Building a professional relationship between teaching and non-teaching staff.

In my experience this is usually a no brainer as most teachers are expansive people who recognise the contribution of non-teaching staff and develop positive relationships with them.

However I offer a note of caution about the few teachers who might somehow feel they are a bit above the non-teaching staff.  As Principal keep an eye out for any such feelings and nip them in the bud.

I offer a personal experience that still rankles within me.  My darling wife, after raising our children to an age where they were no longer little ones, decided that she would like to become a Teacher Assistant which was new in terms of her pre-marriage career.  She set about achieving this and in several situations of various schools and teachers she was very happy in this role.  She had excellent  reviews from all the teachers with whom she worked.  In what turned out to be her last posting, a new teacher came to that school and my wife was her Assistant.  Things went along smoothly for some time then this teacher began to talk down to, and one has to say mentally harass my wife.  This was a totally new experience for my wife, who had got along so well with previous teachers that these persons became her friends outside the school setting.  My wife, who is a very tough little lady, was brought to tears by this situation.  At the time I was a Superintendent of Schools in the same education system and after a time contacted the school Principal to see what he could do about this.  He was nice guy but not strong enough to get in and unravel the problem.  I did not pull rank nor would it have been appropriate for me to personally investigate the situation.  It was never resolved and my wife after a time resigned.  If she had not done this I would have taken more drastic action possibly requesting the Superintendent of the district for that school, which was not me, to investigate the situation.  Even this would have been fraught with the risk of me to be seen pulling rank and displaying a vote of no confidence in that Principal.

I've got to admit that I have never been able to come to terms with a Principal not being strong enough to resolve such situations.  I feel that any Principal worth their salt must be trained for and capable of doing these tough things in a just and fair way, with due process and natural justice in play.  Sitting on one's hands and hoping it will all go away is not an option.


May the Force be with you!

GD