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PGCE Unfair

I'd like to ask a question on behalf of a friend of mine. She has undoubtedly been treated unfairly on her PGCE placement and I just wondered what the next steps would be so that someone else does not get treated as dreadfully as she has been.She is currently 2 weeks away from completing her PGCE. Her first placement went extremely well , she was deemed as 'good' in all areas + excited at becoming a teacher.

However, Block B has been an absolute nightmare for her. It began around 2 months in when professional mentor observed her lesson. To cut a long story short she was extremely nasty towards her and made many unprofessional comments to her. These including asking her if she was mentally ill, after claiming that the only person she had ever seen fail a pgce had been mentally ill. She also asked her if she was dyslexic because she didn't use a capital letter. I must also mention that my friend lost both her parents whilst studying for her undergrad course. So, when this mentor asked her if she had any subject knowledge gaps she said she did as she missed almost a year of uni in total. To this the mentor replied that although this was tragic, she needed to 'toughen up'.Since then, my friend has felt completely demoralised. When she spoke to the uni about this treatment (other things were also said that are too complex to mention), they too were disgusted, and they had a word with her about her treatment, which she then toned down. However, my friend's subject mentor continued to what i would deem as 'bully' her. When applying for jobs, she told her that certain one's were 'too good for her' and that even 'she wouldn't apply for them', which once again severely knocked her confidence.

The uni too, have behaved unprofessionally, they have accidentally sent my friend emails criticising her teaching and personality (and also other students) and when my friend addressed this they simply told her to delete the emails (which she hasn't just in case she has to take things further). I won't go into detail about what the emails said but they implied her lessons were terrible and since then she had no confidence in herself.I have seen my friend's usually vibrant personality deteriorate over these past few months, and I am extremely worried about her. Last week, she felt a little relieved to be told she had passed by her subject mentor. However, 2 days later in a meeting with a uni representative and her subject mentor she was told she had failed. When she asked them why they simply said they had changed their minds. She had been told her lessons had greatly improved, but they had since decided that they hadn't and that there was 'no proof' they had.To make matters worse, today, her professional mentor copied her into an email to an external examiner saying she had passed. My friend was confused by this, but too disheartened by this point to get excited. She was right to do so, as a few hours later the same mentor sent another email to the external examiner saying she had failed.

I feel this behavior is extremely unprofessional, as they have no right to be constantly toying with my friends emotions. I am at my wits end about how to help my friend. She is exhausted and feels utterly messed around. There are many other incidents I could mention which involve bullying, that are too complex to go into. But I feel she really does have a valid case to take this further. She does not want any sympathy or to pass out of this as after everything she has been through she has been put off teaching for life. I was just wondering if anyone knew what the best course of action would be to take / do you think she has fair grounds to make a case, perhaps to a union or to the university?Coincidentally, someone at the very same placement last year had their PGCE investigated due to failing, however, it became apparent that they had been bullied on their placement and this failure was retracted.
Reply 1
The university will have its own complaints procedure (independent of the education department) that your friend could try.

Failing that, these guys could be helpful:
http://www.oiahe.org.uk/

You could also try the NCTL themselves:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/national-college-for-teaching-and-leadership
Original post by pojmu
I'd like to ask a question on behalf of a friend of mine. She has undoubtedly been treated unfairly on her PGCE placement and I just wondered what the next steps would be so that someone else does not get treated as dreadfully as she has been.She is currently 2 weeks away from completing her PGCE. Her first placement went extremely well , she was deemed as 'good' in all areas + excited at becoming a teacher.

However, Block B has been an absolute nightmare for her. It began around 2 months in when professional mentor observed her lesson. To cut a long story short she was extremely nasty towards her and made many unprofessional comments to her. These including asking her if she was mentally ill, after claiming that the only person she had ever seen fail a pgce had been mentally ill. She also asked her if she was dyslexic because she didn't use a capital letter. I must also mention that my friend lost both her parents whilst studying for her undergrad course. So, when this mentor asked her if she had any subject knowledge gaps she said she did as she missed almost a year of uni in total. To this the mentor replied that although this was tragic, she needed to 'toughen up'.Since then, my friend has felt completely demoralised. When she spoke to the uni about this treatment (other things were also said that are too complex to mention), they too were disgusted, and they had a word with her about her treatment, which she then toned down. However, my friend's subject mentor continued to what i would deem as 'bully' her. When applying for jobs, she told her that certain one's were 'too good for her' and that even 'she wouldn't apply for them', which once again severely knocked her confidence.

The uni too, have behaved unprofessionally, they have accidentally sent my friend emails criticising her teaching and personality (and also other students) and when my friend addressed this they simply told her to delete the emails (which she hasn't just in case she has to take things further). I won't go into detail about what the emails said but they implied her lessons were terrible and since then she had no confidence in herself.I have seen my friend's usually vibrant personality deteriorate over these past few months, and I am extremely worried about her. Last week, she felt a little relieved to be told she had passed by her subject mentor. However, 2 days later in a meeting with a uni representative and her subject mentor she was told she had failed. When she asked them why they simply said they had changed their minds. She had been told her lessons had greatly improved, but they had since decided that they hadn't and that there was 'no proof' they had.To make matters worse, today, her professional mentor copied her into an email to an external examiner saying she had passed. My friend was confused by this, but too disheartened by this point to get excited. She was right to do so, as a few hours later the same mentor sent another email to the external examiner saying she had failed.

I feel this behavior is extremely unprofessional, as they have no right to be constantly toying with my friends emotions. I am at my wits end about how to help my friend. She is exhausted and feels utterly messed around. There are many other incidents I could mention which involve bullying, that are too complex to go into. But I feel she really does have a valid case to take this further. She does not want any sympathy or to pass out of this as after everything she has been through she has been put off teaching for life. I was just wondering if anyone knew what the best course of action would be to take / do you think she has fair grounds to make a case, perhaps to a union or to the university?Coincidentally, someone at the very same placement last year had their PGCE investigated due to failing, however, it became apparent that they had been bullied on their placement and this failure was retracted.


What happened to your friend sounds awful. Check if the university has an anti bullying policy, if so she should be able to complain. Does she know what exactly happened to the person last year? It might help her when making a complaint. The university has a duty of care and they can't deny that they were aware of the issues with the school if someone complained last year.

Some universities will side with the school no matter what but both the university and the school have been extremely unprofessional and she's got every right to complain.

Good luck! I am a PGCE student myself and I feel like I am being bullied by mentor but the university don't seem to believe me.

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