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‘Imagine losing something that was your life overnight... it was horrible’
A sacked head reveals how the 80-hour weeks devoted to his school ended disastrously
• FIVE years ago Jay Henderson was crowned Headteacher of the Year. But this year the 35-year-old head of Canonbury Primary School – where politicians Boris Johnson and Lord Adonis sent their children – was sacked for gross misconduct, 12 governors resigned and a teacher was marched off the premises after it was revealed he was under police investigation.
Subsequent inquiries brought claims that the school’s recruitment records were incomplete, with no documentary evidence of criminal record, identity or qualification checks on some teachers. It emerged that Islington Council and Cambridge Education (CE) – the private company which runs schools – had been made aware of failings in the school’s recruitment system in a People Board report in 2006.
Below, Mr Henderson, who is appealing against his sacking, explains publicly for the first time how the pressures of the job drove him to a sleeping pill addiction and answers some of the accusations against him.
WHEN I joined Canonbury School in 2005 I inherited a school in a total mess. The school had managed to shed headteachers at an impressive rate. The budget was in freefall, there was a huge deficit and teaching and support staff were really miserable. They had had years of not being allowed to go on courses, no training and their relationship with school governors was really poor.
That was how my life was taken over by Canonbury. I decided from the start to make sure I did not fail. I made it my business to make myself available at all times to everyone, without regard to my own personal wellbeing. I remember clearly the end of my first term at Canonbury. I was just so tired, working 80 hours a week with no time to rest or relax.
Within a year I had addicted myself to sleeping tablets. It was the only way I could get any rest. The job seemed endless and I was spending more and more time working.
As the years went by at Canonbury many of the original stresses remained but I thought I could deal with them okay. The most important thing to me was the team, for if they were happy then the kids would be happy too. It was great to feel the school finally moving away from the past and looking into the future stronger and better.
My work was my life. That was why I ended up changing my office into a more comfortable area. When I was investigated as part of my suspension, I found it almost heart-warming that the investigator called my space “Jay’s flat”. Not many heads had a kitchen, living room, shower and wardrobe at school.
When I joined Canonbury we were leaking children in dramatic numbers. There were only 414 children on roll. This was nearly 455 when I left. For three years in a row we were one of the most popular choices of school in the borough. I was so proud.
After a couple of years I was able to start looking at just about every aspect of the school. One area I had had huge concerns about was the human resources provided by the local authority. As head, I went through every file when I started and was just so shocked. There was nothing in many of them and many staff had no form of check. It was not the office team’s fault – they were swamped trying to manage due to headteachers coming and going. Very few teachers had a contract. I had to write off thousands of pounds where pay had not been corrected. I was not going to try to claim it back and upset the teachers any more than they had been. Very few had a police background check. There was no central source in the school for the information.
I worked closely with governors to look at new providers of services and we chose Strictly Education for many services that had been provided by the local authority and they set about helping me improve the systems. Their services were about £18,000 cheaper than the local authority and a million times better.
Regarding the infamous [People Board] report that governors did not “see”, not one of the governors asked me, even through my union representative when I was suspended, if a report had been done. There simply was no formal report. I shared every bit of information with governors that ever came through to me in one form or another – in fact they asked me to send less.
It comes as no surprise that Canonbury is back having services provided by the local authority. It was clearly always a question of them [CE, the private firm which runs Islington schools] wanting to safeguard their profits, not safeguard children.
Since being suspended and ultimately losing my job I have been through every emotion possible. It has been the hardest thing I have ever had to go through. I managed to see glimpses of Canonbury during that time and that made it very hard indeed. Imagine going from something that is your life to losing it overnight… it was horrible. It made it harder for me not being able to see anyone from school as so many of the team were friends.
I have had time to speak with friends and family over the past few months about my work and life balance. There were times I felt utterly exhausted and should have tried to switch off, but I couldn’t. When my nephew died I took a morning off for the funeral and then rushed back to work. When my aunt died in September I took a day off to get to Scotland and then flew back straight away. I had not seen my parents for a year as I was too busy.
The school was running brilliantly, but I was, in hindsight, running on empty. It was this that led me to crossing this invisible boundary between home and school.
Much has been written in the press about “no references, no advertisement” [in regard to hiring staff] but many heads I have spoken to would not advertise for someone to run a club. Clubs are usually run by people or parents we know. All club staff did have police checks though and many of them were our teachers.
The interview process at Canonbury became more and more robust over the four years I was in post. When I joined there was little evidence of interviews taking place, yet we moved quickly to panels of staff interviewing with governors present. We would always at the very least seek phone references if not written ones, which the rules allowed.
To say we would allow people to work in school without checks is not fair. It is a smear on the staff in the school that perform the checks. It was easier for the authority to blame me and say there was nothing in the files, instead of admitting the job it should have been doing was not being done and that I had put in place checks for people that had never been done before. Ofsted recognised this in 2006.
The local authority should be held accountable for its failings in human resources, undoubtedly at Canonbury and also at other schools. If it had established better support and better patterns of working before I joined the school, then my team and me would not have been blamed for its failings. We would not have been forced to seek outside support from another private contractor.
They [CE] were consumed with getting as much profit from us as a school as possible. We could not call them for advice without being charged. They made a barrier which in turn ensured we would not get appropriate advice and support. My team in the school office worked incredibly hard to bring information about staff up to date without support from the local authority. It is wrong that private contractors provide better support than the local authority and this is a critical issue I hope they will address.
The real fault here lies with a system that allows those under investigation to carry on working. Headteachers rely so much on these checks but there is little point in them if those under investigation can continue working.
The press interest in the report about my suspension was a huge shock. I had been promised confidentiality by the authority. I was unable to leave my apartment because the press were camped on the doorstep. This was not really about me, but about Boris Johnson and I was sad for me and my family that this happened.
I regret what has happened terribly. I worked so hard for Canonbury, harder than I have ever worked, and I saw a school grow from a mess to success.
The staff team are one of the best I have ever worked with. I have some friends for life at Canonbury and I don’t intend to walk away from them as others did to me.
Although I have regret, I am also angry about what has happened. I am angry that no one ever said “go home” to me.
I am angry that governors appeared to drop me and 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 – have been ripped apart.
I am also angry that the authority leaked the report which made my private life public. I don’t think I deserved that.
When I read the latest issue of Canonbury Digest I was pleased to see so much of me still in school. Just look at how many of the things in the Digest were started by me. I am still there and, regardless of how quickly they try to move Canonbury back to being a normal dull school, too much of what we did that was brilliant will live on.
Being a headteacher was one of the best jobs in the world for so many reasons, but it is one of the most unforgiving. If a child does something wrong you help them recognise what they have done wrong and support them not to make mistakes again. It is a shame the same does not apply for adults. No headteacher deserved to be treated as I have.
As a school leader you make choices and I made an unfortunate one… because I have been exhausted for such a long time and spending my time thinking always about others.
I realise now that being a head is not about being a true leader. Leaders make mistakes. Headteachers cannot and if you try to do things differently, then there is always someone ready to shoot you down for their own needs and to secure their own futures...
I think of Canonbury every day as it was such an enormous part of my life and I regret that I was not able to say goodbye to everyone. I miss my team of talented staff a great deal. They have had to cope with so much. I think they are all wonderful.
I want to finish with a quote from my Mum. When I last saw her (because I have seen my family a lot recently and made up for lost time) we were talking about the future. She said to me: “Son, the only thing we want from this is our son back. Canonbury consumed you and you forgot who you were.” I have made a promise to my Mum to remember this and whatever I do in the future will be done differently.
I look to the future… I hope it’s a good one. |
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