8 October 2010
11:3474204So the Deputy Head who wowed the Conservative Party Conference has been suspended for 'telling it how it is'. Well, 'sent home' actually, which is some clever pseudo-legal way of avoiding immediate suspension while the (Executive) Head Teacher and Governing Body of the St Michael and All Angels Academy in Camberwell decide how to deal with having a Conservative-supporting deputy headteacher in their midst.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318685/Deputy-head-dared-attack-State-school-sent-home.html#ixzz11jxDotMz
Katharine Birbalsingh has been running a blog for a long time which I have followed with interest. A more caring, compassionate teacher would appear to be hard to find.
Her speech is on the IPlayer 1:17 in
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00v7ss6/Conservative_Party_Conference_2010_05_10_2010/
She has now been forced to take down her blog.
Here's a link so you can see what you have missed :-
http://web.archive.org/web/20080525134912/tomisswithlove.blogspot.com/2008/05/leaders.html
(What a shame she does not work for KCC where all the schools are superb, the senior management excellent and all pupils above average. Just though I'd get that in. One can't be too careful nowadays!!)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
17 October 2010
09:3375266surely she would have things in her contract of employment that stop her making public utterances about her employers?
everybody else has.
17 October 2010
10:1775273Public utterances? Is that the same as having an opinion and giving a damn?
17 October 2010
12:3675281From Cranmer's Blog:-
[His Grace re-loaded]
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Katharine Birbalsingh 'wished to stay but it became clear she could not'
The Daily Mail has confirmed it. Katharine Birbalsingh was forced out by 'Dr' Irene Bishop and Canon Peter Clark.
They are respectively the Executive Headteacher and Chairman of Governors of St Michael and All Angels Church of England Academy in Camberwell, whose respective unwarranted action and incompetent inaction forced Ms Birbalsingh to resign as the school's deputy headteacher after just four weeks in the post.
And all because of a speech in which she disclosed that life in most state secondary schools was 'totally and utterly chaotic', with a lack of discipline in black boys in particular, all because of an education system which is 'fundamentally broken' and which keeps 'poor children poor'.
According to 'Dr Irene Bishop' and Canon Peter Clark, such statements 'misrepresented' their academy (even though Ms Birbalsingh did not mention the place) and the 'generalisations' were 'insulting to many teachers'. They declared: 'We and all schools have high aspirations for our young people whatever their backgrounds.'
No generalisation there (an no explanation of how this is consonant with the school's recent damning Ofsted inspection).
'Dr' Bishop has since banned The Daily Mail from the staffroom; school assemblies now take their daily texts religiously from The Guardian; Canon Clark is negotiating an ICT upgrade to stream the BBC into each teaching unit so that the Academy's directors of learning and teaching and student behaviour managers can deliver the prescribed lesson plans to their primary stakeholders.
The Sunday Telegraph helpfully informs us that Ms Birbalsingh 'loses job', as if it were a contact lens. They confirm the gagging order, disclosing that she is 'unable to discuss details of her departure'. They also confirm that the school 'refused to discuss the terms of the teacher's departure'. But they intriguingly continue: 'However, sources said that she had resigned after being asked to comply with conditions that she did not feel able to comply with.'
'Dr' Irene Bishop and Canon Peter Clark have obviously attempted to suppress what they perceive as dissent: when you put a 'Blairite' headteacher with an Anglican chairman of governors, it must follow, as the night the day, that the school cannot be false to any man.
Or woman.
Or any black, brown, fat, disabled, gay, bi, trans or incompetent teacher.
But Tories are fair game.
Being false to them is in the cause of a higher philosophical truth for the common political good.
It must have taken quite a lot of political persecution to censor Miss Snuffy.
One has to wonder what has been threatened. The Telegraph discloses that she 'resigned after being asked to comply with conditions that she did not feel able to comply with'.
What conditions were these? Restricting freedom of speech? Prohibiting enthusiasm? Killing her vision? Imposing severe and unattainable limitations on her uncontrollably-frizzy hair?
The Times (£) has also reported on the affair, but it is The Daily Mail which confirms His Grace's conjecture: 'It is understood that she wished to stay but it became clear she could not continue after a series of meetings with senior management.'
What was the tone and manner of these 'discussions'? Which members of senior management were present? Was Ms Birbalsingh bullied, harassed, threatened, coerced or intimidated? Was she permitted to be accompanied? Were minutes taken? Are they available?
Apparently, 'a source close to Education Secretary Michael Gove, who spoke at the Tory Conference immediately after Ms Birbalsingh, said he continued to support the teacher but could not interfere in the school's management of the affair.'
Well, the Secretary of State most certainly does have the power to intervene, granted to him by Parliament. And so do the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Kingston.
It is a state-funded Church of England school: it might have academy liberties, but as long as public and church monies are involved it remains accountable both to politicians (for the people) and clergy (for the church). Of course, no clergy will sit in judgment upon Canon Clark, but it remains the task of the present Secretary of State to roll his predecessor's 'world-class education system'.
Despite a decade of 'Education, education, education', the UK has fallen from fourth to 14th in the international rankings in science; from seventh in literacy to 17th; and plummeted from eighth to 24th in maths.
Could someone please explain to His Grace how this empirical deterioration is consistent with 'Dr' Bishop's and Canon Clark's assertion that '(they) and all schools have high aspirations for our young people', or with the annual ritual whereby those who are 'blinded by Leftist ideology' pat themselves on the back because of record levels of success in GCSEs and A-levels?
Ms Birbalsingh is not a whistleblower in the sense that she sought to disclose any hitherto concealed illegal activity. But by drawing the nation's attention to the toxic combination of disabling political correctness and rampant grade-inflation in the education system, she took a stroll in the valley of professional death.
She should fear no evil:
For His Grace is with her;
His blog and communicants, they comfort her.
Ms Birbalsingh is concerned with academic rigour and the pursuit of academic excellence, both of which have been largely absent from reams of successive Labour education white papers. The three Rs were abandoned as pupils were reduced to utilitarian 'economic imperatives' in the process of the acquisition of superficial skills and debased qualifications. The league table became the fount of all knowledge, and so headteachers sought to manipulate and scheme in whatever way they needed to in order to create the perception of a successful school.
And, of course, for their own glory.
Which brings His Grace rather neatly to 'Dr' Irene Bishop.
She is very happy to talk about her professional 'cock-ups', and to that list she really ought to add the everyday use of her doctorate.
Because it is not quite as it appears.
Or as she presents.
Or even boasts.
On the video welcoming everyone to St Saviour's and St Olave's, she says: "My name is Dr Irene Bishop."
'Irene' she may have been given by her parents.
'Bishop' she appears to have gained from her husband.
But 'My name is Doctor...'?
Is she a time lord?
Did a vicar christen her with a divinely-bestowed doctorate?
Her doctorate is not earned; it is honorary.
Nothing wrong with that, except that when one is awarded an honorary doctorate, one does not usually style oneself with the title.
Debrett's confirms the protocol.
This is because proper academic doctors (as opposed to the medical type) have all usually spent about 20 years or so getting educated. It is a hard-earned degree; indeed, the highest degree one can earn for graduate study.
An honorary doctorate is bestowed by universities who wish to honour or recognise a dignitary, benefactor, or notable alumnus/alumna. The University of Exeter clearly wished to bestow such recognition upon Irene Bishop. Perhaps she did her BEd there, or something. His Grace does not know. He has (twice) enquired, but 'Dr' Bishop has not had the courtesy to respond.
Exeter are quite clear about their criteria for honorary docorates:
"Honorary degrees may only be awarded to candidates without reference
to the 5 additional criteria if a very significant PR benefit can be
identified."
A significant PR benefit?
Surely the honorary doctorate of a 'Blairite' headteacher couldn't be spun, could it?
Usually, neither the university nor the honouree are naïve enough to believe that an honorary doctorate actually confers a full doctorate, and so those with honorary degrees do not use the title.
But 'Dr' Bishop clearly believes that having a doctorate, or conveying the impression that one is very highly educated, adds a certain perceived prestige to her otherwise apparently inadequate qualifications.
Her Bachelor of Education degree is not subject-specific and is little more than a CertEd licence to teach. Her MA was probably acquired 'on-the-job', probably a 10,000-word dissertation on some aspect of school improvement which she was having to undertake in any case.
So Ms Birbalsingh, with her hard-earned Oxford degree in French and Philosophy, is altogether more highly academically qualified than Mrs Bishop (as she will henceforth be styled), just as she is in her personal and professional attributes.
Mrs Bishop appears to have been appointed by Canon Peter Clark, who is fairly anonymous and quite obscure, which is a good thing. Having been the vicar at Battersea Christ Church and St Stephen (Southwark), he retired, according to The Times, in 2008.
But according to Wandsworth Council, he is still there.
If one studies the educational ethos of the Diocese of Southwark, one reads that they seek to glorify Christ and uphold Christian values. When it comes to their treatment of staff, they say they are 'fair, consistent and objective' and 'encourage all employees to achieve and maintain high standards of performance.'
They also claim to offer 'well-planned support and/or counselling' to their staff.
Mrs Bishop is very fond of chaplains.
Pray, who counselled, guided, supported or encouraged Katharine Birbalsingh?
Who cared? Who listened? Who loved?
Mrs Bishop's Christian values appear to be as superficial as her doctorate.
Canon Clark should accept her resignation as swiftly as he accepted that of Ms Birbalsingh.
And then do the honourable thing himself.
17 October 2010
12:5275282Bob - there is nothing to add to that other than I support your view and Way To Go, Bob.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
17 October 2010
16:4775306Looking at ths in a more unbiased way, I fully understand this teachers (head) position, but she was there 4 weeks and im sure on her interview she would have agrees in her contract not to display the school in a bad light.
Most companies have this written into there contracts, and know should they decide to take no notice of the contact agreement she had signed then there are
consequences of these actions
Just a thought
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
17 October 2010
17:3275312Keith, I believe that the Italians have a word for it. 'Omerta'.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
17 October 2010
18:2475316all looks decidedly dodgy to me, 4 weeks into the job incessant blogging, a starring role at a party conference.
teachers i have known are far too busy when they leave school, preparing lessons, marking work.
the conference was also in term time i note, maybe the board of governors wanted someone who would spend more time doing the job they are paid for?
18 October 2010
09:4675395Part of the job of teacher is as advocate and we all have the right to support our own political opinions, better still if they are based on experience. A teacher who fails to raise matters that affect the students fails them. Our education system has been shredded by and large by politicians of every shade and it is time we looked closer. I am hugely disappointed in the new government for their betrayal of young people across the nation with their insistence on reaching into their pockets to fund education, a right for all and a source of power and development. An investment, in other words.
Have a look at this, admittedly biased as it is by a Tory blogger, blog. It says a great deal about how the education system is being abused.
http://www.youngtory.com/2010/10/for-those-of-you-who-havent-been.html