sanctioned as a consequence, despite the fact that the whistle was blown and the Education Dept conducted an enquiry into it.
In this instance the Head actually taught an English class who, despite being a top set, all produced the self-same essay, dictated to them by that person.
The Head then told the Head of Dept ( an inspirational teacher) that he had to let those results stand.
This Head of Dept soon left the profession to become a librarian, largely because of what happened! A huge loss to education.
That Head carried on at the school for many years, bullying those who refused to tow the line and making them leave.
Lastly, there is a similar case of a bullying Head who progressed rapidly in terms of promotion, despite a lack of teaching experience and without marking pupils' work properly.
Because of his incessant bullying he drove a number of very good teachers to utter despair and , following this, got promoted to the powerful job of Challenge Advisor, enabling him to deploy that bullying against whole schools and also to appoint his cronies to many posts.
People may assume I've been tainted by my naturally rebellious nature in my views here, yet I speak from experience as my very first job was in a school where the Head was an alcoholic who used to physically abuse pupils violently and became 'over-friendly' with female staff of an afternoon after a few lunchtime drinks.
Indeed, most other teachers and ex-teachers I know share my views on Heads.
I'm not saying the system can be reformed though.
It needs a revolution as it reflects the shamocracy of our society itself : consultation is minimal and people on the chalk-face ( digital-whiteboard now) are seen by government and councils as not to be trusted.
Until power's distributed, the system is wide open to the cheating and bullying I have described.
With the focus increasingly on results at any cost and at the expense of creativity, such practices will continue virtually unchecked.
Sadly, those who rise to the top are the very Yes-men or -women who place their own ambition before everything.
IT'S CALLED EDUCATION
Contrary to Floyd's 'brick in the wall'
most teachers actually like children
and desire to inspire them.
Those who don't just want
to get out of the classroom :
they are called Heads.
Heads who find they can't stand
the staff who to them are problems
become Challenge Advisors.
Challenge Advisors make their living
out of bullying the teachers
they used to find really annoying.
If they fail enough teachers
because of the results of ludicrous tests,
they end up with promotion.
They are then called Inspectors
who go into the same schools
and find everything wrong with them.
The teachers just cannot be inspiring
as they're busy training kids for exams.
And we call this 'Education'.
RSS Feed
