Union’s fears over parent power in private schools

Mar 19 2008 by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail

PARENTS are pressurising schools to sack teachers over disputes regarding their children, it emerged yesterday.

A conference heard that headteachers at fee-paying schools across the UK are “very sensitive” to complaints from parents who often pay fees of £20,000 per year.

John Richardson, national officer for independent schools at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers told the union’s annual conference in Torquay that many teachers in the private sector were not given basic employment rights.

“There is a certain amount of pressure which comes from parents who have very high expectations for exam results given that they have paid,” he said.

If a parent paying annual fees of £20,000 decides to withdraw their child because they are unhappy with a teacher, schools make “business” decisions to cut their losses, he told delegates.

Some elite schools can afford to throw money at problems, sack teachers and pay them off, he claimed.

In one case, a teacher was called into the head’s office because parents had complained that their child had only scored 90% in an exam when they were expecting 95%.

The union has 20,000 members in private schools – about a third of all teachers in the sector – and estimates that about 15% do not have written contracts.

Dr Philip Dixon, director of ATL Cymru, said his organisation had defended one member accused of not getting good enough exam grades.

Another member, accused by a parent of using inappropriate material in an English language lesson, also risked losing his job until the ATL stepped in.

He said, “One case was over projected exam grades. We had to fight for our member to keep their job because the parents wanted to blame the member because their child was not going to get the exam grades they thought they should.”

The pattern of ever more demanding parents, already highlighted by teachers in maintained schools in Wales, seems to be reflected in the fee-paying sector.

Dr Dixon said a majority of Wales’s 48 fee paying schools were “very good employers” but a small minority had “management issues”.

Only 2% of Wales’ school pupils attend independent schools compared to 10% in England.

Dr Dixon and the National Union of Teachers Cymru said independent schools were bound by the same employment laws as maintained schools and teachers could not be summarily sacked.

Rhys Williams, campaigns officer at NUT Cymru, said his union had found independent schools to be good employers, in the main.

And the issue was yesterday described as “utter rubbish” by the head of one of Wales’ leading private schools.

Peter Hogan, head of Llandovery College, Carmarthen, which charges up to £18,000 a year, said independent schools would not bow to unreasonable parents.

Mr Hogan, a member of the Welsh Independent Schools Council and member of the Headmaster and Headmistresses Conference, which represents the UK’s top 250 private boys and co-educational private schools, said, “It is rubbish to say this.

“It’s misunderstanding the fee-paying parents’ relationship. This is not someone sitting at a restaurant sending the wine back.

“Parents are concerned, like parents from any school, but if a parent says ‘get rid of the teacher or I’ll take my child away’ then any half decent school would say, ‘take your child away’.”

“There are parents who complain but there are employment laws.

“We have policies to protect staff and pupils.”

But Mr Richardson told the conference that with many independent school staff living on site, they can lose their homes as well as their livelihoods if they are sacked.

The ATL is calling on ministers to introduce a new test of “fitness” to run a school to stop unscrupulous employers taking over private schools for their own business purposes.

Teachers at independent schools in Wales are subject to the General Teaching Council for Wales which maintains standards.

The schools themselves are inspected by education watchdog Estyn.