I am after some advice for my husband.
He has just lost his job as a teacher based on the references he provided from his previous school.
He requested information from his personnel file from his last school to try to understand why they had given him such a poor reference.
In his file were 2 lesson observations. 1 was good to excellent, the 2nd was needs improvement to good. There was also an end of year review form that hadn't been completed.
The reference was filled by the deputy head (not someone from his department, and his head of department had already left the school as had several other teachers due to a poor ofsted report before he joined. The head teacher had been forced out and parents were trying to pull their children out in droves - school having problems)
I know there is evidence that he needed to improve but there is also evidence that he is good as well so I am unsure how they can have provided such a poor reference when they are supposed to give accurate information and surely they shouldn't just say bad things if there is evidence in the file for good things.
His union are asking the reference to be changed as it doesn't fit with the evidence on file but I am not hopeful as surely they will just close ranks or something.
The union have said that otherwise the ref could be the expunged from his record, but his confidence is now shattered and he has lost his job.
Is it worth pursuing legally? An individual against a school surely could never win anyway.
Will they have something hidden away to validate their reference which we don't know about.
We don't have much money (enough not to get support but not enough to afford it)
Any thoughts or experience would be helpful.