Guest post by 'Mistleflower'
Sources close to my partner tell me
that Copland staff are becoming increasingly concerned about the
strange behaviour of new Head Richard Marshall. Following the
actions set out in recent blogs on this site, Mr Marshall has set
aside next Tuesday for a game of musical chairs involving the English
and Humanities departments.
Staff taking students on end-of-term
trips have been told to cancel their plans, come to school in old
clothes and be prepared to spend the day moving all the English
books, resources, wall-displays, stock, personal effects and other
paraphernalia out of the English rooms and over to the Humanities
block, a separate building some distance away.
Humanities teachers
have been instructed to do the same thing but in the opposite
direction. The instruction came out of the blue, followed the new
management style of ‘no consultation, no discussion, no sense at
all’ and was ‘explained’ as somehow providing some dubious
benefit to the English department ( none of whom believe the reason
given or want the move). Humanities Faculty teachers have
individually and collectively decided to resist the move. This has
been met with the immediate threat of disciplinary proceedings which
are rapidly becoming the principal means of management communication
under Mr Marshall’s headship.
How did we get to this ludicrous
state of affairs?
For the real motive we need to look
not at the English department but at Humanities. The faculty has
historically been one of the most stable at Copland and has contained
some of the most experienced, most able, most intelligent and most
committed teachers in the school. It has a very strong record at GCSE
and particularly at A level.
Particular faculty individuals have
worked tirelessly over the years to help Copland students gain
admission to the top universities. Faculty members have recently been
active on the school’s governing body, in liaising with outside
social and cultural organisations, with taking students on visits to
English courts and residential visits to European Community centres
in Brussels, in forging links with moderate Muslim organisations and
in establishing a ground-breaking anti-homophobia group which brought
Copland huge media coverage and national recognition and respect; in
general, striving to broaden the horizons of students in one of the
country’s more deprived boroughs.
It would take very little time or
effort to collect tributes from a huge number of former students who
would attest, with affection and respect, to the way in which
Copland’s Humanities Faculty ‘made a difference’ to their
lives. It would surprise no one at Copland if a Facebook page to this
effect was under construction at this very moment.
So why would the new Copland management
led by Mr Marshall want to attack (and that is precisely how it is
being described) this apparently exemplary faculty?
Here’s why.
The Humanities staff’s qualities of care and involvement in the
school and the progress of its students are the same qualities which
mean that 2 of the school’s Professional Association reps come from
the Humanities faculty as does one of the longest serving staff
representatives on the school’s governing body. The Humanities
faculty was also particularly bravely involved in the risky
whistleblowing which resulted in Sir Alan Davies imminent fraud
trial. The efforts of these teachers helped halt the alleged hemorrhaging of Brent taxpayers’ money into the pockets of a
corrupt management.
But while they’ll applaud such qualities at a
distance, authoritarian managements really don’t like such
independence of thought and such readiness to question their ‘tough’
decisions, (especially those which seem to make no sense or to be
transparently vindictive). And a vindictive attack on the school’s
professional associations is precisely the interpretation of the
Copland management’s action which was expressed very clearly at a
packed Joint Union meeting of Copland staff on Friday when it was
decided unanimously to support the Humanities Faculty in whatever
manner was deemed necessary. A vote of confidence in the union reps,
their principled resistance to the recent use of bogus capability
procedures and the dignified part they played in resisting the recent
‘sickness’ absence fiasco described elsewhere on this site, was
also unanimously passed.
Maybe the new Copland management wasn’t
aware of the qualities the Humanities faculty embodies. Maybe they
would be more aware if they hadn’t rejected all attempts at
dialogue with the staff using the established JCC and other channels
which have avoided this kind of unpleasantness in the past. Maybe the
IEB or Brent’s Children and Families Lead, Michael Pavey could
have a word.
Meanwhile we face
the prospect of an undignified standoff next Tuesday between security
men and Copland Humanities teachers which would really enhance
the school’s reputation and the new management’s respect in the
eyes of the rest of the staff. Especially if footage of it were to
become the biggest YouTube success since Fenton the deer-chasing dog.
The likeliest outcome seems to be that this ridiculous plan will
(like Sports Day!) be ‘postponed’ and then clandestinely
carried out during the school holidays. As a way of continuing this
‘war against the teachers’ into the next school year, that would
take some beating. Which, under the current regime, makes it all the
more likely to happen.
It really is time for someone to have a
word.
