HEADS MATTER  or  HEAD MATTERS

Well in the absence of any promised information from the extremely ineffective governors we have to rely on snippets and rumours. We know that no one was appointed on Oct 2nd, but we wonder if any 'outsiders ' were given a token interview and then the easiest thing to say is no one got the job, which may have been the idea because they want another 'insider' inspite of the farce of the previous insider appointments.

Then they look at the various insiders, ie some of the Ass. Heads who have already proved their loyalty and the support for the keep parents out and uninformed  policy, who know how the NMSS functions, unlike the outsiders who weren't even told about it in the blatantly inaccurate job advert.

We hear that Ms Catherine Jarvis , current Ass. Head has got the job, starting in Jan. 07, what we don't know is whether it is permanent  or is a stop gap until they advertise next year for,say a Director of Learning, as is the case in Essex's other NMSS schools

We certainly sense a distinct lack of will to appoint a permanent Head at this moment. We also note a distinct lack of will to communicate with parents, rather, to divide and rule. I hope you have all looked at the other schools' websites linked of the front page, to see how a good school runs its own website and communicates and values parents.

STAFFING

Catherine Jarvis, Rosie Moore, Mary Rushe, Deborah Moppett are the 4 Ass. Heads

Denise Armstrong, Kay Harper,Peter Thomas,  are Lower School

Karen Coetzee, John Oaksford, Phil Ridgeway, Graham Hendricks, Cathy Mooney, Mike Brady, Sue James - Upper School

Sue Morley Whole School, Nad Kerry Ayers F.E.

4 Higher Level T. A.s and 41 LSAs

What is noticable is that since the departure of BT  and her henchwomen, there is a greater degree of stability of staff - I don't mean that they were less stable in the past but that we use to get an appalling % of staff turnover. Lets hope this continues.

BEHAVIOURAL DIFFICULTIES

There is a suggestion that this is the way the school is going, and may account for the extremely draconian school discipline policy. This is rather awful as Special Needs Schools are few and far between, giving parents no realistic school choice, however if they start to specialise then significant numbers of pupils end up being bussed around the county, which is a pointless waste of time