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Jay Henderson |
SACKED HEAD: MY REGRETS... AND MY ANGER
Consumed by stressful job, he became addicted to sleeping pills
CRUSHED by the pressures of his job, Canonbury Primary headteacher Jay Henderson became addicted to sleeping pills and worked 80-hour weeks before he was sacked in May.
This week, Mr Henderson, who is appealing against the decision to fire him for gross misconduct, has spoken exclusively to the Tribune about the demands on headteachers and how, in his mother’s words, Canonbury “consumed him”. He said: “I regret what has happened terribly. I worked so hard for Canonbury... and I saw a school grow from a mess to success... Although I have regret, I am also angry about what has happened.
“I am angry no one ever said ‘go home’ to me. I am angry governors appeared to drop me and to try to reduce my work to nothing and I am angry that the reasons I was employed by Canonbury – to be innovative, forward thinking and work in a different way – has been ripped apart... Imagine going from something that is your life to losing it overnight.”
The events at Canonbury, where it was discovered staff files were incomplete, prompted a full investigation into safe recruiting in Islington’s schools.
And this week, the Town Hall leadership touted a new “action plan”, promising to shake up the way recruitment is done, ordering criminal record checks and more training for governors and announcing spot checks on all schools.
But one governor has described the plan as acting after “the horse has bolted”, claiming some of the new measures could scare away governors.
Canonbury has been under scrutiny since Mr Henderson’s suspension in September last year for “gross misconduct”.
A second teacher was sacked on the spot after it was discovered he was under police investigation and 12 governors resigned, claiming they were being scapegoated for the school’s problems.
Closer examination of Canonbury’s records showed some staff files, which should have included references, were incomplete.
Islington Council and Cambridge Education (CE), the private company paid £11million last year to run the borough’s schools, were aware the files were incomplete as far back as 2006. They told the school to update its records but failed to check thoroughly that this was done.
Independent investigator Janet Mokades was ordered to conduct a full inquiry into the safe recruitment of teachers in Islington’s schools, published two weeks ago.
The Town Hall’s response, a draft action plan, demands all schools sign up to a new “framework”, giving the council more power to intervene if schools do not live up to expectations.
Town Hall Lib Dem leader Councillor Terry Stacy told an overview committee meeting on Monday: “I will take personal responsibility for the delivery of this action plan. I’m willing to be held to account on this.”
Director of children’s services Eleanor Schooling, who has been seconded to the council from CE, said: “I want to emphasise that the responsibility of monitoring recruiting is moving very clearly to the council.”
Labour group leader Councillor Catherine West said: “This is a bureaucratic response to a problem. This is not just a bureaucratic problem but also a problem of leadership.”
Labour’s shadow education spokesman Councillor Richard Watts said the council had not gone far enough in determining how recruitment failings took place in the first place, adding: “If now’s not the opportunity to discuss what went wrong, I’d like to know when is. I’m concerned about some of the monitoring. If there was a problem tomorrow, would it come to elected members so they could ask appropriate questions?”
But one governor, who asked not to be named, described the action plan as “acting after the horse has bolted”.
She added: “If the council really wants to take responsibility, they should take the running of the schools back from private company CE. They could run it themselves and that would mean more money for education.
“It’s a typical overreaction to one set of circumstances. Of course, governors need to be trained. The post of governor is responsible anyway. No one takes it lightly, we’re inundated with work. It ought to be something public-spirited members of the community would be prepared to do.
“If you make it too onerous or tie us up with red tape people won’t be prepared to do it.” |
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