The Vahey report

The report of the UK investigation into the Vahey affair has been released and points the finger at the school's recruitment processes. Conducted by a non-educator and someone who has never been a school principal, the report reportedly states that a major failing was in not taking references prior to interview. The effect? More procedures which will require checking of boxes and shift attention away to what really went wrong at all the schools involved.

A governance mis-step

To succeed, a school must have and fill a niche, aka its "mission". At the same time, as I write elsewhere, the Board must know its role and not become inappropriately involved. The following tale shows how true this is.

Inaccurate resumes

I read today about the economics of fake degrees which reminded me of a former colleague with a fake resume. He is the head of a prestigious independent school and by all accounts is doing well. However, when I looked him up on LinkedIn, I noticed two inaccuracies. One was a gross exaggeration. The other was simply untrue.

Officially present

A common complaint from examination teachers, especially those teaching IB: students miss many of their classes due to college visits, community service, fieldwork for other subjects, music or sports trips and so on. However, these students are "present" because these are official school activities. One colleague who keeps his own attendance records tells me he has students who missed more than 60% of his classes because of such activities. Their report cards show perfect attendance.