What wonderful weather we have been having! It was delightful Easter weekend and holiday for the childern with glorious skies. We will all be moaning about the heat and hosepipe bans soon enough I expect.
So what did happen in the end on the subject of sunshades for the playgrounds............?
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Does this blogger have any thoughts or insights into yesterday evening's meeting between parent representatives and governors?
Apparently most bizarre...on the subject of why so many teachers had left, the answer from a gentleman who was head of eduction for the diocese was that most had already bought their tickets to go travelling elsewhere or had received offers of jobs that were a promotion well before Mrs C came on the scene. This lead him to the subject of the number of pupils that had left, but apparently this is all a viscious rumour too as only 4 have left: 1 who was being home schooled well before the arrival of Mrs C and three others had moved out of catchment...
The most worrying thing I heard was that the school was close to being listed as in special measures because of the number of head teachers who had been appointed in the last 4 years i.e. we must make sure that this one stays...
Do people think a list should be compiled of which pupils have been removed from the school since Jan 06 and get them to say why, before the meeting on 10 May?
Isn't it amazing that the man with no name from the diocese - Mr Pittenreigh - has full knowledge of her previous school where ALL the staff left within 18 months and a number of parents removed their children from the school. This trend also seemed to have been the case at her school in the Wirral, her first headship. I am sure that they all went travelling or recieved offers of job promotion well before Mrs C arrived ........ at least the man from the diocese would say that??
Well I know 16 children who have left and none of them had moved out of the catchment area!! And our former teachers are indeed a well travelled bunch : supply work, Northfields, Enfield, Osterley - let's hope they bought a map before they left...
Well this is certainly very interesting to me as I am one of those teachers who apparently left to travel! Although I have moved some distance away, to another country, I did have a choice in whether or not I would do that. Had my experiences of working for Mrs Cleugh been positive nothing in the world would have dragged me away from St Vincent's. Prior to her arrival in Jan '06 St Vincents was THE best work experience of my 10 year career, despite all the changes of head. I don't believe that there was any danger of the school going into Special Measures. There had been no Ofsted inspection during the time where we were changing from head to head and there were only really two changes; from Mrs Govan to Mr Murphy and from Mr Murphy to Mrs Cleugh. All the other 'heads' were simply covering the role and generally did a good job. Whilst St Vincents were inbetween heads the staff, most of which have since left, carried the school only to be castigated for such support once Mrs C arrived on the scene. Thanks St Vincents Governors for your reciprocal support!
We withdrew our daughter from St. Vincents and stayed at the same address which is very local.
I at no time suggested we were moving house during my face to face conversation with the Head when I informed her of why we wanted to change our daughters school. As with anonymous teacher we had no reason to change schools until the last year. What utter rubbish is spoken. I guess if the Governors keep telling themselves stuff that they wish were the facts they begin to believe it is the truth.
Whats more when challenged they accuse the challenger of being rude or worse. I pray that their consciences can't take much more of this pretence and they begin to start asking questions themselves. Are the Governors so confident in their own abilities to know what is right that they don't need to ever question their own judgement?
I suspect that the governors probably realise that they made a terrible terrible mistake which threatens not only the school community, but by default the local Catholic one, but they have no idea how to remedy it. The meetings they're having look promising but stable doors and bolted horses spring to mind.
I find all that I have read very worrying but I am wondering about specifics. Why exactly did the blogger with the daughter remove her from St Vincents. What did Mrs Cleugh do/say to the teacher who left? Do either of you feel you can give more information?
I took my son out of school to teach him at home shortly after Mrs.Cleughs arrival. It was a move I had contemplated for some time. In both my meeting with (the newly installed) Mrs. Cleugh and the letter I sent regarding my decision, I went to great pains to emphasise my fondness for St Vincent’s and my gratitude for all that it had contributed to the life of our family, not least my two older sons who both attended St Vincent’s and are now at The London Oratory. I expressed a hope that I could still be involved in the community life of the school. It was possible at this stage that my son might want to return. Also at this stage, I assumed that my younger son would be taking up a place in reception in September 2007. In the light of all that has happened at the school, and that our homeschooling experiment has been a pleasant success so far, I have not applied for a place for my youngest.
I was surprised, in the light of all my expressions of support for, and gratitude towards St Vincents, to hear that Mr. Pittendreigh had rather conveniently presented my decision to take my son out as a reflection on the pre existent poor state of the school (and therefore the need for a 'fixer' such as Mrs. Cleugh.)
Prior to Mrs.Cleughs arrival I had discussed my thoughts with Mr. Maloney who had asked me lots of searching and thoughtful questions before finally expressing his respect for my views, and his curiosity as to how it would work out. He wished me well and said that his proposal would be to keep my sons place open for a term to see how he got on. He emphasised that he would be most welcome to return. He asked me to wait until I had met the new head, and to ask her if she would be willing to offer him a "sabbatical". A suggestion that I followed.
I was optimistic when I met Mrs. Cleugh and was confident that whatever the outcome, we would have a fruitful meeting and she would see that my feelings for the school were entirely positive and supportive. Ironically at this stage, I was concerned that my withdrawal of my son would be construed as a criticism of the school, and particularly my sons’ class teacher. I wanted to avoid any negative consequences for her, and therefore bent over backwards to avoid any tone of criticism. In addition, at this stage, I didn’t believe I was walking away from the school for good and wanted to leave harmonious relations behind me. I now believe that Mrs. Cleugh would in fact have welcomed criticism as it would have only served to bolster the canard that this was a failing school.
It was clear at the outset of the meeting that this head was not interested in me or in responding positively to my warmth and friendliness. She was hostile and defensive from the outset. She interrupted me almost immediately, before I had a proper chance to speak. She asked me if I had informed the local authority ( I hadn't ) Before I had a chance to clarify she gave me a ticking off, asserting that I "must" because it was my "legal duty". I tried to point out that it was too early for such action because I hadn’t yet made a decision; I was merely seeking to discuss my options with her at this stage. Also, her assertions about my legal obligations were factually incorrect. My responsibility under the law is to inform the head, whose duty it is to inform the local authority. It didn't seem to occur to Mrs. Cleugh that the parent sitting in front of her may be better informed than she in this instance. No matter. Undaunted by her own ignorance on the topic, she continued to give me the benefit of her opinions on homeschooling. When I expressed my fondness for St Vincents, and my hope that I could continue to support it and remain involved in some way, she made it clear that it would not be possible.
My heart sank. She said that Mr Maloney was wrong, that there was no way that it would be possible to keep a childs place open for a terms 'sabbatical'. When I asked if he could continue with the violin lessons (This was a suggestion of Ealing music service) She announced that to do such a thing would be "dreadfully unfair" on my son. Why? "Because on the one hand you are telling him school is BAD and then on the other you is continuing to take him in once a week." I found it so highly defensive and strange for a woman in her position to be so poor at relating to a parent. She hardly looked me in the eye the whole time.
In some ways however, the meeting was in fact, very helpful in clarifying my decision. Whereas before I had feared a wrench, coming away from a school that I had loved and been so involved with for so long, the writing was now on the wall, and there was no more agonised weighing up of options. My son did not return to school.
The outcome for us was very positive, but I remain anguished about the injustice and harm that has been visited on a lovely community.
Incidentally, if anyone is interested in some proper discourse on home education, supported by evidence, here’s the link: http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.rothermel/Research/Papers.htm
Hmm, that link didn't work. Trying again:
www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.rothermel/Research/Papers.htm
I have stumbled upon this blog but can somebody explain why there were four heads at st vincents in four years??
Didn't Mrs Govan retire, and didn't Mr. Murphy get fired by the governors? Mr. Maloney was a temporary head, leading to current head, Mrs. Cleugh. Clearly the governors don't excel at hiring. Perhaps they should delegate this to an outside group?
I could go into lots of details about how Mrs Cleugh has managed staff in the 6 long months I worked for her. However, to go into details would undoubtably reveal who I am and I do not want to have any further accusations made about me, my character or my professionalism. Suffice it to say Mrs Cleugh bullied me last year until I was forced to take an Informal Grievance procedure aganst her. She bullied others also, who felt that they were not in a position to make such a stand against her. Even after the grievance had been settled and she had accepted her wrongdoing by apologising she continued to bully me the very day I returned to work. I found Mrs Cleugh's demeanour in almost all meetings to be aggressive, intimidating and disrepectful of those people who had an interest in making the school a success and ensuring that the children were taught to a high standard in a warm and secure, Christian environment. After working for her I question her ability to act as a Christian, which I would have thought would be a number one attribute governors would look for in a head teacher of a Catholic school!
Mrs Govan left as she was leaving teaching to become an inspector for the diocese. Miss Griffin, now Mrs Lomanto, became acting head for 1 term until Mr Murphy could start. Mr Murphy stayed only one year as his family decided to move to Ireland. He has since returned to the UK and is the head teacher of a Catholic school in Isleworth, although his family still live in Ireland, and he goes home to Ireland each weekend. Mr Maloney came to the school as an acting head teacher to be a 'caretaker' in the heads position until Mrs Cleugh was able to start at the school in January.
Mr Murphy was not fired by the governors but its true that he didn't stay long. Its unusual for a head to stay at a school for less than 3 years so he probably needed an agreement from the governors to release him from his contract. All of the heads, in my opinion as a teacher who worked for all of them, had their faults- don't all humans! However, I believe that Mr Murphy was undoubtably the best of them all. What a shame that St Vincents filled his shoes so quickly! He could have come back instead of going to Isleworth!
thanks for the replies re the four heads...I am really shocked with all the news as I have always thought of st vincents as being a lovely school ..it sounds awful and I hope things work out.
Are you listening governors? Are we all "gossips"? Is this all untrue? We tried to take this to you. At the beginning we had faith in you. But you wouldn't listen and instead you villified those who had concerns. Yes, we talk, it's a fundamental principle of liberty in a free country. We tried to talk to you, but you wouldn't listen. You only talked to yourselves. This is why we are now talking here. It should never have come to this. Your attitude was a paternalistic 'leave it to us, and don't ask questions' Well we do ask questions, and now we simply don't have any faith in you. We know that there is an inner circle of governors who are close to the "throne" There are others who are likely as not in the dark about much of what you know. I am addressing the inner circle.
Do you believe the account of this teacher? Is she a malicious gossip too? Why would she bother to write about her experiences on here when she has moved on? I can't speak for her, but I suspect that her experience was so traumatic, and there was no real 'closure' and that other people are suffering too that she feels morally impelled to speak out.
I use the word 'morally impelled' advisedly. There is a massive moral dimension here. Any who gives more than lip service to the principles of truth and justice would feel likewise impelled. Unfortunately, as throughout history, many individuals are morally apathetic and seek only their own comforts. They say things like "well, nothings happened to me personally" or " "those people should just move on". When you hear sentiments like those alarm bells should ring. You are talking to a morally apathetic person.
How long governors ( and Messrs Barber and Pittendreigh of the diocese) will you continue to dismiss the very real harm that is being done to people here? What sort of disaster will make you wake up to the human cost? My fear is that you are not moved at all. Shame on you.
I have been reading many of these posts and am increasingly uneasy about what is going on at our school. If any school governors are reading these posts perhaps you would like to comment? Many of you are also parents of children at the school - are you too not concerned?
It is clearly obvious that something is dreadfully amiss at our school, and dare I say that Mrs C is the cause? All these
people who have taken the time and trouble to post a blog cannot be wrong.
I am particularly worried that our children are being taught in this type of environment and I'm also concerned for our remaining teachers. I don't want them to leave too.
"Whilst St Vincents were inbetween heads the staff, most of which have since left, carried the school only to be castigated for such support once Mrs C arrived on the scene. Thanks St Vincents Governors for your reciprocal support!"
Here here! What a disgrace. The very people who deserved most credit were targeted and vilified.The peference these days it seems is for the weak, the inexperienced and the easily bamboozled.
Don't want anyone around who can see through the sham.
Mrs c bullied me to or should i say she did her best. I no longer work at the school and am glad to have got away from her. One day when i had lost some one close to my family i was refused time away to go to there funeral. It was only when i had spoken to my union that she agreed.(well she didnt have much choice) She even told me that if this would happened again iwould have to leave st vincents for good. She even has a filing cab for reports on every teacher, helper etc at st vincents. In this is everything a member of staff has said or done good or bad. Im glad my kids have grown up and havent had to experience what a rubbish head she is. I how ever miss the staff who made me feel welcome during my years there.
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