The Purcell School, whose previous head Peter Crook departed under cover of darkness after allegations of sexual bullying, has announced that a new headmaster will start in September.
Although teacher Paul Elliott, who stepped into the vacancy, was loudly acclaimed as a healing force, he will step down in the summer. Whether the new head can put the school to rights without a full investigation of what went wrong is a matter for conjecture. In other words, I doubt it.
The letter to parents reads: Following an extensive search with a leading educational head-hunter, the governors have appointed Mr David Thomas to take up the post of Headmaster from September… Mr Thomas has been the Headmaster of Reigate School (and further back in his career) Director of Music at Fettes School, Edinburgh
You are right to have doubts. There is discontent and agitation still all over at the school, so we must hope that David Thomas is a magician.
He would do well to read all the strands on Norman’s blog about the school. They were written by ex-teachers, parents and pupils who really care about music education, and display a passion which should encourage change, if David Thomas is listening.
Start with what one ex Purcell student told me recently – that during the lunchtime concerts at the school some students openly sniggered and misbehaved when they thought players not as good as them were not playing well! How did that come about – were the music staff not looking?
The Purcell School does not want the situation at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where past pupils from the early days want very little to do with the school and do not come to events, reunions etc. To quote one, ‘why should I turn up to celebrate the birthday of the ex-director of music when he presided over what can only be called in retrospect child abuse’. Nigel Kennedy lifted the curtain only very slightly on those pioneering days.
I was never going to look at this site again, but I’ve seen the lastest posts. Here are just a few comments
Norman LeBrecht – please have the courage to come and visit us at the Purcell School to see the real picture before making comments.
Instrumental Teacher – I suppose you don’t mind whether or not you lose your job at the Purcell School? To keep raking up all this stuff and going over and over the problems time and time again doesn’t help anyone and if David Thomas is not supported wholeheartedly by staff and instrumental teachers, the school’s future may be in real danger, along with your job and mine. Please THINK CAREFULLY about this!
Past teacher – I agree with you. Pupil discipline and respect for others needs to be tightened up at the school.
Well, for all to see, Selina Stagg demonstrates with her attitudes just what the loving Purcell School atmosphere is all about – written about in so many pages on this blog by students, ex-students, parents, ex-parents, teachers and ex-teachers.
This naked threat of trying to get rid of, or compromise totally without regard to the law of the land an Instrumental Teacher for their opinion, constitutes the core of the bullying attitude rampant in the Music Department and absolutely one of the main reasons I left. Selina Stagg is unaware that criticism does not constitute a sackable offence in a school the UK.
How horrible, how far from teaching.
And what provoked it? This blog post from Instrumental Teacher.
‘You are right to have doubts. There is discontent and agitation still all over at the school, so we must hope that David Thomas is a magician.’
This is what Instrumental Teacher had written in the past:
These are not pointless rumours. I agree that ‘There shouldnt have to be risks of ”Anorexia, self harming, bullying and sexual abuse” in a close knit enviroment.’ I do not like to gossip about my colleagues and my pupils but there a lots of problems at the purcell school. I am an instrumental teacher at the purcell school and I have worked at the school for about a decade now. My pupils are a delight. It has not been easy working at the school. The last three years have been very difficult and my pupils have expressed unhappiness about the school. BUT they have not just been unhappy about the headmaster. There have been many other crises involving bullying, depression, alcohol in the boarding houses and their school work. I have a respect for my pupils but I know that teenagers sometimes get carried away with grievances so I take some things with a pinch of salt. Other things I don’t take with salt and when I have tried to bring my worries about my pupils to the headmaster or the deputy headmaster I have hit a brick wall. They have told me that I do not have the full picture. If I don’t have the full picture I would like to have it! There should not be secrecy. Then I can help my pupils. In a little school like the purcell school we should all be informed. This was going on before Peter Crook arrived. The other problem that I see at the purcell school is that the policies for bullying and for managing the misdemeanours of pupils are not followed. I often read the handbook for the staff and I see that what is on paper is not what happens in reality. There is blurriness about what should be done & what is done. There is no structure. I know that children and teenagers need a structure to help them with their work and their practise…..they need to have boundaries and they need repercussions for bad behaviour. Different teachers tell their classes different things. I have heard this myself. I am surprised by what some pupils have said in their comments in this conversation. They think they know everything that go on in the school but there are things they don’t know. To me, what Corinne said is bbang on the money. Also I think she has made her points well because she has avoided being abusive. I am surprised that many parents and many pupils have been abusive. It does not put you in a good light!
Parents also do not know everything that happens. They hear what the children tell them and sometimes they should also take a pinch of salt. Corinne was very helpful with my pupil who was not making progress, and helped him a lot with his practising. A pupil in her boarding house said many good thing s about her and said she was like a very fair aunt. This is good in a boarding school. She is a very professional musician and a very good person and I would like to meet her again. I agree with everything she has said here. I am impressed that she put her name on her comment. I would like to do this as well.’
With which party would you entrust one to one teaching of talented children?
Good luck David Thomas! Swat up your core teaching values and start by looking at Selina Stagg’s attitudes to her colleagues and students.
Opinions differ enormously about Corinna, Past Teacher (I know who you are, by the way, but I’m not going to blow your cover because I remember what an excellent, caring teacher you were. Also, I agree with some of your comments and I don’t want you to suffer even though you are a complete idiot to post all this stuff up for all to see!!)
No more now – I don’t want to start all this up again. Such issues should be discussed in the school between the staff and the instrumental teachers, not posted up as blog for uncaring destructive people to manipulate and for prospective parents to misinterpret.
The Purcell School, the pupils and the staff are basically a wonderful lot who need a bit of polish. Some need a kick up the backside! There is plenty for David Thomas to get his teeth into when he arrives.
If Mr Lebrecht had the guts to come and see Purcell for himself, I think he would agree. I bet he wasn’t at the wonderful Purcell 50th Anniversary concert at the RFH last week, and I bet he won’t be at the Choral Concert at St Alban’s Abbey in May. Mr Lebrecht, if I am mistaken, I apologise, but I don’t think I am. Hah!
That’s it, folks! Don’t want to waste any more time on this blog. Bye!
Ms Stagg has said goodbye to us before. Like some of her other comments, her position lacks coherence and consistency.
‘Don’t tell him your name, Pike!’
Most of the main correspondents on this Blog already know who I am. But it dosent matter.
The job has been done. There is now a full and factual account for all to read on the net, of the last few years at the Purcell School.
Just type Purcell School Blog at Google and this blog is the second entry.
This is what happens to any School which tries to stifle any discussion at all, has an unpleasant internal atmosphere and has no public accountability – it all ends up on the net as a natural outlet. Had the school had internal meetings in which it took its staff along with its decision making they would not be hiring PR firms.
Yes, Selina, these things should be discussed by the teachers at the School and the staff – but they never were, and worse, the teachers who tried to bring all the issues up were bullied. What you and I would like is called good management.
There is no need for this Blog if the School is run well. I am sure this blog will continue as long as these issues remain.
Oh dear. From what Ms Stagg writes, it appears that little has been learned at the Purcell. I don’t understand why none of the governors has resigned, and I don’t understand why the school’s paymasters at the DfE have taken no action.
More disturbing, for me, is the tendency in Ms Stagg’s comments and some others to pretend that the ends justify the means. Come and hear our wonderful performances, she says, and see if they don’t persuade you to ignore, as we do, the unresolved issues and sexual bullying and child abuse.
I went to the school for 5 years and ended up extremely mucked-up.
Very very very weird place. My year had 18 people in it. 13 of whom were foreign (I’m British).
Very very odd. Whole place is devoid of character.
The latest problem doesn’t surprise me.
I wonder what the suicide rate is amongst ex-Students. And how many totally give up music, having had their passionate spark snuffed out?