St Sampson’s head furious at ‘rumours’ of school problems

Saturday 23rd May 2009, 1:00PM BST.

0632779 SOME parents of pupils at St Sampson’s High have expressed concern that behaviour at the school is spiralling out of control.

One mother, who asked not to be named, even claimed a Year 7 student had been suspended for carrying a knife.

Head teacher Hazel Tetlaw was unavailable to respond to that allegation late yesterday but did earlier strenuously deny that the school had been witnessing any out-of-the-ordinary bad behaviour.

‘We are not experiencing any problems at all, not at all,’ she said.

‘It is rumours and I think it’s appalling. Occasionally tempers flare, but that is perfectly normal and happens at every school.’

She also dismissed a suggestion that former St Peter Port and St Sampson’s students have not integrated well. But the mother, whose son has suffered at the hands of bullies since the school opened in September, disagreed with Miss Tetlaw.

‘They’re having some real problems there,’ she said.

‘Some of the kids are out of control. They even had a Year 7 suspended for having a knife strapped to their body. A girl has also had all her books set on fire by bullies.’

Another concerned mother, who asked not to be named, said students from the two schools did not mix well.

‘It’s not all-out warfare exactly, but they are having problems integrating the St Sampson’s and St Peter Port kids,’ she said.

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1
Guernsey Girl

May 23, 2009 at 2:02 pm

Thats what happens when you upset the schooling system that has been working fine for 50+ years and put all the children together in 1 building with stupidly high numbers of kids. States trying to save space and money as usual…

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2
Mum of exSPP Student

May 23, 2009 at 4:18 pm

Although the Headmistress dismisses that there are any problems with the integration of the two schools, there is a definite divide. St Sampson’s students moved en bloc into a brand new school, also named St Sampson’s (big mistake, a new school should have been given a new name as originally mooted) and were joined by students from St PP, who themselves were split up from a lot of their friends, who went to La Mare de Carteret. All sports teams from St Sampson’s remain the same, give or take one or two “transfers” from St PP. This ‘them and us’ culture is not just brought on by studens but clearly condoned by school staff as on the first day only St PP students were welcomed to join the St Sampson’s students at their new school. The website for the school refers to awards and statistics from St Sampson’s Secondary School, but St Sampson’s High is a new school and therefore the pages should be blank awaiting the results for the first set of year 11 leavers.

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3
Conrad

May 24, 2009 at 6:31 am

There is no cane in the schools these days, no slipper, no smack around the ear, thing will only get worse as these kids in time become parents themselves.
There is no hope for a school without a deterent.
In the days of the cane we all said Im not scared of the cane but the truth of the matter was we diddent want it a second time if it was given correctly.

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4
Andy

May 25, 2009 at 12:47 pm

You need smaller schools/classes with an emphasis on sport and literature.

Hitting kids is an outdated practice and lets face it they will hit back.

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5
Beth

May 25, 2009 at 6:34 pm

Havent heard any positive comments from the children on the New St Sampsons School of which my daughter attends, too big, exits apart from main one often locked, classrooms too large, could go on. What was wrong with the old St Sampsons School? my child is very shy and it is an ordeal to attend this large school. Lack of Teachers here means they havent the time the time to get to know the kids as individuals. This school needs looking into.

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6
mich

June 8, 2009 at 2:45 am

I think most of the comments are unfair, Miss Tetlaw has always been a very hard workin, caring head who only wants the best out of each and every student. I have had children in three other secondary schools and have taken them out of two of them in favour of attending St Sampsons. There have been times where I havn’t agreed on things that have happened in school and have contacted Miss Tetlaw who has always looked in to my concerns and acted on them. What message are we sending the students if all we do is give negative comments about the school. Any parents that are concerned should contact Miss Tetlaw personaly. I’m sure she would do her upmost to help.P.S If any St Sampsons Teachers are reading this.. Keep up the good work, you’re doing an excellent job

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7
brodie

June 10, 2009 at 11:28 am

blimey mich, high praise indeed, 3 of my children have been at st sampsons and i think all of them would say from the day Miss Tetlaw took over it went downhill, but hey, each to their own opinion!

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8
Pupil

June 10, 2009 at 4:07 pm

Recent reports in all of the media have been blown out of all proportion. No ‘riot’ ever happened and pupils did not get a ‘good talking to’ by Police either. As ever the people who said all this went on did not want to be named, surprise – suprise! Obviously not confident enough to give their own names as they could be shown to have hidden agenda’s.
The very fact that the schools were hounded by the media at a very distressing time after they had lost a pupil in a road accident shows how far local reporter’s & cameramen will go to ‘create’ a story.
NB. Note to the cameraman who took it upon himself to go down and start filming outside the school of his own accord, if I had children at that school i would have some serious questions to ask you about potentially filming my children without my consent.

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