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| Head attacks secret filming
in classroom |
‘Betrayal of trust’ by
reporter who worked as teacher
PLANS to “expose” life in two Islington secondary
schools in a television documentary brought an angry reaction from
a headteacher and a teachers’ union this week.
Secret cameras were used to film at St Aloysius RC College in Archway
and Highbury Grove School for a Channel 4 Dispatches film to be
shown at 9pm next Thursday, July 7. Filming was also done at a school
elsewhere in London and one in Leeds,
For six months, reporter Alex Dolan, a qualified science teacher
with two years’ experience, went undercover as a supply teacher
in the secondary schools.
A spokesman for Channel 4 said: “She secretly filmed in the
schools featured and her evidence reveals widespread, disruptive
and anti-social behaviour in classrooms, disregard for teachers’
authority and the tricks of the teaching trade when the inspectors
come to visit.”
St Aloysius headteacher Tom Mannion described the programme as a
“brutal betrayal” of trust.
He added: “We welcome constructive comments and the opportunity
to make further improvements in our school.
“Unfortunately, selected video footage shot in covert conditions
cannot help this process. It’s a betrayal of trust, which misrepresents
and undermines a rapidly improving school.
“We do not accept that a journalist who is engaged in undercover
filming is in a position to manage and teach effectively, which
is what the undercover journalist in this case was contracted to
do.”
A spokeswoman for CEA@Islington, the firm responsible for the borough’s
schools, said: “The legal position is being looked at. We are
seeking assurances that children’s identities are being properly
disguised.
“But they have refused to show us what they have filmed.”
A spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers said: “I can
understand undercover reporters exposing criminality, racism or
cruelty. But it is entirely wrong to use such methods in schools.
They claim the children won’t be identified but the schools
will be.” |
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