Michael B Mavor

Michael Mavor RIP

Recently, the death of Michael Mavor was reported in the national press.  As the ex-headmaster of Gordonstoun (1979 – 1990) in Scotland, Rugby School (1990 – 2001) in Warwickshire and Loretto School (2001 – 2008) near Edinburgh, he achieved great heights in his career.

But how many of his ex-colleagues at Rugby School will remember the rumours which went around the school of his alleged controversial and illicit affair with his vivacious female deputy head, a certain Claire Moreland?  Rumours of an affair which allegedly brought the school to its knees – in the well-screened background, of course.

And what about the untimely suicide of one of his housemasters, Ron Reeve-Johnson – in Tudor House – which some of Michael Mavor’s ex-colleagues at Rugby School would partly blame him for?  Think of the sadness such a suicide would cause in a school.  Or would it?  Apparently, on the day of the housemaster’s funeral, insiders say the school functioned as usual – as if nothing had happened at all!

Apparently, insiders at Rugby School also talk about the rumours which reported that Michael Mavor was asked to leave Rugby School because of this alleged affair.  It would seem the right thing to ask him to do, especially if staff relationships had plummetted to rock bottom because of the affair.  And then it was cited in the national press that he was going to Loretto School for a new challenge.  Was this a well-disguised smoke screen?

Mayhem at Rugby School in the 1990s?

And what of the deputy head he was alleged to have had an affair with?  Well, rumour has it that she too was allegedly asked to leave the school.  And she managed to find herself a headship at a top music school in the north of England, leaving her husband and disabled son behind in Rugby.  Her husband later remarried but the whole affair was always hushed up at Rugby School because people were afraid for their jobs.  It must have been a very difficult and dangerous time.   Thereafter, no one dared breathe a word of it within earshot of the ones who were known to run to the senior management to tell tales on their colleagues!

Yes, this man certainly did leave a legacy behind him at Rugby School.

Just ask those who worked there during his time as headmaster – and thereafter.

May God have mercy on his soul.

Toffs

'I say, Rupert.... Hold your chin up and put your hands in your pockets, old boy. We're having our photo taken to show those scruffy commoners how to dress properly.'

If you have never experienced an English public school, then you will never be able to grasp how much this photograph (taken from the recent TV programme on Boris Johnson and David Cameron’s time at Eton College and Oxford University) reflects the arrogance and privilege of young public school toffs.

But butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths, you might say!

I would say in reply: ‘Don’t be fooled!’

These toffs have been drilled to be quite the charmer with anyone they meet, especially when dolled up in their expensive suits and with a bottle of bubbly in their hands – right from their school days.

But, when push comes to shove, that is, when they want their way, they will use any dirty means to get it – lies, embroilments, back-stabbing, stamping on people, incorrectly reporting back incidents to housemasters or parents when at school…….the list goes on.

And what is worse, these toffs will remain like this throughout their lives as leopards never change their spots.

One might therefore agree that Gordon Brown is right to target the Tory Party as a party of ‘toffs’  in today’s national newspapers. After all, the House of Commons and the House of Lords is littered with them – and that does not include the rest of the English Establishment.

So, where does this selfish, two-faced, Machiavellian outlook on life come from?

Why, from the toffs’ rich mothers and fathers, of course! Remember – like begets like!

Just pity the teachers who had to teach them.

Eton College

'I say, Rupert. Just love the flowers. Did mumsy trim them for you?'

What’s this I read in The Daily Mail?

The toffs at Eton College are willing to share their boating lake and sports’ facilities with the common lads from the local scruffy comprehensive school?

And – according to their headmaster – they are quite happy to be involved with other schools, too.  As if they have been thinking about it!  And for a long while!  After all, mutual links between independent and state schools are not new – and it is 2009, after all!

Wow!  So what’s going on at Eton College?  Do I detect a warm wind a-blowing through them fausty old schoolrooms?

Or is there something more sinister behind this seemingly wonderful act of benevolence?

So, is this sharing being done out of the goodness of their rich little hearts?

Or is it because the Charity Commission is after their rich little …..?

A Charity Commission who would not hesitate to remove the charitable status of any independent school who dares not to engage positively with the community around them.

So what would it mean to independent schools if they did lose their charitable status, you might innocently ask?

Well, the schools would have to pay more tax, that’s what!  Something they don’t do as much as you think because they are all charities – you know, like Oxfam, Mencap, Mind……except without the good works for the benefit of mankind! You get the message – a charity in name only……but with all the tax benefits.                                                                                                    

So some charity these schools then, you might exclaim!  Greedy, eh?

Yes, I would cry!

And who would benefit from all of this charitable status?

Well, there’s only one answer, isn’t there?  It’s the monied, priviledged middle class of this country, the ones who send their Ruperts and Hermiones to posh schools and who want to ensure that these schools continue to thrive for centuries and generations to come.

After all, like begets like.

Until the financial cord is cut.

Paedophile Teachers

It’s been known for a long while that it can take the authorities in the UK several years to ban teachers who are paedophiles, for a variety of reasons.

Teacher's Pet

In the meantime, these teachers can continue to work in schools where the pupils are of a different age and sex to those whom they desire.

An example of such a situation is recorded in one of my previous posts – ‘Alex the Flirt’ - whose dabbling with female pupils having been discovered at one school is now conveniently working at another school: a boys’ boarding school in South London.

There are also details in this post of the character ‘Justin Rupert, the main character in my book ‘The Grim Rupert’.  His headmaster at the time offered to get him a job at a famous boys’ independent school in the north of England, knowing full well that ‘Justin’ had committed sex offences against his female pupils.

‘Alex the Flirt’ and ‘Justin Rupert’ were teachers at the same boarding school.  The teaching staff at the school all knew that the headmaster did not report these two men to the relevant authorities at the time, as indeed he failed to do with other teachers at the school who either preceded or followed these instances.

Such unacceptable behaviour on behalf of the headmaster, and clearly others like him, is borne out in recent research published in the national press last month.  This research revealed that dozens of teachers disciplined for sexual misconduct are never reported to the police.  And I am not surprised as the consequences for the school and its headteacher are enormous as the Rev Tim Hastie-Smith at Dean Close School recently learnt to his own cost.

Blowing the whistle?

So, what is the way forward in such situations?  As a teacher, how do you ensure that the colleagues you know to be sexually dabbling with their pupils are found out and correctly dealt with by the authorities?

Why, by going over the headteacher’s head and anonymously reporting your colleagues to the authorities!

What other way is there to get justice?

Dr Terence Bell

Yet another case of a male teacher in an English public school having an affair with one of his pupils.  This time, the victim is a 17 year-old girl in the Sixth Form.

Apparently, the teacher, a certain Dr Terence Bell, 46, married with three children, was caught out when another pupil at the school found the 17-year-old girl sitting across Dr Bell’s lap in a classroom at Stonyhurst College, a £22,000 a year boarding school in Lancashire.

And the consequences of his foolish behaviour?

Former Head of English at Stonyhurst College, Dr Terence Bell

Apart from the jail sentence, Dr Bell was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for seven years and barred from working with children for an unspecified period.

So, was it all really worth it, Dr Bell?  Were you not aware of the legal mess you were storing up for yourself upon being found out, an almost certain eventuality in such a close-knit community as a boarding school?

Stonyhurst College has already been hit by a sex scandal in recent times, involving Father Jock Earle, a former Provincial of the English Jesuits.  It was revealed in the national press that his career was clouded over allegations of sexual misconduct with his pupils whilst he was headmaster of Stonyhurst, which only came to public light some 30 years after he had left the school.

(see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1444437/Father-Jock-Earle.html.)

So, what is it about teachers in boarding schools such as Stonyhurst College that they cannot keep away from the young and impressionable pupils in their care?

Is the temptation too much for them?  Or is it because of the social and geographical isolation of such schools from the community around them that they think they will never get caught out?

Think again, you teachers out there who engage in such activity.

Before it is too late!

Read more about Dr Terence Bell at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6453725/Public-school-teacher-jailed-for-pupil-affair.html

Salman Rushdie

I don’t wish to take on the anger of the high and mighty but the article in today’s Daily Mail on Salman Rushdie’s chequered love life leaves one asking just one very simple question, which only Sir Salman himself would be in a position to answer.

Rugby School looking across The Close, the playing field where according to legend the game of rugby was invented.

How much of his dysfunctional lifestyle was influenced by his school days at that ancient of English public schools, Rugby School?

A school which has a bloody recent and past history of arrogance and bad behaviour amongst its pupils.

A school with a long history of unfavourable publicity in the national press: drug-taking, sexism against girls at the school, fights between sixth form pupils in the school bar, and pupils being expelled for having sex on the hallowed turf of The Close.   And who is behind leaking these stories to the press?  Clearly persons on the inside; persons who probably have a well-founded grudge against the school.

And this doesn’t include situations going on behind the scenes, situations which insiders manage to keep to themselves to prevent them from getting into the public domain: baseball bat-wielding fights between boarders and local teenagers, fights between pupils and locals on rugby trips abroad, pupils out of their trees on vodka, and derogatory name-calling of locals in the streets around the school.  And what of the sometimes appalling behaviour in the classroom and boarding houses which has contributed to a teacher’s head rolling in consequence – from false accusations to job losses?  And what of the suicide of two housemasters in recent times? How much of their pain was caused by unruly pupils?

So where does a part of this bad behaviour stem from?  Why from a faction of demanding, over-bearing and stinking rich parents, too busy coining in the money to give the time of day to practising some decent manners and passing them on to their progeny. And a school all-too-ready to listen to and act upon, without question, the sometimes blighted opinions of its pupils, against its own staff.

The local community, however, saw through this school as a place for rich toffs a long while back.  Why else is there an extensive history of crime perpetrated against the property of the school and its members?

Why else have there been burglaries, attempted burglaries and thefts, prowlers and torched cars?  And what about the drug deals and assaults which occur in the very public streets around the school?  No wonder the school has installed a comprehensive close circuit television system, instigated clandestine security checks by plain clothes policemen, and hired security firms with vicious dogs to prowl the school at keys times in its calendar, particularly when rich parents roll up at the school.

Such is a modern day boarding school in a working class town.

Was it like this when you were at school, Sir Salman?

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1221203/Actress-Pia-Glenns-stinging-attack-Cowardly-immature-dysfunctional–Salman-Rushdie-just-got-prostitute.html

Phil Laing – The Urinator

Another disgusting tale of a badly-behaved ex-public school boy.

A boy who should have known better.

A boy who has been given opportunities in life to raise himself above those more unfortunate than he  -  at an English public school for the privileged.

Student Phil Laing, who left King's School, Macclesfield this summer, urinating on a memorial to soldiers who gave their lives in the service of this country

It appears that on a night out binge drinking in Sheffield, our boy Phil was caught urinating on a wreath of poppies laid on a memorial to dead serviceman who fell in battle during World War I.

Sadly, Edwin Ievers was the name on that wreath, a wreath the soldier’s family had placed on the memorial in his memory.

So, it seems that no matter how much money has been spent on Phil Laing’s education, it has made not one jot of difference to his feral behaviour.

If you have ever been to the Somme to witness first-hand the pain the men of World War 1 underwent during that long arduous campaign, then you cannot help but feel disgusted by this teenager.  This sort of disgraceful behaviour by this Sheffield Hallam University student surely can’t get much lower.

What a waste of his parents’ hard-earned money!

And heaven help the children of this generation of binge drinkers; they will only be worse.

So, the sooner our politicians realise that alcohol, as well as money, is the root of all evil, then the sooner we can get our country back onto a more secure footing.

I’m not a doom merchant but Sodom and Gomorrah quickly come to mind!

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220979/A-tale-different-Britons-The-student-defiled-war-memorial-soldier-died-Passchendaele.html

Fabulous Fabian

Fabian is a young adolescent pupil at Eccentric School.com.

Of Italian extract, he has a sexual appetite to match his feisty genetic inheritance.

He is already known in his boarding house for constantly keeping his hands down his trousers, feeling his way around his emerging manhood.

And, he has also been known for flashing it around on the odd occasion, too.

No kissing, please! We are British!

But his latest passionate encounter with a young lady at school almost landed him up on the expulsion list – something he is very close to achieving at all times of the day, every day.

So, picking his moment carefully at a time when many spouses of teachers, and their children, join pupils and staff for lunch in the large central dining room, Fabulous Fabian made his move.

Plonking himself on the table next to the aforementioned lady, Fabulous Fabian proceeded to chat up his chosen target, oblivious of the shocked faces and sidelong glances from those around him.

Suddenly, having deemed that he had had enough of the chat-up lines and tedious verbal foreplay, Fabulous Fabian went for the kill and lunged forward to give our fair lady a passionate kiss on the smackers.

Witnesses to the shocking incident could quite clearly hear his penitent tone of voice as he was dragged off to see the Demon Headmaster……’Mi dispiace signor agente. Mi dispiace.’  Fortunately, Fabulous Fabian missed being expelled for his daring courtship by the skin of his teeth.

For, had he realised he had made a misguided play for the very young wife of one of the new male teachers at the school, he would have willingly kept his passion locked up in his trousers.

Where it belonged!

The Poisoned Chalice Goes to China

Has everyone gone to China?

Great news!  My head of department is off to China for six months!  To a school which has close ties with Eccentric School.com.

The rumour is he’s been elbowed out from his managerial position.  Well, why else would Eccentric School.com advertise his job in the Times Educational Supplement? He says he may or may not come back after the six months is over.  What a strange thing to say, especially as his head of department’s post will not be waiting for him when he gets back!

The department is full of experienced and talented teachers who could, to the very last one of them, have easily stepped into his shoes - and done a better job in the process.  And apart from that, there is a very generous financial allowance attached to the job.  But were they interested?  Hell no!  They recognise a heavily ‘poisoned chalice’ when they see one.

From my own point of view, I will be looking forward to the day when the constant stream of unhealthy, unprofessional situations which have dogged me since I arrived at the school no longer come my way.  And why is that?  Because the perpetrator will be thousands of miles away, out of sight, out of mind.  Bring it on!

So……

• no more being shouted at when one of my experiments goes wrong (although the kids love it!)
• no more being tutted at or eyes raised to the ceiling at me when I express an opinion
• no more being dragged into his office to have trivial things thrown up in my face because he doesn’t like something I’ve said, written or planned, even though there is nothing wrong with what I have done
• no more blaming me for everything which goes wrong in the department
• no more emails being written to my colleagues behind my back which blatantly map me out as someone who is difficult and unapproachable. No wonder some of my colleagues openly ignore me or try to put me down in company!
• no more keeping my emails in a special folder, as if he is building a portfolio against me – something he doesn’t do for anyone else in the department
• no more forwarding my emails on to the Director of Studies each time something happens which he perceives I have done wrong, incorrectly, not to his liking etc.
• no more doing a load of work for him with no word of acknowledgement, let alone a word of thanks
• no more being regularly picked on or clearly targeted in departmental meetings, resulting in my feeling slapped down, humiliated or criticised in front of my colleagues, when they know me to be a good, hard-working teacher
• no more changing my teaching room or exam papers I’ve lovingly prepared without the decency and professional courtesy of telling me beforehand
• no more putting every new pupil joining the school mid-term into my classes because he knows I have effective materials to help them catch up on the work they have missed
• no more telling his department that he is going to delegate out some of his workload (for which he is very handsomely paid) so that he can concentrate more on his school basketball team!
• no more negative ear-bashing on every issue under the sun, making us all feel unappreciated and professionally incompetent
• no more unhappy technicians, constantly under his over-critical eye and over-burdening demands to do his work for him
• no more unhappy teachers in his department

Oh, God!  I could go on.  But you get the picture?

Funny these things only happen with him and no-one else I have direct professional contact with, isn’t it?  And no wonder I spent two weeks agonising over his professional appraisal which I had been asked to do last summer term.  And why?  Because I knew that if I suggested the things which needed to change in the department (like putting some schemes of work into place!), he would have made my life even more of a hell than it already was.  So what did I do? I backed out, purely out of fear.

So. The sooner he goes to China, the better we will all be for it.

He’s got away with being a bully for far, far too long.

But at least he has now got his comeuppance – by being exiled to a school in China. Bring it on!

Gabriella Edmondson

Well, the verdict is out. If you drink and drive over the legal limit at the age of 17 and kill your best friend in the process, then you can expect to go down for a spell in one of Her Majesty’s penal institutions.

That’s just what’s happened to Gabriella Edmondson of St Edward’s School in Oxfordshire – known as Teddies to those who are familiar with famous boarding schools. Sentenced today to 28 months in jail, Gabriella will rue the day she caused the death of Grace Matilda Hadman by drink driving.  Apparently, she had said something along the lines of  ’my car, my rules’ to her friends after they had pleaded with her not to drive on the night of the crash.

And what if it turns out to be Holloway? How disastrous would that be for a girl of this background?

On her way to jail: Gabriella Edmondson arrives at court for the hearing which saw her get a custodial sentence of 28 months.

Unfortunately, life works against privileged girls, right from the start. To those who have their feet firmly planted in normality, it is abundantly clear that many privileged girls have:

• too much money
• too much personal freedom
• too easy an access to alcohol
• and the arrogant expectation that everything they want they get, right now – including the car.

One sees it all the time. And it’s no different for many boys from schools such as this as well.

So, what price a private education and all that this entails?

Would you send your child to a boarding school knowing the sort of influences that might negatively impinge upon the future of your child?

If I was you, I’d think again! Before it is too late.

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1219313/My-car-rules-Public-school-girl-jailed-28-months-killing-best-friend-drink-drive-accident.html#ixzz0TTaqlVQv