martonschool.myfreeforum.org

JACKIE · Mildly Opinionated Joined: 26 Jul 2006 Posts: 26

I am wondering whether other local primary schools have the funding to cover for their Headteacher to be able to have three full working days off school to write on the children’s reports. Certainly, teachers fill in reports in their own time in the evenings and at weekends. The small comment from the Head can surely not take longer than writing a class full of whole reports, but Mrs Coupe obviously has better things to do with her evenings and weekends.
Another extraordinary expense is that there will still be two full time foundation teachers for an intake of just 31 children. The school used to take in 60 children. Normal intake would be 30 per class, but due to one extra child, a teacher has not been made redundant as at other local schools – nor are mixed age classes being considered at Marton, where seemingly the LEA continue to pour money in to cover issues that other schools cope with. Only one year group in school is actually full, but we continue to keep a full complement of staff.
Whatever money pours through our doors, Marton cannot recover. Even new staff, who never worked under Mrs Lancaster, are now gossiping on a daily basis about how awful life at Marton is, and that Mrs Coupe needs to “move on”. Even when she is in school she remains in her office, with the door closed, seemingly oblivious to the misery outside that door. In fact Mrs Coupe’s latest suggestion to foster more teamwork amongst the staff, is to rearrange the staffroom! If only our school’s problems could be sorted so easily!

Pat · Getting Started Joined: 30 Apr 2007 Posts: 6

Surely, Jackie, checking teachers' reports and writing comments is part of the job of every head teacher. Head teachers are paid a salary to do their job so how is extra funding needed ? I thought it was the deputy head's job to cover for headteachers so no extra funding is being used there either. Also, if the head thinks that completing the work could be done more efficiently at home without school distractions then she is actually saving time and money.

This is happening more often in many jobs now Jackie, not just in education - people working where they can be most efficient.

You say the head only has a little comment to write on each report - but in reality all the reports have to be proof-read by Mrs Coupe for mistakes by teachers, she has to get a 'feel' for the comments written by the teacher about each before she can write her own suitable comment. She can't just write anything.

Think about it. Are there about 400 children at Marton ? If Mrs Coupe worked flat out from 9 am to 6 pm with only half an hour break and no other stops that would give her an 8 and a half hour day. Over 3 days solid work that allows only 4.2 minutes for each report. I don't believe that is possible - I am sure Mrs Coupe must have worked well into the evenings and probably most of the weekend too.

R. Thornton · Reaching Full Speed Joined: 13 Oct 2005 Posts: 99

I think the point that Jackie was making Pat, was that the staff don't have the luxury of taking time out of school to write their reports. Mrs Coupe seems to be constantly found abusing the system, treating her role of headteacher in a far different way to other headteachers within the authority and differently to my own experience of dedicated senior staff in schools.

However, having read Mr Veale's post today (under the Governors section) I think staff at Marton have far more to worry about. Imagine being in a workplace where someone who is highly likely to be in a position of authority has vindictively set out to ruin a colleague's career. And the answer of the authority is as usual to try to cover up. We can all guess why the council is taking so long - in the hope that it all goes away. They have no intention of finding the culprit - probably because they are too scared of what they will find - or are already suspicious of what they will discover.

So I doubt any staff will complain about Mrs C spending time at home to complete reports - or complain about anything for that matter. They would be too likely thinking of their futures for that to happen.