Teacher lied to let friend’s girl, 5, get a school place
A FORMER teacher fraudulently helped a friend’s child jump the queue to obtain a place at a popular state primary school.
Bernadette Hendrickson was sacked from her council job after she faked forms to force the school to take the girl even though it was oversubscribed.
Doing so meant the friend could avoid the prospect of having to pay private school fees for her fiveyear- old daughter. Hendrickson, 50, put the girl’s application into a priority places scheme for vulnerable children, which gives youngsters places at schools even when there is no space.
She claimed the five-year-old was a ‘looked-after child’ – one being cared for either temporarily or permanently by the local authority, possibly because they are the subject of a care order or a protection order. Bosses at the school in newport, South Wales, became suspicious, however, and an investigation was launched.
Hendrickson, a qualified teacher who was working as an education co- ordinator for City of Cardiff Council, admitted unacceptable professional conduct during a disciplinary hearing of the Education Workforce Council. She was banned from the classroom until July 31.
Hendrickson intervened to help her friend, who was not named, avoid paying £8,568a- year at independent Rougemont School.
The state school where she secured a place for the five- year- old girl has not been named. But the hearing was told that the deception had potentially cost other children a place there.
The girl suffered ‘embar- rassment and confusion’ when removed from the school after a few days as the fraud became clear.
Case presenter Cadi Dewi said: ‘ Hendrickson suggested to the mother they tell a white lie that the council shared responsibility for her daughter. This was not a momentary lapse of judgment. They were actions that took place over a number of days and weeks.’
Hendrickson, a mother-oftwo, was later sacked from her council job overseeing the educational needs of looked-after children.
She told the hearing in Cardiff that she had admitted the fraud from the start and now wanted to return to teaching. ‘At the time i thought what i did was right. in hindsight now i don’t think it was,’ she said.
Colin Adkins, representing Hendrickson, said: ‘ The mother was not an unwilling actor in this. Text messages show her actively chasing Hendrickson into doing what she did. She was badgering her.’
Hendrickson was unavailable for comment yesterday. Cardiff council said: ‘As soon as the council became aware of this matter, an internal investigation was carried out.
‘The individual is no longer employed by the council.’