Teacher ‘attacked’ by primary pupil sues for £25,000
A PRIMARY school teacher who says she was savagely beaten and kicked as she tried to protect a reception-age child from a violent older pupil is suing her former bosses.
Jacqui Overfield says she was the victim of a ‘sustained’ attack, leaving her injured and traumatised. She says she was trying to stop the Year Five pupil who was ‘trying to get’ the reception-age child in the school toilets.
She has since retired from teaching and is now suing the The Constellation Trust, which runs the Francis Askew Primary School in Hull – where she was teaching pupils aged nine to ten in Year Five – for up to £25,000 compensation. Lawyers for the trust deny liability.
Before the assault, Mrs Overfield had been a primary school teacher of almost 20 years. According to documents filed at Central London County Court, she was set upon around lunchtime in July 2019, a few months after she started at the school.
‘The claimant was in her classroom when a pupil rushed in… saying that “a year five pupil was trying to get a reception kid by climbing over the toilet booth”,’ say her lawyers.
‘Whilst going to the aid of the younger pupil, the claimant was repeatedly kicked and punched by the Year 5 pupil in a sustained attack.
‘The incident was caused as a result of the negligence and/or breach of statutory duty of the defendant and/or the defendants employees or agents.’
According to her online profile, she retired from the school,
‘Friendly and caring’
which has around 430 pupils aged between three and 11, in January last year. No date has been set for a full trial of the compensation claim.
The Constellation Trust includes ten schools in the Hull area. On its website, Dr Cathy Taylor, CEO, declares: ‘ Our trust prides itself on providing a friendly, caring, family of schools where everything we do is for the benefit of the children and families that we serve.’