Ex-head banned from teaching after assistant was hired despite sex assault arrest
A FORMER head teacher at a Nottingham school has been banned from teaching indefinitely.
Carol Barker, former head at Woodlands Academy on Beechdale Road in Aspley, was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct – partly in relation to a reference she gave for an applicant who had once been arrested in connection with a child sex offence.
The incidents for which she was under investigation began in May 2011, when she submitted a reference to Nottingham City Council regarding a male applicant for a teaching assistant job at her school, whom she knew previously as a volunteer and nursery nurse. The man had been arrested in 2009 on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child.
But Mrs Barker’s reference omitted knowledge of this and also stated that the man had worked solely as a volunteer for the previous five years when he had actually been employed in a paid role. The man then successfully obtained a position at Woodlands as a teaching assistant.
In March 2016, concerns were raised regarding the teaching assistant placing his hand inside a pupil’s clothing. Mrs Barker did not escalate this to the local authority’s designated officer for nearly two weeks and neglected to inform the child’s parents.
The assistant was arrested again in June 2018 on suspicion of a separate sexual crime against a child.
Mrs Barker was also said not to have carried out adequate preappointment checks for the teaching assistant, nor assessments of his risk to children. She was also accused of the same neglect of pre-appointment checks for another employee.
Out of 14 allegations, Ms Barker admitted eight. This included that her reference to the city council in 2011 had been misleading, but she denied it being dishonest.
She also admitted not telling the parents of the child who had allegedly been inappropriately touched by the assistant in 2016. The parents found out about it in 2019.
All but one of the allegations were found proven.
Mrs Barker’s conduct was found to have breached teaching standards, including the need to regard pupil safeguarding and well-being.
The panel of three people at the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found at the conclusion of their hearing on March 6 that Mrs Barker’s conduct amounted to “misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession”. It also found her actions constituted conduct that “may bring the profession into disrepute”.
Witnesses defended Mrs Barker’s character, with one describing her as “selfless” and another saying she “did her utmost to provide a loving, safe, well-educated setting for pupils”.
The panel also took note of someone who said that “in being compassionate for vulnerable adults she (Mrs Barker) can lose sight of the core purpose and make decisions that are not in the best interest of children”.
In her witness statement, Mrs Barker said: “My trust of people’s innate goodness and my own desire to believe that people are trustworthy should never have superseded my professional duty to protect children and my school population”. She also said she was “profoundly regretful and deeply ashamed that I put my pupils and staff at any risk when it was my avowed duty to protect them”.
But the panel was “troubled” that Mrs Barker had not “wholly engaged” with the severity of the allegations as she had characterised her behaviour as “a small collection of procedural errors”.
The panel was therefore “concerned that there may be a small risk of repetition.”
The decision was made to ban Mrs Barker from teaching indefinitely and she cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. She can appeal for her ban to be overturned, but not until March 11, 2028, four years from the date of the order.
A spokesperson for Woodlands Academy said: “The school received information regarding the Teaching Regulation Agency’s decision regarding a former employee. Our primary concern is the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people under our care.
“We are committed to providing our pupils with a supportive, caring and secure environment. We firmly believe that every child has the right to learn in a safe and nurturing setting, and we will do everything we can to ensure this.”