What were the Governors doing?

'...The bullying behaviour of an "autocratic" cathedral school headteacher drove her deputy out of her job, a tribunal ruled yesterday.'

'...After a five-day hearing the tribunal at Exeter ruled that Mrs Preston had been constructively dismissed from her post at the Catholic primary school. The tribunal chairman, Brian Walton, deferred the question of compensation, but said Mrs Preston was likely to receive the statutory maximum, which is £56,000...'

'...The tribunal also criticised the governors of the school, Plymouth city council and the Roman Catholic diocese for rejecting a report on the school they had commissioned from the National Bullying Helpline...'

'...Christine Pratt, founder of the National Bullying Helpline, told the tribunal she was horrified by what she found."This is the worst case I have come across because of the magnitude of incidents over a number of years, the number of people involved and, most importantly, the number of people in authority who could have and should have done something...'

'...She said 16 people had come forward to tell her they had experienced bullying by Mrs Maltbaek. She also claimed Mrs Preston was offered £8,000 in exchange for her silence...'

Complete article at: Education Guardian Online

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All I can say to the above is that it is of course hard to get justice, but it is nevertheless possible sometimes to get it. And one more interesting point: what were the Governors doing?

• Lesson Learnt: Make sure that your Governors know what is going on, and even if they choose to ignore workplace bullying, they still carry some responsibility.