New Zealand Teachers Bullied at School

Well I’ve been quiet for a while but I am still writing but I’ve decided (I was asked to stay quiet and not give the surprises away) on the subject of the PPTA. Apparently they will be getting their day in court and I will report the facts here first.  But in the meantime I will focus back on LPHS and put the last weeks blogs on hold till the results are in.

To my regular readers I apologise but its results we need not the education is special message we have had to live with.  If I were a member of the PPTA I would be asking myself what benefit I actually get from them and if I am merely a subscriber and my fees are just a subscription.  Needless to say it your decision but take an RSS feed for the next major release.

I will however offer the following opinion. I wouldn’t ask the PPTA to return a hired DVD on the last day unless I was prepared to pay late fees.  Advice I would give is make sure that all meetings with your employer are recorded even if the PPTA is present. Don’t let yourself be bullied.

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The issues for our victim of Logan Park High School (LPHS) have been simmering for nearly 2 Years.  What have the PPTA achieved during this period in terms of support for the victim and what have we learned about their activities.  It fascinated me that they would not stand up the LPHS management and BOT on any issue that would test evidence or reapportion blame to any other party in the school and seemed willing to sacrifice their member for a cheap hardly quick fix by only offering support for an exit package regardless of the members wishes.  I have included in the links a connection to the PSA’s site and advice on workplace bullying but it has proved impossible for me to make a similar discovery on the PPTA site. If somebody has found advice from the PPTA please let me know.  In the meantime the General Secretary has been in touch and declined further support for our victim apportioning responsibility to OSH and a collective reaction.  I have made an official information request to OSH to validate the PPTA’s activity in this area and will publish the results when I have the facts.

If I were a member of the PPTA I would be asking them if they manage their support for principles as a separate cost centre from the general teacher membership and if not why not?  Its may be possible that the victims are subsidising the support of their tormentors.  In any case is it reasonable for the PPTA to support both the Principals (CEO’s and advisors to the BOT) and the teachers? And how can they do this without a conflict of interest? Could make for a very interesting debate, more to come on this subject I am sure.  To the teachers who are emailing me please if you want your thoughts heard “comment” on your areas of interest either in support or not.  You can use an alias. I cannot publish the information you send on the contact us page but it is becoming clear that this is a huge problem in our schools.

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What should students be able to expect from a High School if they enrol for a subject in year 9 expecting to complete their studies through to year 13.  I don’t think its unreasonable to expect that a contract has been made with the school and that every effort should be made to ensure that they are able to complete this study to the highest level they can achieve.  Where a school is required through the CAPNA process to reduce FTTE hours the Ministry of Education should require that the process be carried out to ensure that no student is disadvantaged.  The CAPNA is a Ministry of Education requirement of Board’s of Trustees (BOT’s).  They should have a duty of care to produce guidelines for this to ensure that regardless of BOT competence  that students are kept well informed if a subject is to be dropped and that adequate provision is made for students to complete their studies to the highest level at the Ministry of Education’s expense.   Or at the very least the subject should be phased out allowing students to complete their studies as has been achieved at Queens High School. 

Logan Park High School took a different approach to cancelling German without notice to the Students although it had been common knowledge amongst teachers at LPHS that the CAPNA would involve either one of the troublesome departments either Phys. Ed., or German well ahead of when the decision was dew to be made (German was disestablished and the Phys. Ed. HOD left under secret and sinister circumstances). It would have come as a major shock to German Students as LPHS had recently announced an exchange program with a German High School and a large proportion of their Foreign Fee Paying students are German.  A situation likely to change with German language teaching discontinued.

The workload list published earlier in this Blog clearly shows that many teachers at LPHS were so lightly loaded that the CAPNA could have been easily shaved off a variety of subjects without any effect on the subject integrity of the school or damage to students.

Further the teacher made redundant JHR it’s the first line of the workload chart and clearly the most worked teacher in the school. I have mentioned before the competency procedures against JHR and will deal with these in detail later.  The HOD’s Marion Brinsley (unqualified teacher) and Barbara Fitzsimons will feature prominently in that Post and were major winners in the CAPNA gaining more hours.  JHR was still teaching 13 hours a week after the disestablishment of German and should have been offered a P/Time position. It’s also of note that the school advertised for an English teacher during this period, a position that should have been offered to JHR.

Its hard to believe that any considered business decision was made by the BOT or that the management (Jane Johnson, Roger Tobin) were able to provide them with the information for good decision making, frankly I have no faith in the ethics or integrity of any level of management at LPHS. I hold a similar opinion of the PPTA of which Roger Tobin is a past national President (more to this story later).

Filed under: Back ground, LPHS, Minedu, PPTA  |   Tagged under Bullied, bully, Bullying of Teachers by Management and Boards (LPHS), Dunedin, Harassed from work, New Zealand, NZ, Overloaded | No Comments »

The story of the demise of German at Logan Park High School, Dunedin begins in 2007 when JHR along with BAM were support people for another teacher PPM. But first a little history to try to make sense of it all. In 2004 the LPHS JHR took unpaid leave to return to Netherlands after the deaths of her partner and father.  During this year no marketing took place and the numbers learning German dwindled in 2005, since then the numbers have been climbing again through the success of the outreach programme described bellow.

 From 1998 JHR went out to the feeding local intermediates (Port Chalmers, DNI and in 2006 Waitati School) teaching elementary French and German to year 8 or 7 students.  At first this was done in partnership with BMF( French Teacher and Head of Dept. Languages). They would travel once a week to a school usually at lunch time and would use their non-contact after lunch period (their own time) to promote LPHS and language learning. After two years BMF would not give the time anymore so JHR carried on doing both languages alone. This was stopped in 2008 after JHRs support role for PPM, because her timetable did not allow her to appropriate free time anymore, AJM (Timetabler and Staff Board Member) was asked if he could modify the timetable to allow for the continuation of this outreach marketing. He checked with senior management and reported  back that it was not important for the school anymore. JHR was upset that the friendly links with these schools were just cut off as it had been very successful in bringing new students into the department and meant new students would have a familiar face in at least one classroom. No explanation was ever given.

In 2007 Waitati school one of the schools JHR had promoted to was not invited to the schools open morning although they are a major contributor to the schools catchment. Not exactly inspiring from a competent management team, an oversight? or something more sinister?

Foreign fee paying German speaking students were precluded from taking German although international students were encouraged to take up French and Latin regardless of their origins.  There were a very few exceptions where parents complained.  The inclusion of these students in the class assists both local and international students in lifting the quality of language for New Zealand students and assisting the international students in understanding the grammatical differences and able to question in their native tongue. This also served to artificially inflate the numbers of students taking French. A quick check of the numbers of students sitting NCEA exams against enrolments shows up the discrepancy.

 During 2008 JHR took an extended sick (stress) leave from the beginning of August till the end of term 3 and on medical advice went to the Netherlands to recover. During this time, a first year teacher was employed as a reliever and asked to take a duel level class of year 10 & 11 students unsupervised, during this time only the year 11 students were taught. The Year 10 students were sent to the library. There were approximately 13 in each level the and 13 students in year 10 missed 10 weeks of tuition as a result of this only three students carried on to year 11 in 2008.  One of these dropped out on finding she would be in a triple level class of 28 students in 2009 with years 10, 11 and 12. Students  during this time told were they were not allowed to do German.  In 2008 7 hours were dedicated to teaching German year 9 single class. Years 10, 11, and 12 triple level glass of 23 students.  Although class numbers were roughly similar between French and German 14 hours per week were dedicated to French a huge disadvantage to the students learning German. No discussion or agreement took place with the JHR as is required this was all done by dictate. Roger Tobin’s comment when questioned was that “we all have to make sacrifices”.

In 2007-08 a Moderation report for German came to LPHS criticising the way the standards were written.  All the internal assessment standard documentation had been seen and approved by BMF prior to distribution.  The report was equally critical of work produced by BMF, JHR and the work of other schools to the extent that questions were asked and the moderator replaced.  This should have been the end of the matter but BMF will feature again when we examine the competency issues.

In 2009 German was not included in the open morning promotion for the first time since JHR had been teaching at the school.  German is the most spoken first language in Europe and the most learned second language. 

On 11/08/09 JHR was assaulted in her Services Academy (there will be another post about this later) class by a new student who should not have been there unsupervised, extremely traumatised she went that evening with her German students and they won the “Eric Herd Award” for writing and performing a play in German This award is judged by the German Dept of the University of Otago the students had been assisted and supported in this by JHR. But when this award was mentioned at the morning staff meeting credit was given to another teacher who had not been involved, but had been in the audience on the night. In November LPHS was offered an opportunity enter discussions with the German Government over a partnership teaching German. This was a position earned by the school and its students and would have been a massive coup for the school in marketing and offered new scholarship and learning opportunities for the students. As the sole German teacher JHR must receive credit for achieving this but it was declined by the principal Jane Johnson and never mentioned to either JHR or the students and ultimately the position teaching of German was disestablished at on the 23/11/09. The School has not mentioned this on the web site nor publicly acknowledged this.

All this has been done in the name of the BOT and much of it defies belief but it can all be verified.  Exactly who is LPHS being run for the benefit of and who is making the decisions? The Board of Trustees?

Filed under: Back ground, LPHS  |   Tagged under Bullied, bully, Bullying of Teachers by Management and Boards (LPHS), Harassed from work, New Zealand, NZ, Workplace | 1 Comment »

It’s a tool used by the Ministry of Education to reduce the number of FTTE (Full Time Teacher Equivalent) units available in a school and save money it is supposed to be fair and based on good business decisions. Logan Park High School at the end of 2009 disestablished German as a subject as part of a CAPNA round. They have never referenced this on their website www.lphs.school.nz and if you look at their international prospectus you will find that it is still listed as an subject option year 9-13 for 2010 – 11.  This must be a huge embarrassment for the school as they have recently established a student exchange program with a German High School and a large proportion of their Foreign Fee Paying students are German.  Its interesting to note that the German teacher is the teacher that had been bullied by management Jane Johnson, Roger Tobin, Barbara Fitzsimons for over twelve months prior to this end.  Tomorrows post will detail the timelines and actions of these people and identify the cost on students. This will be a no holds barred recounting of a prolonged attempt to drive a teacher from her position with zero regard for students.

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The Unions (PPTA, NZEI, IESA)

The first step must be the Unions just recognising the problem and accepting responsibility for representing their member’s needs for security. Being prepared to take justified cases the full distance through the courts and set the precedents and dedicating there combined resources to disempowering the bullies. Cases of this type protect all members and put the Board’s of Trustees (BOT) on notice that there is “Zero Tolerance”.

The Minister (Hon Anne Tolley).

The Minister needs to come out with a clear policy of “Zero Tolerance” of bullying in the workplace and remind the BOT’s that the public indemnity they enjoy through the Ministry of Education is based on acting in “good faith”. A requirement under the act and ensuring that the Education Review Office are actively auditing boards as “Good Employer’s”. Indemnity should be automatically denied to BOT’s that fail these tests. BOT’s are offered an almost bottomless pool of funds through the Ministry to fight claims by Teacher’s while the Teachers often must fund their own cases from often limited resource’s and face the liability of BOT legal costs as well if they are unable to afford detail investigations. Hardly conducive of natural justice and an area that must be addressed by ministerial intervention the tools are already in place just not in use. The Minister’s failure to act in this area would be an endorsement and approval of the bullying culture that exists.

The Ministry of Education. (Karen Sewell)

The Ministry needs to be more responsive with tools that already exist. Disregarded Sick Leave (DRSL) is the ultimate tool to protect teachers. But how is it managed when the stress related injuries occurred over a period of time are not covered by ACC.  Precedents already exist where cases against the Ministry of Education have been won and the Ministry has been ordered to include mental injury on the same footing as physical.  So why is there a problem? If a teachers claim for a work related stress disorder and the medical certificates clearly support this, The Ministry have been advised in discussion that this injury was caused by the management of the school. You would think that this would be an open and shut case of entitlement.  The management of the school had an opportunity to get an independent assessment at their cost but chose not to do this. The only reason I can see for this was that the independent doctor would have found in favour of the original diagnosis. We have no idea what is going on here but the approval DRSL is the responsibility of the Secretary of Education (Ms Sewell) and she has delegated this authority to the Industrial Relations Dept. within her Ministry. As you will read in an earlier post these people do not even respond to correspondence. Their lack of action and stonewalling behaviour is a direct reflection on the competence of the Secretary, Ms Sewell’. And left a bullied teacher on unpaid leave during the Christmas Period at the end of 09.  Their actions have amounted to support for and endorsement of the bullies.  The Ministry of Education was made aware of the issues on the 10/11/08.  The Ministry have been failing on every level since that date. They have failed to insure that their guidelines and the NAGS were followed. They have failed in responding to correspondence and they have failed to administer there responsibilities under the Education Act and the CA.  I hold Ms Sewell personally responsible and can see little action going forward without her being replaced and a complete culture change in the Ministry of Education.

Boards of Trustees

There is one very real difference the BOT’s can make. If they become aware of a bullying issue in their school involving their executive. They should act immediately to have this independently investigated. They are offered this facility by the School Trustees Assn. (STA).  Where competence issues arise as part of the same process the Board needs to take control through an appropriately appointed sub committee and insure that the accusers’ are not judge, jury and executioner and that fair play and natural justice prevail. The Board of Logan Park High School (LPHS) in Dunedin offer the perfect example of what not to do.  I believe that on review of the evidence if the Ministry ever does the Board will not be found to have acted in good faith and be required to repay the costs so far to the Ministry.

Teachers.

There is little teachers can do if a school goes toxic either in protection of themselves or their colleagues without exposing themselves to the actions of the bullies.  Responsibility rests with the Ministry of Education.  There has been a proposal put forward for a new indemnity fund for teachers legal cost’s.  The plan for this fund is to focus on areas of interest and value to all teachers and the setting of precedents to protect all teachers. You can contact them in the first instance on teacher.idemnity.fund@gmail.com

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Practicing Certificates (PC) are the ultimate bullying tool provided by government. It is interesting that every 3 years every single registered teacher in New Zealand must apply for a renewal of their Practicing Certificate. This application is filled out by the Teacher then passed to their Professional Leader (Principal) who signs off that –

This teacher is of good character and fit to be a teacher (refer to Guide for definition)

This teacher has had satisfactory recent teaching experience.

This teacher’s performance has been assessed as satisfactory against the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions.

This teacher has completed satisfactory professional development.

 There is no facility for a Principal to withhold and no facility for the teacher to appeal to if the Principal does nothing, all these questions require simple “yes” or “no” answers that should be completed and the form forwarded to the NZ Teachers Council. Unfortunately at Logan Park High School the Principal Jane Johnson likes to fly under the radar.  Manipulating the process so Practising Certificate renewal becomes a bargaining tool of management for future “Exit Package” negotiation.  This is neither honest nor ethical and represents a gross misuse of power and abuse of process. Hardly the actions of a good employer or a competent “Professional Leader”. Who checks that the Professional Leader is of good character?

 This abuse serves a purpose for the school if they are able to bully a teacher from their position it will be extremely hard for them to find a new position especially if they had been a long serving staff member and keeps any unjustified competency procedure “in house” and prevents a school like Logan Park appearing as a statistical anomaly.  Regarding the excessive numbers of competency procedures started and resignations of long tenure teachers. Some one should be asking the question. 

It is interesting to note that ERO were in the school while this process was occurring and that the Teacher involved has since been exonerated with a new employer. Having been CAPNA’d she chose to work out her 30 weeks at another School.  Unfortunately she had to pay an additional late TAX of $50 because Johnson had not acted properly.  I would recommend that any teacher caught in a similar fashion lay an ethical complaint with the NZ Teachers council as early as possible. Lets put the bullies on notice. We’ve had enough. No More!

 http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/cnc/complaints/makingcomplaints.stm

 This is yet another situation created by Government Policy that defies Natural Justice and the responsibility rests squarely with the Minister and Ministry of Education.  Not only are teacher’s jobs being put at risk but also their careers because the Ministry of Education denies any employer responsibilities. State Schools are not independent they operate under the laws and regulations administered by government and bureaucracy. Once again there are not the checks and balances needed to insure that BOT’s comply and statistical information that should be checked and reported on at review time is not sought. Why? Because no real review takes place of the integrity of  school management. Its time the Minister took a really close look at what’s going on in our Schools and really shook up the system.  Its great that the Ministry of Education is to be streamlined. But some things are already missing will there be less accountability and control.  Its time for a real shakeup and a re-evaluation of the way education administration works and a clear statement from the Minister of “zero” tolerance of all bullying in schools.

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http://www.ero.govt.nz/ero/reppub.nsf/0/BC40481EAF8B6BF8CC25765D0013FDEE/$File/376.htm?Open 

It looks very good on the surface but I will dig a little deeper

 Management of Health, Safety and Welfare;

 No mention is made of the fact that the school was under review for teacher safety by the Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) Group of the Department of Labour (DOL). or that they had been extremely unhelpful in stonewalling the investigator. Perhaps ERO should have spoken to OSH before accepting the Boards assurance. I have heard the Logan Park High School environment for stressed teachers described as “toxic”.  A complaint to the Board on the 10/11/08 had still not been resolved and complaints to the schools Board OSH committee. Had been closed because the bullies said they weren’t bullies and anyway they are the bosses.

Personnel Management;

Not mentioned in the review was the fact that in the past 3 years at least three long term teachers had left the school in very suspicious circumstances and I believe all of these had been required for their settlements, to sign a Roger Tobin secrecy and indemnity clause a very strange requirement for a school operating with integrity. I’m sure at least one did but luckily I had most of the documentation on that case before that happened. Since then two other teachers have left the school under equally suspicious circumstances. One a recent arrival from the UK and the other harassed with competency issues for over 15 months then released in a CAPNA round with the competency issues still hanging. There will be more on this later. That’s a total of 5 teachers in 3 years on competency. Normal? Do the Board sound like good employers as required by the Act and the NAG’s.  Where is the Ministry of Education during all this? They have been aware of the problems since November 08 but have a assured the Minister that the issues are resolved. I also understand that the local Ministry of Education manager is a close relative of Roger Tobin.

 Teacher Registration

This is a good one, are we talking registration or current practicing certificate? I will assume for the purposes of this section that it really means both. Because both would be required to legally teach at a public secondary school in NZ.  That then begs the question as to how Marion Brinsley HOD Careers and Careers advisor could hold those positions since the beginning of 2009. As she is neither registered or holds a current practicing certificate and it defies logic how she could get an LAT as a registered teacher also applied for the position.  What also defies belief is how a registered teacher could be CAPNA’d and “Careers” teaching be allocated to Ms Brinsley ahead of other registered teachers without the position being advertised. I guess that would have been an embarrassment as the teacher who had taught Careers from 2005-2009 was the teacher CAPNA’d. The PPTA seemed little interested perhaps because Roger Tobin is an ex-president and better connected than just a teacher?

I don’t have access to the necessary information to comment further on this report but I would expect this is enough to challenge the Education Review Office to dig deeper and demand some disclosure.  In the interim if I were a parent I would have serious reservations about the openness and integrity of the LPHS Board and Management.

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The professional leader in schools is the Principal. This person is not only a board member but also the board’s chief advisor and CEO. There is no requirement for the principal to hold any tertiary administrative or management academic units or qualifications. The board consists of for the most part well meaning amateurs either elected by parents or co-opted. Board members can be appointed by the Ministry of Education where a specific need is identified, they call this an intervention and Logan Park High School has been subject to one of these over their financial management.  The school is currently repaying a debt to the Ministry of Education. This means that to all intents and purposes our schools can be managed by completely unqualified people advised by an unqualified administrator.  A recipe for disaster if all the worst case scenarios come together in one school. This is the situation I believe has occurred at LPHS. In 2 years of correspondence with the school I have never seen the chairperson Margi MacMurdo-Reading’s signature.  Just a rubber stamp image of it I considered this rather symbolic.  The Board are very secretive and nearly invisible

But the real question here is who’s job is it to be the police. Where there are clear breaches of the Collective Agreement (CA), the Ministry Guidelines or the OSH  Act you would expect the Ministry of Education to act promptly but they just write to the Board asking if they are complying.  Maybe the Education Review Office (ERO)?  They seem to be solely concerned with the guidelines affecting Students. 

 Really what I am saying here is that the checks and balances for management in schools don’t work. Perhaps if teachers moving into senior management were required to achieve passes in approved management papers at 6 points per year as part of their employment contracts. We could achieve a higher level of competence and Boards would be better advised with less risk of being held personally accountable.

Or just maybe its time boards were given some real support and the government allowed the appointment of a trained and experienced administrator (without teaching qualifications) to one of the senior management positions. Schools are not special they are expensive publicly funded businesses under the tomorrows schools model.

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The Ministry of Education has been playing hard to get on the issue of Disregarded sick leave. An initial request for detail on how to apply, and an application were made during November 2009. This was at the time labelled as urgent and the Ministry of Education advised the process would normally be completed in a week.

On the 3/3/10 the following Email was sent to the Ministry of Education’s Industrial relations group.

Dear Tanya,

DRSL is a contract between the Ministry and teachers and is an entitlement. It does not involve the school. The Ministry of Education has been provided with an application and supporting evidence including medical certificates and the assault on my person and have not given a justifiable reason to reject it. The incompetence and dishonesty of the Logan Park High School (LPHS) management is the Ministry’s Problem as is my application for DRSL. Is the Ministry of Education rejecting mediation if so please state this clearly.

I also request pursuant to the Official Information Act copies of all communications between the Ministry and LPHS related to my application including internal notes.

Kind Regards

I will publish the full correspondence trail once we have all the relevant details

Filed under: Minedu  |   Tagged under Denial of Entitlement, NZ Ministry of Education | 5 Comments »