head teacher sacked my child..need advice possibly legal advice

[errdunno]

I had a meeting with the head of my childs school to talk about the next year teacher.
I asked lots of questions about that new teacher and the head didnt want to answer any of those questions and had no qualms saying so.
I told her why we were so concerned, why we were to accept,again,for the third year in a row,an NQT,very young,and who had previously applied for a full time position at the school and had been turned down but we were being asked to accept her as a temporary teacher.

That meeting fell apart and we pretty much hated each other!
But all that is by the by because the next day..the last day of term..the head walked in to my childs class and inexplicably asked him to stand up and then announced to his schoolmates that he was leaving the school and could everyone wish him goodbye.?

He is/was stunned and in tears for weeks,and refused to go back to the same school..I coulnt talk to the school or govenors about it-they were on holiday!
so I moved him to a private school that we are vvv happy with.
I have since complained to the school Lea and the govenors but there has been total silence from all of them.
Thing is.I feel this woman is clearly out of control and needs to explain what she did.
I feel so bad for my other half who now has to pay for a private school as there was no room at any other school locally.
Could I sue the school? it is afer all constructive dissmissal?
What do you think?

Are you sure that is what the head did? You seem to be relying on your son's version of events, that classroom exchange could mean anything. Surely you would expect a letter confirming this, did it not come? This is a weird story imo.

This is terrible, I really feel for your son. Do you want your child to return to the school?I'm not sure I would be happy with my child attending a school where the head treats children so cruelly.

However, your son has not been sacked, he was never employed and you don't have a case for constructive dismissal. This is not employment law, you can't compare employment law with education law they are two completely different areas of law.

Seek legal advice. What do you want to achieve? Do you want the LEA to find a place for your son at an alternative school? I do not know anything about education law but I would say that you have a pretty good case for insisting that they do. They do have an obligation to provide an education for your child and they are failing to do so at the moment.

Well if that had happened to my child I'd have marched them back through the school gate on the first day of term in Sept. Taken him into the classroom, told the teacher he was staying and that was that.

Like others have said, exclusion is a formal process that takes time and there has to be good reasons for it. A mum moaning about a teacher is not a reason.

God knows I've kicked up a fuss at my dd's school about an incompetent teacher but would never have dreamt it would result in anything like this.

When the head said your son was leaving, did she say and never allowed back? Could she just have meant leaving for that day. Though would still be odd?

And surely a head would have to inform the parents if a child had been excluded. Have you ever officially been told he has been?

I think there must be more going on here. I think we ought to be very careful about offering advice - the scenario outlined just doesn't make sense.

Im not just relying on my boys version there were 30 other children there..it spread to the after school club that he went to that day (attached to school) and all the kids cooked him goodbye ricekrispie cakes and made him cards..over the next few days we had LOADS of messages at home saying goodbye to us all..
I know some of you think this is a bizzare story,but it is totally true.
I wouldnt post for advice-mis-represent the facts and then get the wrong advice..what would that all be for?
The only reason we changed school was my boy pleading that he felt so bad and embarrassed about it all and feels that he must be a very bad boy (his words) to be told he was going
HE THOUGHT HE WAS BEING PUNISHED!
add to that I didnt get in that night till 8pm and he wouldnt really talk about it as he was in bed and trying to figure out how to tell us...

I think you might have got your wires crossed.

ALL teachers are entitled to "non contact time" of 10% of their time. This is for planning, preparation and assessment. In addition, Newly Qualified Teachers are entitiled to an additional 10% non contact time.

For a full time teacher, this would equate to about half a day for PPA time and half a day for NQT time per week.

The school should be providing an alternative teacher or TA during this time so your child would still be in school.

Basically, what I'm saying is that the "non-contact" issue you talk about is a completely non-issue. All teachers get it.

Given the strength of your feeling on this one, my gut feeling is that there was something in your heated discussion with the headteacher which led her to believe that you were removing your ds from the school.

Foreveroptimistic - the LEA are not failing to provide a school for her ds. She made the decision to remove him from the school on the basis of something that she was told by her ds. That was entirely her decision.

Take it to the newspapers?

I dont want the disscusion to focus on the NQT thing,just the resulting action of our meeting
she really did walk into the classroom and asked him to stand up and said
"*** is leaving today,we wish him all the luck in the world and hope he comes to visit us again"
she then took a note book that he had taken in for the year 6 leavers to sign (a bit of a tradition in that school) and wrote a goodbye note...procceded to take it to other class rooms and get other teachers to sign it as well?
this did happen.

If I was in your shoes I would head up to the LEA office with a letter detailing the events, put it on the head of the LEA's desk and tell him/her you will be back at the end of the week when you expect an explanation/plan of action on getting your son back into a state school.

I have done all that foreveroptimistic,but they (lea) say they will only deal with a complaint if the child is still attending that school..there is also a 3 month time limit for complaints... this of course dsnt count the fact that 6 of those weeks were in the holidays.Lea say they cant make a school comment.
like I said before i feel they are "circleing the wagons"

To be honest I would just like my boy and ourselves to have an apology..and I know this isnt employment law etc etc but if it was and something like that happened in the work place,she be for the highjump.
dont children have a right to be treated with respect anymore?

Yes, but errdunno, there must have been a reason why she thought your son was leaving.

What a bizarre thread and situation
if that really is the case, why on earth did you go along with it? I can totally understand your son being humiliated and embarrassed poor thing, but why did you enrol him in a fee paying school and not demand explanations, a school place on the 1st day of the new academic year?

i think you will have to put this one to bed.
it is now november, certainly a long time since the end of july.
if the fees are difficult - try for a local school, your poor boy though.

littlefish
there was absolutly nothing in our disscusion about us leaving the school and even if there was surely this should have been confirmed in writing from myself to the school?
she put her foot in it by asking me to keep quiet that she confirmed that the teacher had applied for full time post and had been turned down but she and the govenors had asked that same teacher to "fill in" till they found a suitable one.
Talking about this is strictly against the information act and she remembered this at the last min.
she wanted us out of that school.simple as.
she is a new head her first post, and a bit of a loose cannon.

Well if is an apology you are after it doesn't look like it will be forthcoming.

Google education lawyers, they will probably have an initial conversation with you free of charge.

If I were in your shoes I'd consider taking him back to that school. Re-enrol him. I think it would be sad for him to think for the rest of his life that he'd done something so wrong.

I guess it depends though on how well you think he's settled in his new school and how well you can afford the fees.

I think if you keep him at his new school then you at least ought to totally emphasise and keep repeating that he had done nothing wrong, that the head was in the wrong and because of what she did you no longer felt it was a good school for him to go to.

i don't personally think you shoudl take your son back to a school where the head teacher did that! sounds like you annoyed her so she decided to get even, reading your initial op.

I'm sorry, I'm going to back out of this thread because it simply doesn't make sense.

No head teacher would just announce that a child was leaving, without discussion with the parents.

You are not going to get any answers on here, because I don't believe you're giving us all the information.

It's been 4 months. You are not getting any answers from the school.

Contact a lawyer to follow it up if you really feel there is anything to be gained.

However, I think a better course of action would simply be to forget it and support your child in their new school.

app that you want to back out of the thread littlefish and thankyou for contributing,but I can assure you that this did happen and as I said before there would be no purpose served coming here to ask for advice and not tell the truth about what happened.I dont need to lie about what was, and continues to be a real sad point in my boys life,he has lost his friends poor chap and I guess the tiger in me wanted revenge.petty I know but there it is.
I hope no-one else gets in this Heads way,as this has been so succsesful for her,she may just try it again.

What does the Head say happened?

so you joined mn last night and have posted this today?

If you haven't had any luck with the LEA and governors and the school why would you choose to come on to a parenting website for advice?

What exactly do you hope to achieve? Your son is no longer in that school, he is being educated so what is it you want?

Sorry but none of this rings true to me either. Sounds to me more like you're trying to have a pop at faith schools with your references to the priest etc. something which isn't all that uncommon here.

also if the head wrote in his note book then you would have clear, written evidence that the head thought your child was leaving. If she didn't have good reason for thinking he was leaving she wouldn't put it in writing now would she?

you cannot sue a school for constructive dismissal. your son was not an employee

how odd

from what i know of how schools work, a head cannot arbitarily and unilaterally expel a pupil in this way

if this is what happened, you need a lawyer and to be banging on the LEA doors every day until you get answers

forgive me, but

in fact the more I think about it, the more I think that it happened the other way around.

You went into the meeting with the head to discuss her recruitment policies (something which is absolutely none of your business anyway) and when she didn't tell you what you wanted to hear you told her you were withdrawing your child. And she called your bluff and told the class he was leaving.

You meant to withdraw the child but you want the head to look bad because she didn't give in to your demands.

There's no way on this earth a head would just walk into a class and announce that a child was leaving and not tell the parents the child had been excluded. NO way. What would that achieve? Some children wouldn't even bother to go home and tell their parents what had happened, and most parents wouldn't just roll over and put their children into private school.