Kindy teacher held littlies down

A Hawke’s Bay kindergarten has been downgraded by the Education Review Office after staff allowed a newly trained teacher to hold children down to make them sleep.

Laura Hope Tregurtha, who was a provisionally registered teacher at Havelock North Kindergarten, was deregistered by the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal on Wednesday for actions found to constitute physical and psychological abuse.

The kindergarten was bought by Evolve Education in 2015 and its name was changed last year to Little Wonders Havelock North.

The Education Review Office (ERO) rated it “well placed” to promote positive learning outcomes for children in April 2015, but downgraded it to “requires further development” in its review dated May 24 this year.

Tregurtha’s representative at the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal hearing on May 22 argued nobody had said she was acting inappropriately when she worked there. However the tribunal said: “We agree that . . . her employer or her colleagues should have intervened. That does not excuse her behaviour.”

The tribunal found she:

● At nap time, regularly held children down with their hands behind their backs to make them sleep.

● At mat time, on occasions held children between her legs to make them sit, wrapping her legs around and preventing the child from moving.

● Made a child sit at the table for up to 40 minutes until he said “please”. The child had language difficulties and saying “please” was difficult.

● On one occasion in February 2017, told a child, who was not yet able to talk, to pick up a toy. When the child did not do so, Tregurtha pulled the child’s hand down to pick it up, causing the child to bang her chin, resulting in a cut inside the lip.

The kindergarten reported the incidents to police, who issued a warning to Tregurtha for assault on a child. She resigned in April 2017 and was not teaching at the time of the tribunal hearing.

The tribunal found Tregurtha’s conduct “amounts to physical abuse”.

Evolve Education spokesman Philip King said the person who managed the centre at the time was now teaching at another centre. The ERO concerns related to programme documentation and teacher evaluation, not to the disciplinary tribunal case or children’s safety and wellbeing, he said.