nofuture
11-06-2009, 10:10 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1192073/Headmistress-left-pupil-agony-broken-leg-finished-lunch-escapes-ban.html
Last updated at 2:27 AM on 11th June 2009
A bullying headmistress spent ten minutes calmly finishing her lunch while a pupil lay in agony crying for help with a broken leg, a tribunal heard.
Rowena Brace ignored pupils’ pleas for help and finished her sandwiches before phoning the child’s father instead of calling an ambulance.
Mrs Brace’s staff were often reduced to tears as they worked in the ‘climate of fear’ she created, it was claimed.
She also behaved ‘inappropriately’ toward fellow teachers at her primary school and fiddled the school’s test results, a General Teaching Council tribunal in Birmingham heard.
Isobel Hollis, Mrs Brace’s former deputy at Hope Brook Church of England Primary School in Longhope, Gloucestershire, told the tribunal how pupils began knocking on the staff room door after the boy broke his leg on the football field in May 2005.
‘They said “quick, quick”, but Mrs Brace, 57, continued to eat her lunch and only left the staff room ten to 15 minutes later,’ she said.
‘The pupil was lying on the ground, pale and shaking and Mrs Brace said he wanted his dad to come, so she had not called for an ambulance.’
Naina Patel, representing Mrs Brace, asked: ‘If the situation was so obviously urgent, why didn’t you say something?’
Miss Hollis said the climate of fear in the school was such that she did not dare interfere and admitted to being scared of the headmistress.
Yesterday Mrs Brace was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and issued with a reprimand, the lowest sanction. It means she can resume teaching.
Earlier, Miss Hollis said the intimidation began during the first staff meeting after Hope Brook Primary and Hopes Hill Community Primary schools merged in 2001 and Mrs Brace was installed as head. ‘Mrs Brace dismissed anything else anyone had done in the past and told us all that it was going to be done her way in the future,’ said Miss Hollis.
One of the teachers became so disillusioned with the new head she resigned later that day, it was claimed.
The committee panel heard that bullying, shouting and door slamming was common and ‘it was a daily occurrence for one of the teachers to be reduced to tears’.
Mair Blackman, another teacher, told the hearing that Mrs Brace informed her she had downgraded pupils’ results in an assessment at ages three to five.
‘Mrs Brace told me she had downgraded the Foundation Stage Profile results and I was both shocked and dismayed.
'If FSP results are low and then Key Stage One (ages five to seven) results are normal a year later, that makes the school sound fantastic.'
When asked why she said nothing to the school governors, Miss Blackman said: 'There was such an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that I would not have dared say anything.'
Mrs Brace was suspended in 2006 and sacked in 2007 after complaints from fellow staff and parents.
The tribunal found one complaint of bullying was proved – but four were dismissed. Mrs Brace was also proved to have altered test scores and allowed pupils extra time to finish SATS test after a disturbance outside a classroom.
The most serious complaint, that a child who broke his leg was left in pain while she finished lunch, was proven.
However, the tribunal ruled her actions were not malicious but ‘errors of judgement’. Mrs Brace said she would seek a new teaching post ‘as soon as possible’.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/06/10/article-1192073-054A9C7F000005DC-105_468x794.jpg
Last updated at 2:27 AM on 11th June 2009
A bullying headmistress spent ten minutes calmly finishing her lunch while a pupil lay in agony crying for help with a broken leg, a tribunal heard.
Rowena Brace ignored pupils’ pleas for help and finished her sandwiches before phoning the child’s father instead of calling an ambulance.
Mrs Brace’s staff were often reduced to tears as they worked in the ‘climate of fear’ she created, it was claimed.
She also behaved ‘inappropriately’ toward fellow teachers at her primary school and fiddled the school’s test results, a General Teaching Council tribunal in Birmingham heard.
Isobel Hollis, Mrs Brace’s former deputy at Hope Brook Church of England Primary School in Longhope, Gloucestershire, told the tribunal how pupils began knocking on the staff room door after the boy broke his leg on the football field in May 2005.
‘They said “quick, quick”, but Mrs Brace, 57, continued to eat her lunch and only left the staff room ten to 15 minutes later,’ she said.
‘The pupil was lying on the ground, pale and shaking and Mrs Brace said he wanted his dad to come, so she had not called for an ambulance.’
Naina Patel, representing Mrs Brace, asked: ‘If the situation was so obviously urgent, why didn’t you say something?’
Miss Hollis said the climate of fear in the school was such that she did not dare interfere and admitted to being scared of the headmistress.
Yesterday Mrs Brace was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and issued with a reprimand, the lowest sanction. It means she can resume teaching.
Earlier, Miss Hollis said the intimidation began during the first staff meeting after Hope Brook Primary and Hopes Hill Community Primary schools merged in 2001 and Mrs Brace was installed as head. ‘Mrs Brace dismissed anything else anyone had done in the past and told us all that it was going to be done her way in the future,’ said Miss Hollis.
One of the teachers became so disillusioned with the new head she resigned later that day, it was claimed.
The committee panel heard that bullying, shouting and door slamming was common and ‘it was a daily occurrence for one of the teachers to be reduced to tears’.
Mair Blackman, another teacher, told the hearing that Mrs Brace informed her she had downgraded pupils’ results in an assessment at ages three to five.
‘Mrs Brace told me she had downgraded the Foundation Stage Profile results and I was both shocked and dismayed.
'If FSP results are low and then Key Stage One (ages five to seven) results are normal a year later, that makes the school sound fantastic.'
When asked why she said nothing to the school governors, Miss Blackman said: 'There was such an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that I would not have dared say anything.'
Mrs Brace was suspended in 2006 and sacked in 2007 after complaints from fellow staff and parents.
The tribunal found one complaint of bullying was proved – but four were dismissed. Mrs Brace was also proved to have altered test scores and allowed pupils extra time to finish SATS test after a disturbance outside a classroom.
The most serious complaint, that a child who broke his leg was left in pain while she finished lunch, was proven.
However, the tribunal ruled her actions were not malicious but ‘errors of judgement’. Mrs Brace said she would seek a new teaching post ‘as soon as possible’.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/06/10/article-1192073-054A9C7F000005DC-105_468x794.jpg