School strike: Lessons in public relations.
I covered a strike at a school in Denton today.
The story is http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1213934526/bctid1554446650
Anyway, I wanted to put the school's side of things. The staff there seemed to believe, wrongly, that it's in the best interests of the school to thwart journalism, so they didn't talk.
Instead, they issued a statement. Or rather something that was little more than an advertisement for the school. Of course it didn't address many of the issues raised by the pupils. Nor did it answer some of the questions I - and the viewers - would have liked to have answered.
The pupils and some parents I spoke to believed that pupils had been suspended.
This is something about which I wanted to talk to a member of staff.
Of course, I rang the press office at Tameside Council to try to clarify the matter. Eventually, someone there found out and told me when I rang back for the fourth time.
They said that none of the students had been suspended. And that further talks were going to be held. She couldn't tell me what that meant. What talks? What frame of reference?
If the headteacher or a member of staff had talked, we could have cleared that sort of thing up in a trice.
Council tax payers fund people in town halls to act as a barrier/bridge between public employees and journalists.
We often have to go through local government workers to ask questions rather than speaking to the people involved directly. It's like shouting across a river to people in a foreign language and trying to work out what the truth is.
Of course, headteachers can choose to talk to us directly. It's not against the law or anything. Indeed, just see how Philip Harte, the head of St George's RC High in Salford, behaves.
He's at loggerheads with the local authority over plans to shut his school and he talks directly and with vigour to us and other media outlets.
There's no room for ambiguity or misunderstanding there.
But at Two Trees and Tameside Council today, there was plenty. And, more than that, it cost council tax payers money to create it.
Here's the statement from the school:
"Two Trees Sports College works extremely hard to ensure that its students have every opportunity to achieve and be successful. Our arrangements for Year 11 follow DCFS (Department of Children, Families and Schools) and Tameside LA (local authority) guidance, in that study leave should be avoided at all costs.
"The school is well organised over the coming weeks to support and help Year 11 students prepare for their GCSE exams.
"This is one of the reasons why Two Trees has rapidly improved over recent years, being recognised as one of the top 100 most-improved schools in England in 2007.
"We are very pleased that the vast majority of our students and parents are supporting us in our efforts to continue high standards at Two Trees."
Useful, eh?
STOP PRESS: JUST HAD A CALL FROM A PARENT. HER DAUGHTER HAS BEEN SUSPENDED TILL MONDAY WHEN SHE HAS AN EXAM. THE SCHOOL TEXTED HER MUM TO SAY SO.