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College bosses suspended in ‘bullying’ probe

The principal and deputy of Cardinal Newman College in Preston have been suspended amidst allegations of bullying. The row centres around unfair redundancy selection procedures, but the case against the management team is worsened by ongoing individual complaints of bullying.


Typically, Ofsted described the leadership and management as outstanding and inspirational in the college's last inspection. Why is it always the outstanding colleges and schools that have the highest incidents of bullying and other incompetencies in senior managers? Why are the inspection results so backwards like that?

There are many many comments at the bottom of this article, including several from a user called 'TeacherAtCardinal' which make for very interesting reading, so I suggest you take a look.

A lot of schools and colleges are going to be making redundancies soon, so I am wondering if this will bring to light a lot of the unfair procedures in other educational establishments too? Will the cuts and job losses end up exposing the bullying managers enough so that something can be done about them?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The comments at the bottom of the article have now been removed after calls for a public enquiry were made. The allegations made in the blogs were about; staff being paid to leave the College & keep quiet, misappropriation of College funds, bullying and harassment claims from both staff and pupils, a teacher who allegedly had sex with, and groomed, female students and staff being unfairly sacked – some within one year of them being employed at this College (therefore you have virtually no or few rights of appeal). According to the local wrag at least 50 staff members have now made official complaints about the management culture at Cardinal Newman College, which has led to the suspension of college principal Steve Pegg and his deputy Lynne Caddick. The Chair of Governors David Livesey (this creep has been involved in all sorts of things - see posts all over the internet)is trying to keep everything under wraps. He allegedly appears to be a big fan of the Senior Management Team (but then he'd need to be because these allegations will stretch far and wide) and says an investigation is underway. But today teaching union NASUWT union expressed concern the probe might be carried out by People Asset Management - the same company brought in to oversee the redundancy process. Union chiefs are now demanding a completely independent body is called in to carry out the investigation. Members have been balloted for strike action.

The Edudicator said...

Interesting stuff, thanks for commenting!

I think the article states they are bizarrely using an internal procedure to carry out the independent inquiry, that must be the People Asset Management that you mention.

Do you mean all those allegations you mention come from speculation on that website, or they are the actual allegations made?

There was talk in the comments that the allegations were all down to the unfair redundancy procedure and that the individual bullying claims were a separate issue.

The Edudicator said...

Just took a peek, and you're right, all the comments have been removed from that article.

Anonymous said...

Evening. Bullying and harrassment allegations include issues other than just redundancy. Rumour has it that some teachers are related to Governors so its all rather unsavoury. The papers keep rabbiting on about the college having little money which is supposed to be the reason why they are trying to make people redundant....but is that really the case? Lets hope the public enquiry gets underway soon so they can have a good look at the books, but one things for sure the Union is starting to get its act together and this time it looks like they are not backing down.

The Edudicator said...

Yes, I see how redundancy can be linked to bullying and is in this case. Very interesting!

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