Fair dismissal

In the case of Mrs Moore v Governing Body of Trinity St Mary’s Church of England (Aided) Primary School, Mrs Moore brought an unfair dismissal claim following accusations of inappropriate language and grabbing a child by the neck or collar.

Parent complaint

Mrs Moore was employed by the school as a teacher. In March 2023, a complaint was received from a parent of a child in her class in relation to language allegedly used by Mrs Moore. A child had reported that Mrs Moore told the class they were ‘acting like a bunch of monkeys’ and further told the class that ‘they are getting on her nerves so much she wants to shoot herself or them’. The parents found this comment to be racist and further reported the matter to the police who started an investigation of the matter as a potential hate crime.

Inappropriate use of language

Having completed their investigation, the police were satisfied that Mrs Moore had used the phrase ‘chattering monkeys’ to the entire class and that this had been taken out of context and was not considered a racial slur or hate crime. They concluded that it was ‘an allegation of a conditional threat and inappropriate use of language towards children’.

Suspension

A further allegation arose in March 2023 of physical abuse where it was alleged that Mrs Moore had put her hands around a pupil’s neck. Mrs Moore was suspended pending an investigation into the allegations. Further allegations arose during the investigation, including grabbing the collar of a child, that she was having a detrimental effect on her year group and that she had brought the school into disrepute by tarnishing the reputation of the school because parents had discussed removing their children from the school.

In response to the allegations, Mrs Moore asserted that she did make ‘overly dramatic statements’ to the children in a joking way to put them at ease, that she was strict with homework and set high standards, that she denied any physical assault and considered the allegations malicious.

Gross misconduct

The disciplinary panel concluded that the allegations amounted to gross misconduct and Mrs Moore had not demonstrated understanding that her actions were inappropriate. Mrs Moore was dismissed.

Fairly dismissed

Mrs Moore brought a claim for unfair dismissal, claiming that the allegations against her were malicious and untrue, the procedure adopted by the school was defective and the decision to dismiss was unfair. After a review of the evidence, the employment tribunal (ET) found that Mrs Moore had been fairly dismissed by reason of misconduct and it was reasonable for the employer to conclude that this conduct constituted gross misconduct, justifying dismissal. While some flaws were noted, the two allegations concerning physical assault were deemed sufficient to make dismissal fair even if some of the other allegations were not, in themselves, independently sufficient for dismissal.

Need support with your HR?

Our support means you can focus on education, while we take care of your organisation’s HR needs.

We have a wide range of education HR consultancy services to choose from, offering complete flexibility for your school. Get in touch for a free consultation about how we can help you.

The discipline section of our CEFMi website contains model policies, information and related model forms and letters. Get a free trial of CEFMi – a comprehensive resource for school managers containing over 7,000 pages of text, including over 170 policies written specifically for schools.