11 Plus Exams Forum

I have learnt from a good source that the school has started redundancy processes and are looking at taking out the careers work at the school which has an excellent reputation. There are several posts involved. Parents are beginning to learn about it and the governors and head are doing it on the sly - careers work seems pretty important in this day and age and would be core in my eyes. OK so my son will be in year 7 next year but he will soon need to start being made aware of opportunities as he goes up the school. My sister works at connexions in Richmond and says that most schools are moving towards employing a full-time adviser like Tiffin does but now looks like they are going backwards - anyone heard anything ?

Was any action taken against the former Tiffin head and GB who got the school into such a mess - e.g. the inappropriate TLR payments that the audit report identified?
The senior mgt team at a Brent school have been suspended for their big bonues. Anything happened at Tiffin

The GB have gotten off scot free because two of them have "worked so hard" to rectify the situation but of course one is an investment banker and the chair of governors a senior exec so they would want to clear their name. You can see who they all are on the school website. They are making cuts as in a company only the problem is Tiffin is a school ! Parents have been asked to pay more money but nothing was said about taking out the careers department and some other support staff. Pauline Cox who has taken over will be paid a large sum by RBK for sorting out their mess in readiness for the new head. The SLT I understand are still their by none of the staff want to work with them as they are inept and named and shamed in the financial report on the school website. It will improve one day........

Jelly thank you for this update.
Given that Tiffin Girls loaned their head to the boys school shouldn't any payment for the acting head at the Boy's school go direct to the Girl's school rather than the individual?

Well, it could be that the Girls school will get money but who would do a job like this withouth some monetary reward? She is not much appreciated by Tiffin staff, parents or students. All that concerns her is the image of the school and exam results i.e that neither should be tarnished - certainly too late for the former !

From what I can gather, all the staff at Tiffin are worried about their jobs and have been told to keep quiet about redundancies. In the Special Needs department, at least one member of staff has been given 4 weeks' notice of redundancy, even though the boys supports in lessons, are still at the school and are funded through their Statements.

I am appalled that the executive head has chosen relatively low paid, but vital, support staff to get rid of, impacting on the most vulnerable boys in the school. There are so many teachers at the school with less than a full timetable, they even have time to help out in games lessons!

I've heard classes in the sixth form will be run to capacity so any new students coming in will feel very anonymous. Perhaps they will still be able to attract students though one attractive thing might have been a good careers provision which will be wiped out if it is true that they make the careers co-ordinator redundant. My neighbour's son says that the teachers are really fed up and they think that the new headteacher Hilda Clarke is behind some of the cuts as they will have discussed with her before cutting these posts.

I am reading all of these posts with great concern. I have a son in L6 at Tiffin. This is the first I have heard about redundancies. With the L6 starting to fill out the UCAS applications over the summer the Careers teacher will be paramount in September. As a parent paying over £50 per month to the school I would expect something that vital to be staying.

Partygirl - teachers are usually more help with the UCAs process than careers people

true Guest55 the teachers at my daughter's school were very helpful with university applications, helped them polish up personal statements and generally eased them through the process.

One teacher even took 3 girls to her old Oxford college in a hope that they would consider Oxbridge on their Ucas form.