Saturday 25 July 2009

At Least Dick Turpin Had The Decency To Wear A Mask...

Ahhh, we all remember our first school trip to foreign climes (usually Calais, maybe Boulogne if you were lucky), don't we?

The coach trip to Dover, the delights of the quaint French shops, the extortion by the teachers...

Wait. What?
Staff from Bishop Stortford High School took €5 from each pupil's wallet or purse to put into an alcohol 'kitty' while on a trip to France.

They then bought themselves a selection of alcohol as a 'reward' for looking after the 137 Year Seven pupils.

The 11-year-old boys only realised what had happened when the 12 teachers passed bottles among themselves on the journey home and thanked them for their 'gifts'.
Well, that's probably not what Ed Balls meant when he ordered a survey into whether schools were 'meeting requirements on the moral, social, spiritual and cultural development of their pupils'...
Headteacher Andrew Goulding has now vowed to refund all of the pupils and urged parents to 'draw a line' under the episode.
Or, to translate: 'Oh, God, this is getting in the newspapers now, isn't it?'.
One mum, who did not want to be named, said that spending the money amounted to theft.

She said: 'Some families only sent their kids off with €20 to begin with, so €5 is quite a big chunk out of that.

It's not so much the amount of money as the principle - they took our children's money without their knowledge or consent, and I don't think that's right.'
You are indeed correct. It is theft, and it's not right.

Still, Mr Goulding did the right thing in taking quick acti..

Oh:
Mr Goulding had previously tried to argue that his teachers 'deserve some recognition for the fact that taking students on trips is beyond the call of duty'.
Who the hell does this guy think he is, Tony Soprano?

If they 'deserve recognition' for this, then dip into your own pocket and buy them the bloody wine yourself!

8 comments:

Rob said...

An all expenses trip abroad is beyond the call of duty? Let's celebrate teachers, who battle against terrible odds to doa job they love, eh?

If it wasn't for the fact that their children would be persecuted for the remaining time they spent at the school, parents should bring a prosecution for theft.

James Higham said...

I used to run ski trips and vow we didn't rake off the cash for that, which is not to say we didn't have a good time.

Julia, where do you come up with this material?

Oldrightie said...

In oldrightie's day they would have been jailed. There again it would never have happened, teachers were respected and in the main. lived up to that standing. Now they are the illiterate arm of The Labour Gestapo.

Fausty said...

In Fausty's day, teachers were responsible and 'grown up'. After working in a secondary school for a few years, my opinion of teachers hit the floor - they're like overgrown children.

David Gillies said...

There's this persistent myth that teachers in the UK State system are hard-done-by drudges who break their backs for miserly wages. Not so. The buggers are handsomely remunerated, and at anything below A-level could be profitably replaced by an orang-utan. One of the main reasons why, if you can afford the twenty thousand quid a year it costs to send your child to a top-flight public school, he or she will exit being able to read and write is that the staff are run up and down the joint like coolies. The cost is steep, but it stops your kids from turning out like Benny from Crossroads, or Richard Murphy, the modern-day equivalent.

JuliaM said...

"Let's celebrate teachers, who battle against terrible odds to doa job they love, eh?"

Even better - they are just on 6 weeks leave! Grrr..

"Julia, where do you come up with this material?"

Gawd bless the 'Daily Fail'... ;)

"Now they are the illiterate arm of The Labour Gestapo."

Increasingly, that seems to be becoming the norm, as the good ones (like Frank Chalk and Miss Snuffalupagus) are driven out by the maddening pettifogging riles and the ability of their comrades to get away with this sort of thing.

JuliaM said...

"After working in a secondary school for a few years, my opinion of teachers hit the floor - they're like overgrown children."

Increasingly, that seems to be the case for a lot ofd so-called 'adults'.

Was reading a US blog, and one of the commenters noted that a lot of the progressive crowd were like the overbred lapdogs so common nowadays: wanting to be loved by everyone, possessing none of their wolf ancestor's skills, believing they are owed a meal and crying if they didn't get one, and if admonished or confronted, prone to crapping on the rug.

"The cost is steep, but it stops your kids from turning out like Benny from Crossroads, or Richard Murphy, the modern-day equivalent."

Heh! Yes, I've been reading his pronouncements over at Tim Worstall's site. He's rapidly descending into a parody. He can't possibly be for real.

Can he?

blueknight said...

Here in the UK, it would be theft. (Dishonestly appropriating property belonging to another with the intention of permanantly depriving the other of it.) Interestingly, the venue of the crime appears to be France? If it had been reported out there things may have got a bit difficult, - pour les voleurs.