A former headteacher of Northwold Primary School (London E5) sacked for admonishing her own child for trying to grab hand sanitiser (having previously managed to get it in his eye) has just won an unfair dismissal case.
The Mail has the story:
Shelly-Ann Malabver-Goulbourne was trying to get her three-year-old to stop playing with a hand sanitiser in her office when she used two fingers to attract his attention, an employment tribunal heard.
The incident was witnessed by the teacher in charge of child safety, who accused her of hurting her son and completed a “cause for concern” form to report a “safeguarding incident”.
Ms. Bhagwandas reported witnessing the Head smack her son on the hand, that the child had been crying and that she had “pacified” him. Ms. Malabver-Goulbourne was suspended and a disciplinary investigation launched.
It led to the Head being suspended and the police called.
Even the police, normally so keen to throw unlimited resources at supporting anyone who makes an accusation, however unfounded or mischievous, deemed this to require no further action.
Although officers ruled that her actions were “reasonable chastisement” by a parent, Ms. Malabver-Goulbourne was found guilty of gross misconduct [by the Trust] and sacked.
The Trust told her that “whether a tap or otherwise, this was unnecessary physical contact with a pupil, which constitutes an assault” and a breach of policies and statutory guidance.
She is in line for compensation after an employment judge concluded there was no evidence that she had committed “physical chastisement or an assault” and ruled her dismissal unfair.
Employment Judge Julia Jones said the school’s code of conduct does not prohibit all physical contact between pupils and teachers and pointed out that as a parent of pupils that would be a difficult rule for the Head to abide by.
Upholding her claim for unfair dismissal, the judge said the [Arbor Academy] Trust “had sufficient evidence… that she was trying to prevent injury to her child and addressing his behaviour”.
Small consolation to the Headteacher concerned, having discovered that a single member of staff’s complaint, however trivial or misguided, could lead to the destruction of her career.
One wonders what the subtext was here – a personal vendetta perhaps, or maybe there’s a whole backdrop to this story that hasn’t been revealed. Or even, perhaps it was a procedure that ran away with itself and to save face it was pursued to the brutal end.
Interesting though to note that Ms. Bhagwandas appears as Deputy Head in a school newsletter dated January 10th 2022. According to the Telegraph the incident took place exactly one week later on January 17th 2022. Ms. Bhagwandas was subsequently listed on the school website on an undated page as “Acting Head of School”, and is named in that capacity on the Arbor Academy Trust’s Leadership page. She does not appear on the current school staff list (which doesn’t list a Deputy Head) but according to her LinkedIn page she is still Deputy Head at Northwold where she has worked since 2010.
The sacked headteacher was appointed in 2017.
Just as a general observation, denunciations for moral or religious misdemeanours and disloyalty or treachery have always been the tool of choice for individuals, organisations or governments to pursue feuds or get rid of inconvenient people, or just to feel the warm glow of righteousness that comes with condemning someone else.
What this sorry saga mostly tells you though is that, just as during Covid, never before in our so-called liberal democratic state supposedly built around individual freedoms has so much machinery been put in place to facilitate this sort of carry-on. One also wonders how much this incident cost. Hopefully, however, the Headteacher concerned will now be amply compensated.
No wonder there’s a shortage of heads.
Worth reading in full, or if you want the longer version try the Telegraph‘s coverage.
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“Annoying all the right people” (Neil Oliver on GB News tonight re . Twitter takeover).
For me (and I’ve never been a user of “Twitbook”), however it eventually turns out, today is a good day.
I am now even less likely to rejoin Twitter.
Is that because you hate free speech or just hate Musk?
“Would you object if your daughter married a Muslim… according to those metrics, Britain is among the least racist countries in the world”. (Toby Youmg (?), LC).
Or would you object to the conflation of race with religion? There are Muslims of various races, including white people, particularly in European areas that were formerly in the Ottoman Empire. I also seem to remember a story that there was a fair bit of racism among the supporters of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). And likewise, there are lots of Christians in some parts of Asia. I remember a story about an Indian Christian in Middlesbrough who got abused as a terrorist by ignorant locals (not that all people in Middlesbrough are like that, there’s some great people in that area of Yorkshire).
‘Would you object if your daughter married a Muslim’
First things first was she forced into it?
Over my dead body is my stance on that matter.
“The Northman… there are no black Vikings”.
No clean shaven ones either v (probably), but that didn’t stop Kirk Douglas.
the vikings kirk douglas at DuckDuckGo
I remember a report about how there were African people manning Hadrian’s Wall who intermarried with the native population, though I don’t know if there were any Vikings in Britain at that time.
And Kirk Douglas’s Viking was also Jewish, don’t forget.
Vikings raided coastal Britain and surrounding islands before, during and after the Romans.
The Romans brought auxiliaries and slaves with them from all over the empire, so some undoubtedly would be black people.
‘whether Marine Le Pen’s 42% share of the vote means France is more racist than Britain’
Racism is simply self preservation.
If the UK was sane we would never have allowed any immigration of the followers of the religion of peace, there should be no Islamic rape gangs or Islamic mass casualty terror attacks here.
Same with mass African immigration, we would be far better off it that had never occurred.
Of course you can’t criticise the imported minority that have used their financial power to push this mass immigration because that would be to pick on the weakest people on the planet and they will have you cancelled if you dare.
I’m tempted to nod in agreement, but given the UK fertility has been below replacement rate since the 70’s, I’d like to see some numbers, has anyone attempted this analysis?
Besides my time in the RN, and my GP, almost every Dr, specialist, or consultant I’ve seen in over 50 years has been an immigrant, as has a large % of nurses and cleaning staff I’ve come across in the NHS, I could almost lump taxi drivers and railways staff into that large % too.
I guess we’d have to define “better off”, I’m thinking in economic terms rather than “the feels”.
Maybe ask your mates for a controlled opposition jingle?
” … and whether Marine Le Pen’s 42% share of the vote means France is more racist than Britain…”
I can’t believe you wrote that. I don’t think I’ll bother reading the whole thing – that alone put me off.
Quite so: I hope (probably wrongly) that it was just sarcasm. Sadly, my respect for Young is falling even more quickly than covid ‘infections’!
TY has done a lot of positive things – more than most people
I think the comment is a bit clickbaity
I think there are a few related, important questions:
1) Is mass immigration good, bad or indifferent for the existing citizens of a country?
2) Is there a moral obligation to allow immigration, or should governments act solely in the interests of their own citizens?
3) Does WHO is immigrating matter? Is it “racist” to prefer some groups over others in terms of who you let in? Is it “racist” to select who comes in on some non-race basis that turns out to have a disparate impact on some racial groups? Bear in mind certain groups are unlikely to want to come to the UK in their millions as they already have good countries they like.
4) If any of the above is “racist”, is it wrong to be “racist”? What does “racist” actually mean (not much these days as far as I can see)?
1) Bad
2) Not at all
3) Yes
4) The current cancer in UK culture is to label anything you don’t like as ‘ist’. People need to learn to compromise and accept each other’s opinions.
It is fine to dislike any person for any reason you choose.
I tend to agree. It’s impossible to have a sensible discussion on this in most forums, and with many people.
I think there is a distinction to be made between legal immigration and illegal immigration.
Tge problem arises with illegal immigration. Legal immigrants go through a vetting process which means they have the right level,of education and skills to find useful employment and contribute to society and also numbers controlled.
Illegal immigrants tend to be the dross and arrive in droves.
Indeed the two things are different. I’m not sure I would completely agree with your characterisation of the two forms though – in practice I have doubts about the overall contribution of legal immigrants to our country (though clearly many have and do contribute immensely) but it’s also a matter of culture and social cohesion, regardless of the economics. The numbers are not as controlled as many (IMO the majority) of British people would like.
It is a gross misunderstanding of Le Pen’s support. Nearly all of her support is in rural France, the large area whose population feel they have been abandoned, ignored and treated with contempt by the metropolitan elites, and where the gilets jaunes movement rose up – they hate Macron.
Immigration is not the key issue – there are few in these areas, most being in the big cities and towns – it is the lack of work, lack,of prospects for the future and lack of representation.
Le Pen’s manifesto was anything but ‘right wing’ it was old France, Dirigiste – State direction of the economy, know elsewhere as the economics of Fascism. This is why the Left don’t like ‘Right Wing’, because so-called Right-Wing Parties have Statist policies of central economic and social planning and control, and out-Left the Left.
But it’s the modus operandi of the Establishment, label anyone not ‘their sort’, not a member of their club, ‘Right-Wing’ with ‘extreme’ left unspoken but implied, then automatically that means anti-immigration and therefore racist.
However, it is the case Le Pen isn’t really charismatic, or with a vision and new policies needed for the economic restructuring that France needs, to wean its people off total State dependency, she would have brought ever more. She just had the same old failed policies so her only attraction was she wasn’t Macron
I thought it was patently meant as humour, but we all have different filters when reading…
I do not have a Twitter account, but I think it’s best to wait and see what difference Elon Musk actually makes before any Champagne corks are popped.
But the torment he is causing the Stupids is a joy to behold.
I wonder weather this could be a litmus test as to weather the globalist WEF YGL Musk actually wants free speech, or will roll out digital ID under the guise of free speech.
i.e. is there a global conspiracy, or more bumbling cock-uppery from the various governments and YGLs who all appear to be on the same page, regardless of “free speech” platitudes ^.^