Oh being forced out?

lufcgirl

Hi,

I'm not sure how to word all this so I'll try as best I can. OH is a teacher in a school in southern Ireland. The school is for kids from about 15-18 who refuse to go to normal state/private schools or have been kicked out. So a lot of troublesome teenagers in there. The incentive to attend this school is that they get paid to go by the Irish government.
So she's having so many problems recently with the place, we wanted to try and get an idea of where she stands with everything as I think she's being bullied out of her job. I'll list all the points I can think of

1) The co-ordinator of the place is a woman who for the past two months constantly takes sick leave. However she has employed her son in there as a PE teacher despite having no relevant qualifications and no police clearance. (Only last week he was offering to go swimming with the girls!). He is on a full time contract whereby he gets a higher salary, job security and is basically the biggest troublemaker winding these kids up no end. OH is employed as a part time teacher and wasn't given a contract until last week, two years into employment. She has been told that she has to reapply for her job teaching music next year (of which she has a degree) and it's tough if she doesn't get it.

2) She also teaches Irish as she was the only one in the place to teach at short notice. She was then told by the sub-coordinator that she shouldn't reapply to teach this next year (even though she got them out of the mess of having no teacher last year) because they wanted someone qualified. In the next breath, one of her friends there was told to apply even though she doesn't have the qualifications!

3) There is a pupil being continously bullied in the school by two other guys. The two pupils were suspended once and then the guy came to my OH to say it was still happenning and he felt intimidated. OH decided to bring it up in a staff meeting to find out what the next steps are in the bullying policy. Apparently it's a permanent suspension from the school. However the co-ordinators son is their form tutor and also they play on his football team, so he won't do anything or have anything said. The sub co-ordinator has refused to do anything because he can't prove he's being bullied, yet most teachers have seen it. It's just the son who is scared of losing his precious football team.

4) They run a summer project there. OH was aware she'd be on part time hours as usual. As she teaches music she suggested she teaches the kids one on one an instrument (she plays about 15 different ones and charges £20 an hour usually for a lesson). The sub co-ordinator said no as she needed to do a group activity involving her subject which is kinda hard as they won't let anyone come in like DJ's or anything to help her do a group project. She decided she'd get a job this summer and return in September thus not doing the summer project. She went to a meeting this morning that the sub-coordinator didn't expect her to be at where he said they could do one on one activities!


It feels an awful lot like she's being pushed out of her job there. Theres a lot of favouritism, like a teacher who doesn't teach a core subject such as art shouldn't get a full time contract until they've been there four years. Yet the PE and art teacher have, and she hasn't!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

wigglebeena

I take it she really needs the job and there's not much else available, otherwise she wouldn't still be there?

Emmzi

frankly, I would not want to stay somewhere so shoddily run anyway. how's the employment situation where you are? I would imagine it's difficult to get people to work with roubled teens and there may be better run schools to look at.

Is there a regulatory body for this type of school? It sounds like they could use an good audit!

Oldernotwiser

Is this a publicly funded establishment or private? Is your OH in a union?

lufcgirl

She couldn't join a union as she didn't have a contract. Now she has one I think she's in the process of joining. It's a publin funded place, apparently they have them all over Ireland. She gets a very good wage in the job and it's very hard to get music jobs anywhere. She said as soon as she found another job she would leave but seriously, I'm in the frame of mind to phone the teaching council and say about the son not having any relevant qualifications!

Eeyore2009

If your phone and say the son dont have any wualifications and the co-ordinator find out, wont she give your wife an even harder time?
the co-ordinator is bound to be more nasty towards the people she dont like

lufcgirl

I've been ordered not to call or else! She wouldn't have known it's came from me, I don't even exist to her, so it would have been anonymous.

It's a very badly run place, it's like the full time people gang up on part time and try to make their lives as impossible as anything. The one good thing she has to show is every other teacher in there managed to get around three students' coursework in for their exams (in a class of 16) and my OH got 12 students in, an achievement in itself...yet no recognition for anything, but should prove she's a better teacher than most. See the rest of them delight in taking the water out of these students, winding them up, sending them home without any pay for the day...yet she actually trys to help them as she knows how volatile they can become.

Savvy_Sue

If your OH doesn't want you to do anything about it, then don't. She's the one putting up with it all.

If your OH wants to do anything about it, what's the Irish equivalent of Ofsted?

EmmaA_2

I know what it is like to feel that you are being pushed out of your job - it is currently happening to me

All I can say is, tell your OH to look for other employment but in the meantime to just try and stick it out where she is. Dont give the bosses anything at all to pick at - be the perfect member of staff

Thats all I am doing and I have had 3 interviews and 2 offer of employment already - its just knowing where to look

Good luck to your OH

Oldernotwiser

lufcgirl wrote: »

See the rest of them delight in taking the water out of these students, winding them up, sending them home without any pay for the day...yet she actually trys to help them as she knows how volatile they can become.

That's a very telling comment and gives some idea of the reason she's having problems. There are usually two sides to this sort of thing.

(It may be different in Ireland but there's no difficulty in joining any of the UK teaching unions even if you're part time. Supply teachers can be union members and even education students get special membership.)

lufcgirl

Thanks for your advice.

At present I suggested for her to set up a summer music school, she currently teaches privately to students at her old school. So teaching them new instruments in a large group as beginners for a trial price and then full price once the summer ends. So she's looking into that and if it becomes a success could probably leave this job before Autumn term even starts.

She really does want to do something about it, the school is run by the VEC in Ireland but apparently the branch that runs it is very good friends with the coordinator so nothing will get done anyway. I personally think a complaint should be made anonymously and this could possibly mean theres an audit of the place the staffs qualifications are taken into consideration.

Also the pass rate and coursework completetion is a cause for discussion which should be being looked at too. Looks like theyre underachieving big time.