Thursday 18 November 2010

School Governors resign in protest of interference of Local Authority

School Governors at a primary school have resigned in support of a headteacher accused of bullying.

Nine members of Coundon Primary School’s governing body say headteacher Linda Halliday was undermined by teaching staff and that the fact was not recognised by local council chiefs.

Durham County Council said there had been a breakdown in management, relationships and governance at the school after receiving complaints.

Some staff lodged a joint grievance procedure against Mrs Halliday for bullying.

An emergency action plan put together by the school governing body was branded insufficiently robust by the local authority.

The authority warned governors they faced being replaced by an interim executive board.

School Governors said Mrs Halliday had done nothing wrong.

Governing Body Spokesman Phil Graham said: “The crisis is not at the school, the children are happy; the crisis is not with the management. The crisis, as far as we are concerned, is in the Children and Young People’s Services department at County Hall.”

The school governors’ resignation letter reads: “Her (Mrs Halliday’s) continued task would be much easier if the authority would recognise that whilst the majority of staff are supportive and professional in their duties, there is an element who are incapable of accepting their own accountability and who further possess a pathological inability to respond to direction or instruction.”

Tommy Taylor, another school governor, is considering taking legal action against the council for threatening to remove him.

Full story can be found here

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/bishopauckland/8633798.Governors_resign_in_school_head_row/

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