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Three primary school teachers in Hertfordshire who were dismissed from their jobs due to the fact that pupils’ SATS results were unexpectedly good have won their Employment Tribunal (ET) case for unfair dismissal.
Mrs R M Phillips and others v The Diocese of Westminster Academy Trust and others: 3331576/2018 and others
Case background
It was claimed that the teachers in this case – Rosa Phillips, Liz Tye and Sarah Miles – inflated the SATS results of their pupils at the Ofsted ranked ‘Outstanding’, Our Lady Catholic Primary School. The teachers denied these claims and felt that they had been made scapegoats for the errors of John Henry Newman, a Catholic senior school in Stevenage. Our Lady Catholic Primary School is a feeder school to John Henry Newman School.
Rosa Phillips, who was Head of Key Stage Two and a temporary Deputy Head at the primary school, was suspended at the beginning of 2018 and then dismissed two months later. Liz Tye was a Special Education Needs Co-Ordinator at the school and had an “exemplary record”.
Rosa Phillips and Liz Tye made a claim of unfair dismissal against the Diocese of Westminster Academy Trust.
Sarah Miles had been dismissed from the primary school in 2018, but was reinstated following an appeal. She made a constructive dismissal claim against the Diocese.
ET proceedings
During the ET proceedings in Cambridge, it was revealed that concerns had been raised by the Head Teacher of the senior school (Clive Mathew) with regards to the assessment results coming from the primary school in comparison to its seven other feeder schools. There was a 100% SATS pass rate at Our Lady Catholic Primary School.
It was also reported that Mr Mathew reported that the GCSE results in 2017 of students who had previously attended Our Lady Catholic Primary School were not in line with their SATS results.
The Claimants were investigated and parents were told that there had been:
“widespread and significant manipulation of Key Stage results for years”.
The Claimants argued that they had supported four vulnerable students from the 26 pupils during their SATS which was something that the senior school may have failed to continue. All three of the Claimants referred the ET to their exemplary records and denied being complicit in a culture of inflating pupils’ levels.
The ET was told that an investigation by the Standards and Testing Agency found nothing wrong in the SATS results. Rosa Phillips, during the proceedings, also referenced that two Ofsted inspections and external moderation by Hertfordshire County Council which found nothing wrong with the assessment scores, as well as Teacher Regulation Authority proceedings which found no evidence of misconduct.
The ET Judge, Alan Johnson, ruled that the teacher’s cases were “well-founded” and their claims succeeded. A remedy hearing is to be fixed at a later date.
Comment
From the detail we have, this seems a case where a process was set in motion and the outcome was inevitable from that point. Employers should be testing the evidence and allegations at each stage of the disciplinary process and involving individuals who have no prior knowledge of the case to review the evidence and make decisions. This will ensure that any disciplinary process is robust.
Here it was a red flag that several other independent review processes had not found culpable conduct. Although those other processes apply different tests and different proof requirements, the fact that the Claimants in this case had been exonerated in those proceedings suggested a lack of evidence to support the decisions to dismiss them.
It is very important that those involved in conducting disciplinary investigations and holding disciplinary meetings have been trained in this process and the legal requirements, and that they feel confident to appropriately challenge the management case presented before making any decisions.
How Nelsons can help
Laura Kearsley is a Partner in our expert Employment Law team.
Our team is experienced in delivering training for senior leaders, governors and other senior managers on conducting investigations and handling disciplinary cases. At the current time, all of our training packages are available via video conferencing.
For further information on the subjects discussed in this article, please call Laura or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.