Some of the Most Incompetent Teachers are now Principals
Who the hell is Pat Walsh, what exactly is he? http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/8836265/concern-over-teacher-competency/7/ I for one have little faith in people who rely on fractional statistics and no evidence and in principals that have only their own interests at heart. I wonder how many of them are actually just failed classroom teachers? There is clear evidence of the incompetence of many principals and if complaints about them were properly managed there would be far less incompetence at this level in education. Where is the evidence to support the views he expresses? Is it just statistics? What is he saying? It seems the Teachers Council to their credit isn’t taking instruction from his members? How many principals does he actually represent as the majority still seem to be members of the PPTA (the experts in exit packages and conflicts of interest) a union that not only represents the workers but their employer as well. What the? I have already presented evidence that complaints about teachers are often just a bullying tactic from which the principals always escape unscathed. Most principals are not only not in the classroom they have no management skills or qualifications for the positions they hold. A truly frightening by-product of tomorrow’s schools. But it’s OK we now have an equally unqualified Minister in Anne Tolley things can only get better. Actually it’s pretty hard to find any real leadership in education in this country just a lot of bureaucrats patting each other on the back and playing with statistics.
The Bullying of teachers is covered in both cases from the employment court where the risks to teachers in defending themselves are recognised and in the report referenced in the last Post http://shadow.blogtown.co.nz/files/2011/01/Bentley-et-al-report.pdf . The issues raised in this report can in terms of education be directly related to the actions of his members. Not a good report card at all. This man is a total fool who needs to address the issues within his own membership before attacking others. Thank god the teachers council is able to see through the cheap shots fired by these Bullies and would be Politian’s. Pat Walsh certainly wins this week’s Jackass award for ignorance in education. His organisation (the Secondary School Principals Association SPANZ) is just a union there is nothing professional about them. When they can call one of their own to task they might achieve some credibility until then they are just more static. Let’s see some complaints about principals and more of them deregistered. I would love to hear from teachers who were offered only one path in conflict by the PPTA if that path was an exit package. Write to me in confidence on the contact us page. I want to publish a wall of shame in the next couple of months and I will name Schools and principals, Not Victims! There is an incredibly deep seated problem with school administration in New Zealand. Let’s make noise and put it right. I invite both the Minister and Mr Walsh to debate the issues surrounding teacher competence publicly in Dunedin I’m certainly prepared to show.
I was an employee at a primary school for three years then BOT appointed a new principal who was a complete nasty bully and for a unknowen reason has a personal issue towards me. I took her to labour dpt mediation but turned out it was me against BOT and her, I resigned with punishment even though she was the workplace bully. A year later in my own community as a community member she once again is nasty towards me and manipulated her story again to gain support of BOT again. This whole experience has been defimation of my character and she is still trying to bully me. I feel let down by the BOT whom I let know of the situation previously and they did not look after me as an employee but instead went against me. I was not the first she bullied there has been a teacher and more recently a cleaner who have both had simular lies and manipulative tactics used on them. The BOT are just as nasty if they ignore complaints and lap up lies they are told. What do I do about the continued bully tactics even now that I am not an employee? Where do I go for help with this situation?
Do not swear! Replace ‘who the hell’ with ‘who in the world’ or ‘who on earth’.
hell is just another place like earth or the world. I get many feedbacks, most that i do not publish for fear that the author might be identified. Yours is both the most anonymous and time wasting I ever recieved. But I am satisified that hell is the best word to discribe the status of many teachers situations in NZ schools.
It’s a pleasure to find someone who can think so claerly
This is way better than a brick & mortar esatblishmnet.
I have seen bullying first hand by senior management and the Principal against teachers and other admin staff. You stand up and make a complaint about it, you get an ‘x’ on your back straight away. I have seen deliberate tactics to isolate, degrade and humiiiate. The senior teachers involved back the Princpal and the Principal backs them. Depowering from roles and responsibilities is the next tactic to put the “knife in further’. Younger teachers are being groomed to assist in making things more and more difficult for those teachers with a ‘back bone’. Even to the point where Senior Management go out for coffee with the BOT on a regular basis. This is flaunted in front of staff members just to remind them that there is no where to turn. The use of overseas trips are also used as a sweetener. “You can go on a 2 day cause in USA and we will pay for 10 days holiday on top of that”. Recently we had a visit by ERO and someone had complained about the going ons. Next thing there was a major witch hunt. Teachers being demoted and blamed etc Crazy Stuff. Mean while some of us are trapped with mortgages etc and can’t afford to ‘stand up’.
This is my life story!!! It is getting to the point where I am losing the will to live. Someone please tell me what can we do????? Who do we go to???
Thanks goodness I am not alone. I have always worked hard for the students in my class and love my job especially being with the children. In all the other schools I worked at I was treated with respect and enjoyed helping and supporting others. Most of my previous Principals had excellent leasership skills. One didn’t but at least he wasn’t a bully. If I’d read this two or three years ago I would of thought they are just slack teachers that the Principal and BOT are trying to get rid of. Then a change in Principal and the bulling began at first I thought it’s because we are getting used to change. I thought we must support and work together for the benefit of the students. Then I started getting job offers just out of the blue but I loved where I worked and thought things would improve. However they didn’t they got worse a bigger and bigger work load, community members, parents passed and present contacting me to see if I was OK! They had heard things in the community and wanted to support me. Other staff members and parents had also felt threatened and had had similar experiences with the Principal. Parents and students from her previous school backed up and confirmed what our new principal was doing to our school she had done at her previous school. She wasn’t a principal at her old school. Yes, it got me down to the point where I doubted myself, where I wanted to give up teaching, a job I loved and worked 60 hours plus at. I thought when did I suddenly go from being a good teacher and leader to a bad teacher? How can this happen so quickly? I’m dreading going back to work. Four staff members are supporting me and two of my previous Principals. One says get out you won’t win, no one on your B.O.T has the guts to stand up to her. However there is one BOT member who has asked questions and now feels her child in being put into situations where he’s punished because of this. HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN? Why didn’t her old school tell us about this? Why didn’t our BOT look into her previous work performance? Why didn’t they ask the questions they should have? Why is our roll dropping so rapidly?