'Staff are very disappointed but I think they will be professional'
EDENSOR Technology College headteacher Richard Mercer faced the national media after scrapping his school's training trip to Marbella.
Here he tells
Sentinel
reporter Katie Cooksey, who broke the exclusive story on Wednesday, why he had cancelled the trip.
Mr Mercer, pictured, said: "We have cancelled the trip because of the intense media interest, which would have put our staff under such undue stress that the training would have ended up not being as successful as we would have liked.
"The training is now taking place in school.
"It is good for staff morale to move outside the school building. It helps them with team building and camaraderie. The idea is to produce materials for the youngsters and look at the curriculum.
"I am now negotiating with the agent to ensure some money, if not all, returns to the school.
"The money comes out of our annual budget for training.
"I understand people are upset and concerned, particularly in the current economic climate, but things were different when we planned and booked the trip.
"The decision to cancel the trip has been taken with the chairman of governors, who has always been supportive.
"I understand the comments of MPs about the decision but we work closely with the local authority. We have been thinking about cancelling for a few days. I understand the media concern and it seemed unwise to go. We told staff on Thursday morning; the decision was made earlier that morning."
He added: "Staff are very disappointed, clearly they were looking forward to producing high quality materials we could use when we came back. Working within the school environment is more difficult but I think staff will be professional and will produce even better results."
Comments
by Helen, Longton
Friday, October 03 2008, 4:02PM
“I blame Richard Mercer & ETC governing body for this farce and even daring to consider Spain as an option for staff training.
I have been led to believe that this has occurred for around 6 years, unbelievable!!
What I also find unbelievable is that Mercer is quoted as saying "Staff are very disappointed, clearly they were looking forward to producing high quality materials we could use when we came back. Working within the school environment is more difficult but I think staff will be professional and will produce even better results."
If he thinks the staff, whom I'm sure are professional people, will produce better results from completing the training within the school building, why on earth did he ever consider Spain to produce high quality materials from his staff, when he's just said they will produce better now they are staying within ETC!!!!!
This to me proves that the governing body of ETC is under the thumb of Mercer and they have no control over his decisions at all, absolutely disgraceful. I am a school governor and this would never have been even considered by our Headteacher, she has the students education at the top of her agenda not a 'jolly' for team building.
There are some professional and trustworthy Heads in the city and these are the people we want in control not the ones who squander tax payers money.”