Stage 3 – Kids disadvantaged!

Some weeks have passed and I’ve managed to get over the anger I felt about Michael’s behaviour and Philip not dealing with it.  I’ve been concentrating on my teaching and given up a “free” lesson every week to provide additional time to Michael’s class to help them prepare for their examinations.  The arrangement was discussed and agreed with Michael – not surprising really, since he would gain an additional “free” lesson by the arrangement, unless he was needed to cover for absent staff!  The arrangement was discussed with both Philip and the cover supervisor.  Its been operating for 6-8 weeks and the kids are getting a lot out of the arrangement. 

Last week, though, Michael refused to cover for an absent teacher during the time when he’d been released by our arrangement – an unusual situation had arisen!  He upset the cover supervisor by his rudeness to her and told her that she should tell me to send his class back to him and “tell (… use of my last name …) to do it.”  To avoid any difficulty and further upset for the cover supervisor, I did as he asked.

Both the cover supervisor and I wrote a full report of the incident and submitted it to Philip.  Some days later, Philip told me that he had resolved the difficulty and met with Michael and the cover supervisor.  He told me that he had spoken to Michael about his attitude towards the cover supervisor and me.

Today, I was waiting in my classroom for Michael’s class to arrive for their additional lesson – nobody turned up!  Later, some of the kids came to see me to ask why they weren’t allowed to come to me.  They told me they wanted to come for the extra lesson but Michael had told them they weren’t allowed to do so and they had to stay with him.  I went to see Philip to ask for an explanation and was told that Michael had refused to continue with the arrangement that we had and that Philip had agreed to end it.  I complained that there had been no discussion with me and that the kids wanted to continue with the arrangement and that they were being disadvantaged.  Philip replied that he was getting a number of complaints from other staff about Michael and he was investigating what he could do about it.  I left feeling angry that kids were being disadvantaged but assured that Philip was taking action and that things would change as a result.  

Lessons learned/What I could have done differently

• Insisted on my presence at meetings with Michael and that I be consulted about arrangements agreed with him