Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The struck-off teacher tells her side of the story


In December 2008 the General Teaching Council for Scotland ruled that Susan Bernard cannot work as a teacher anymore in the United Kingdom. The reason for this is that she is incompetent as a teacher, according to the GTCS. She was accused of treating pupils in a wrong way, being a bad colleague and bringing the children in danger. Susan reacts to this by saying that she was bullied by her fellow teachers, because she is a middle aged woman and not Scottish. According to Susan this was the cause of what went wrong in the classroom. She also denies bringing the children in danger, damaging their education and other allegations in that order that were made against her.

Reaction

After reading this article I started to sympathize with Susan Bernard. I believe that she was bullied and that some of the allegations against her were untrue or exaggerated. At every school and in every group of people there is an underdog and sometimes that gets out of hand. Maybe in Susan`s case she had a part in it as well, because she has had this problem at different schools. The reason for this could be that she is just not cut out to be a teacher. I hope that she finds another job soon and that she can move on with her life.

3 comments:

  1. What can possibly have happened that it has come to this? My first reaction was: I want to know more about what happened, especially about the allegation about her damaging the children and bringing them in danger. The GTCS must have thoroughly investigated this matter before coming to this drastic decision.

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  2. I agree with Eveline. What can possibly have happened? It seems to be a very complex story but they don't tell all the facts. If a teacher is suicidal, she doesn't have to be a threat to the pupils. She must have made some serious mistakes if the Teaching Council for Scotland decided she should not be allowed to teach anymore.

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  3. Hi Nicky - the blog looks good, everything as it should be. I will therefore only comment on the writing, choosing two posts at random. My comments/corrections are in [brackets]. As you can see, it's only a few minor things. Good work.

    In December 2008 the General Teaching Council for Scotland ruled that Susan Bernard [will no longer be allowed to] work as a teacher [-] in the United Kingdom. The reason for this is that she is incompetent as a teacher, according to the GTCS. She was accused of treating pupils [wrongly], being a bad colleague and [putt]ing the children in danger. Susan [has reacted] to this by saying that she was bullied by her fellow teachers, because she is a middle aged woman and not Scottish. According to Susan this was the cause of what went wrong in the classroom. She also denies [putting] the children in danger, damaging their education and other allegations [of that kind] that were made against her.

    Reaction

    After reading this article I started to sympathize with Susan Bernard. I believe that she was bullied and that some of the allegations against her were untrue or exaggerated. At every school and in every group of people there is an underdog and sometimes that gets out of hand. Maybe in Susan`s case she had a part in it as well, because she has had this problem at different schools. The reason for this could be that she is just not cut out to be a teacher. I hope that she finds another job soon and that she can move on with her life.

    ReplyDelete