Claims of a bullying culture at an Angus secondary school are to be the subject of an official probe.
The guarantee of an investigation at Monifieth High School has been given after The Courier revealed a catalogue of allegations against senior management, with some accused of a long-standing campaign of intimidation against colleagues involving verbal harassment and threats of violence.
The situation is alleged to have plunged the establishment’s English department into crisis but an MSP has now been given a top-level pledge that the Monifieth situation will be fully investigated.
Angus South MSP Graeme Dey confirmed he had raised the issue with the leadership of the authority after learning of the claims.
”I have been assured, as with any allegations of this nature, that they will be properly investigated,” said Mr Dey. ”I also have an assurance that the council will seek to release requested information in relation to matters such as absenteeism levels.”
After we revealed details of the allegations on Monday, a parent of one former pupil contacted us to say it was ”no surprise” to learn of the claims after issues with members of the school’s senior management.
”There are senior teachers who have an extremely bad reputation and issues that the school would be well aware of, and yet the school and the council seem unwilling to address those,” said the parent.
”It was absolutely no surprise this situation has arisen and what has been said has, I feel, totally vindicated my decision to withdraw my child from the school.
”There has been a culture allowed to ferment among certain members of staff who are basically ruling the roost, without any input from the junior teachers who are in daily contact with the children.
”I know other parents complained not just isolated cases and they felt they were met with the same response.
”It’s a culture of cover-up among a small minority of senior staff but when matters are dealt with in this fashion it is not acceptable and a terrible situation for the pupils.”
North East Scotland MSP Jenny Marra described the claims as ”concerning”, adding: “Angus Council should be looking at these claims as soon as possible to see if there’s anything that needs to be done to support the staff and management.
”A meeting with management and the unions may help to bring clarity over the situation and tackle any problems that do exist as quickly as possible.”
Angus Council made no further comment on the situation.
School one of region’s best performersMonifieth High has been one of the top-performing secondary schools in Angus in recent years, writes Grant Smith, education reporter.
Exam data shows its pupils have easily beaten the local authority and Scottish averages for exam passes, although it has seen a falling off in performance at Standard Grade.
Results for individual subjects are not available from Scottish Schools Online, the official source of exam results.
The published figures show that 47% of fourth-year pupils at Monifieth High passed five or more Standard Grades at credit level in 2010-11, the most recent year for which data is available.
That was down 3% on the previous year and 6% lower than the year before that, but compared well to the 33% average for Angus schools and the 36% national average.
And 33% of the school’s sixth-year pupils passed at least five Highers in 2010-11.
That was down 6% on the previous year but 4% higher than in 2008-09.
The Angus average for 2010-11 was 22% and the national average was 24%.
Monifieth High also did well at keeping its pupils.
Some 63% of the S4 roll from two years previously stayed on into sixth year in 2010-11.
That was 16% better than the Angus average.
Data on exam passes for 2011-12 will be released by Scottish Schools Online this month.