'It was my dream to be a teacher... then I got sacked over a man's desire for revenge'

When the Salford home Margaret Pearson had lived in for 40 years was being cleared after her death a discovery was made.

"She had old double cellars and we were moving a mattress. As we did there were all these chalked sums and sentences and writing on the wall, and it was by me," her daughter, Carmen Wood-Hope recalls later. "My brothers and sisters remember me sitting them on crates in the cellar and teaching them. It was always something that was in me."

Carmen Wood-Hope was born to teach. "I love being around young children and passing on that knowledge - no use in having all this stuff in your head if it is not going anywhere," she says. "I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a teacher and neither can my siblings."

That clear ambition was achieved. But in a case that has appalled M.E.N readers, Carmen would lose her job, her home, and almost lose her professional reputation - just for standing up for union members in a Greater Manchester school.

A troubling attack on workers' rights - in a city run by the left

The headteacher, Michael Earnshaw, not only ensured she lost her job - but then wrote damaging references which could have stopped her from working at all, a Manchester employment tribunal, brought against Salford City Council and the governors of Friars Primary School concluded. It was all because she was the union rep.

That would be troubling anywhere in modern Britain. But it's especially troubling that this happened in Salford - a Labour party-run city that prides itself on its contribution to the wider labour movement which fought for workers' rights over centuries - in a school that is still part of the council's local education authority.

By the time she joined the staff at The Friars Primary in Salford in 2014 Carmen was decades into an exciting career in education. "I am very much a primary school teacher - I think it is joyful and a privilege," she says.

At The Friars, Carmen became a member of the senior leadership team as the school’s Liaison and Cohesion lead, with responsibility for relations with parents and staff. She was an excellent classroom teacher who had, in March 2017, been recommended for and received an additional pay award to reflect her ‘highly competent’ performance.

But her world fell apart after she became the NUT, later NEU, workplace representative for teaching staff members at the school, and ended up being dismissed. As reported in the Manchester Evening News, a tribunal found she was unfairly sacked and discriminated against for 'trade union reasons'.

The judgement concluded that the headteacher, Michael Earnshaw, "sought to adopt a dictatorial attitude" and didn't like the union stopping him having "free reign" so took "revenge" on union rep Carmen Wood-Hope.

'The writing was on the wall for me, from then on'

Carmen says the seed of her downfall was sown after she represented a fellow senior staff member, Jill Baker, who lodged a grievance against Michael Earnshaw, who at that time, in December 2017, was deputy head.

Describing the incident, which was referred to in the judgement of the tribunal's panel, Carmen said: "(Jill Baker) had written a new scheme for improving English in the school. But she later learned Mr Earnshaw had presented it to the governors as his work. We had a meeting and he was made to apologise. I do believe, absolutely, that was the seed."

Then, when Mr Earnshaw became the new headteacher, from September 2018, a far bigger controversy soon arose. He announced he was changing the protocol for observing staff in class. They were to be conducted by unannounced drop ins. The concerned backlash from unionised staff was instant, since the existing protocol had been collectively negotiated.

At a meeting of the senior leadership team Carmen was put under pressure to say which staff were concerned but refused to do so. Then, the next day, she was summoned to a meeting with Mr Earnshaw, who issued her with a "formal warning" about her conduct at the meeting. The tribunal later concluded this was given "in response to her carrying out her trade union role".

"I was seen to be insubordinate at the meeting because I was arguing back to him," she said. "I was asking him the questions it was my job to do as a union rep, an experienced member of staff, and a member of the senior leadership team. In that meeting he lost his temper and was shouting and was told to calm down by a colleague.

"The writing was on the wall for me at that point, and I knew it. I had a feeling he was out for me. But I didn't realise to what extent. I thought I will just keep it professional. I thought it would blow over."

The day after the informal warning, the tribunal heard, Carmen suffered a panic attack and the NEU wrote to Mr Earnshaw regarding the changes he wanted to bring in, warning that his "latest actions are outside of the protocol and could be seen as an attempt to deter trade union activity, whilst reminding Mr Earnshaw that such is unlawful".. However, the tribunal found he "remained unwilling to entertain any form of compromise", resulting in a "ballot for strike action".

She ended up in A&E

"The stress of the strike ballot made me ill," Carmen says. "Up until then I had had this lovely teaching career and a wonderful relationship with staff and my headteacher. I was very happy in my job and felt fulfilled. Then all of a sudden I am being blocked and told I am insubordinate. I was having to support staff who were really stressed. I knew my card was marked," said Carmen.

Weeks later, Carmen supported a teaching assistant union member in a dispute over school milk duties, and colleagues began to warn the claimant to “watch your back” in relation to Mr Earnshaw.

Then, in March 2019, she complained to the headteacher about a breach of confidentiality from within the Senior Leadership Team, the tribunal found.

Following that, Mr Earnshaw claimed colleagues had raised several issues about her which would have to be investigated, but "would not tell her what those issues were, nor when the conduct complained of was said to have occurred", the tribunal found.

"In effect, Mr Earnshaw turned the matter into a formal investigation into the claimant’s conduct. As a result, the claimant developed a panic attack and was sent to A&E," the tribunal panel's judgement records.

Following that, Carmen Wood-Hope spent 48 days off work sick with 'work-related stress', and was told by Mr Earnshaw that when she returned she would not be returning to teach her Year 3 class, but instead be doing cover teaching work.

Then, in November 2019, the month she returned, she was placed on a support plan, something "which the tribunal understood to be a form of performance management, for which the tribunal could see no justification."

Following that, she was signed off sick with work-related stress again, and never returned to the school. By 2020 she had been sacked with a letter of dismissal, to which an appeal was turned down.

When she sought work through a recruitment agency in April 2021 she was rejected following a reference in which Mr Earnshaw wrote that he considered her "not at all suitable" for teaching.

The Tribunal found that the support plan was "a punitive measure". It found that she was likely to have time off work "due to the stress and anxiety caused by Mr Earnshaw’s attitude towards it and towards her."

Dark days

While Carmen's health deteriorated to the point that she was unable to work and needed medical support, she lodged an internal grievance against the behaviour by the headteacher and went through a series of internal hearings to explain her case to the school's governing body panels.

It was a sad end to a career at the school which had flourished under previous headteacher Pat Arnold.

"Under Pat I had a wonderful time. She was very hands on," I made a plan and for two years we got the highest SATS results the school has ever had before or since. I was interested in doing after school classes and identified children that could get to grammar schools.

"With the help of other staff I got five children to grammar school in a two year period - one on a scholarship to Chetham's and one on a scholarship to Manchester Grammar. That was because Pat was a believer in letting her staff play to their strengths."

With her career at the school having unravelled as she stood up for staff under Mr Earnshaw's regime, the tribunal found that the governors assigned to adjudicate her claims had failed to investigate the complaints thoroughly and independently and were influenced and swayed by Earnshaw.

The school and the council argued at the tribunal that Ms Wood-Hope's absence from school was a key reason for her dismissal and it had placed a financial burden on the school. But the Tribunal found that "absence was not the true reason for the claimant’s dismissal."

The tribunal considered that Mr Earnshaw’s actions and "apparent need to control the processes of grievance and dismissal" were motivated "by the fact that he wanted rid of the claimant." At one point she faced unfounded allegations that she had falsified children's books.

It added: "Further, having secured her dismissal, he continued to pursue the claimant’s demise by supplying damaging and unsubstantiated references which had the potential to prevent her from working elsewhere or at all."

"On October 21st 2019 my daughter got married - my only daughter," Carmen says. "I helped find a venue and organise the day. At that wedding on that day, after what had happened at school my head could not stop running everything - it was my livelihood, my job, my career, and I was thinking what is going to happen next.

"I was sitting on the top table and my sister Linda came up and said 'you need to get your head out from where it is, because you look so stressed people are noticing, don't ruin your daughter's day'. I was so shocked that my stress was so obvious, it was written all over my face. I didn't realise it was an illness at that time. When I think of it now, that day has got that slight shadow on."

She said she endured "dark days" unable to sleep and would mentally "freeze" unable to function even when doing something as mundane as shopping in a supermarket. "It was like I had blown a circuit in my brain".

'How this got so far baffles me'

Carmen, who has now moved into a terraced house in Chimney Pot Park, Langworthy, Salford, was provided with occupational health support through Salford council and then had counselling. Carmen's local Salford National Education Union representative, Judith Elderkin, supported her throughout her ordeal.

She added: "My husband, Jason, was also a rock. At no point has he ever doubted me. He has never said 'just leave' he has said 'if you want to fight then we fight'.

"How this went beyond the classroom, beyond the school, into a legal hearing is the thing that completely baffles me, because at no point was there ever any evidence. It should have been a conversation."

"I was a union rep and I was very good at my job, and I was blocking Michael from breaking the rules as laid down and agreed by the Local Education Authority and the governing body," she added. "He felt that if I wasn't the rep doing that he would have been able to ride roughshod over the staff."

The tribunal agreed, finding: "(Michael Earnshaw's) actions, largely unexplained under cross-examination, were tainted by a personal animosity towards the claimant which the Tribunal considered to have arisen because the claimant had challenged him in her capacity as the trade union representative of the staff.

"It had been right for the claimant to do so on behalf of concerned trade union members at the school, as Mr Earnshaw sought to adopt a dictatorial attitude and ride roughshod over collectively negotiated and long-standing policies and procedures.

"He did not like the fact that the recognised trade union, the NEU, was preventing him from exercising free reign and that the union required him to negotiate with staff and follow protocol. In response to challenges, Mr Earnshaw adopted an approach of threatening the claimant with unsubstantiated allegations of misconduct or performance."

'I am hoping the judgement will be read by LEAs, headteachers and academies everywhere'

Carmen now hopes her case will be a watershed.

"I am hoping that the judgement will be read by LEAs and headteachers and Academies and every one that has decisions to make on these kind of things," she said. "There needs to be far more accountability and training for governing bodies - so they understand they are the people in charge of the school - including the headteacher. There should have been an independent mediator."

Leaving The Friars, she admits, has been heartbreaking. "One of the joys is watching the children come through from nursery, teaching them, and then teaching their brothers and sisters, knowing their mums and dads.

"It is a lovely part of the job. I really, really miss that. I still bump into some of the parents of children I taught when shopping in Salford Precinct. It was an absolute privilege to teach there and I miss it. That school was so special and did great work for children in the area."

Carmen, 64, who has four children, and seven grandchildren, said: "I am mystified as to how this got this far. Taxpayers paid for this from the council and school side. We sold our family home and downsized to pay our legal fees. It has cost me over £45,000 up to now.

"I am very fortunate that at the moment I am still getting supply work and I am being booked back in all the schools I go to. I am getting wonderful feedback."

In autumn a decision will be made as to how much Carmen should receive in compensation. "I am looking forward to the settlement hearing in October so we can get ourselves on an even keel. I am mentally stronger. I have learned how to control the panic. I work out daily and I have joined a ballet class, which I used to do as a kid. I am involved in a theatre group."

'There is poverty in this city I've never seen the like of - I want to fight to change that now'

Having lived in Africa as a child, and worked at the British International School in Shanghai for two years, Carmen's first teaching job in the UK, in 1992 was at a primary in Warrington, and then St Mary's in Cadishead, before Hulme Hall Grammar in Cheadle Hulme, and lecturing in new technology 'including the role of women in video games' at the University of Salford, and then the Friars.

The experience at the Friars has not diminished her drive. In the May local elections she stood for Women's Equality Party, and polled 240 votes in the Weaste and Seedley ward - just 31 less than the Tories. "I got doors slammed in my face by men while campaigning and told to f*** off. But it won't put me off.

"Though I am not teaching in schools full-time my main drive has been education. I am trying to make sure we change things - to make sure we get universal free child care - we need it in this area desperately - we get free school meals for all children in Salford.

"There is poverty in this city I have never seen anything like before - children who are clearly only having one meal a day; duck-taped, tied up shoes, no socks in the winter, thin jackets, teachers bringing in bread sticks and baskets of fruit - out of their own pocket - I have seen that in several schools in Salford.

"The Local Authority has got to step up and the government needs to do something about that. We also have a major problem with violence against women and girls in the area and yet we don't have a rape-crisis centre in Salford - that's a big meeting I want with Paul Dennett (City Mayor) soon. I am positive going forward with my political hopes and dreams of making a change on the local council."

A spokesperson at Salford City Council said: “The employment tribunal found in favour of the claimant. We will now consider the learning from the case.” Michael Earnshaw has declined to comment.