item-09.-bolton-college.-initial-blanking-and-bullying.-12.09.09

Phillip Vere
96 Withins Lane
Bolton
Lancashire
BL2 5JF

The Principal
Bolton College
Manchester Road
Bolton
BL2 1ER BTEC NAT. CERT. ART & DESIGN (19+) 2009-2010

12 September 2009

Dear Ms Bannerman

I hope and trust that by now you have read my e-mail regarding staff bullying. I
look forward to hearing of any disciplinary action taken. In view of my
extremely unpleasant experiences of Pat Fleming and Dolores Logan I have been
trying to make sense of their behaviour. Leaving aside the possibility that staff
have been appointed who are temperamentally unsuited to the job, there is
another possibility: that staff in this department are “working to rule”. This
hypothesis is prompted by the fact that, in both encounters, when I approached
the members of staff outside of teaching-session time, I was totally “blanked.”

This extremely upsetting phenomenon can be seen in a context where Schemes of
Work have not been generated, class-work is left unmarked, and tutors are not
maintaining a system for the storage and retrieval of students’ work. (Work
handed in by myself is missing; during her “blanking” exercise Dolores Logan
refused to answer my query about the system for retrieving work.) All of these
necessary components require an input outside of teaching time. If staff are in
fact “working to rule” then it is a matter of public concern. If this is not the case,
then the issue becomes a matter of staff competence, in which case the deficiency
should be recorded for the benefit of any future inspection. I am asking you
therefore to give me a written account of the situation at Bolton College.

Yours sincerely





Copy to: Gill Woodcock, Head of Arts, Access, Education and Languages

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