'Swamped' Teesside headteacher dealing with playground brawl failed to safeguard student

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A Teesside headteacher dealing with a playground brawl failed to safeguard a student during a 'lapse in concentration', a misconduct hearing heard.

'Swamped' Louise Dollings said she was dealing with 'scary mayhem' at an unnamed school when a group of pupils began fighting. The teacher said she was ringing parents, dealing with hurt children and keeping the school chief executive officer (CEO) in the loop after chaos erupted on the playground.

At the time, the headteacher was also dealing with a concern relating to a vulnerable student, known as student A, but admitted failing to safeguard them when she made an 'isolated mistake'. Mrs Dollings was subject to a Teacher Regulation Agency misconduct hearing this week which heard she started working for the Teesside school in January 2018.

The hearing heard that on one occasion, student A was involved in an argument with another student on the playground. Student A became very upset and was found in the cloakroom holding a pair of scissors up to their face.

The misconduct panel heard at 4.13pm that day a teaching assistant reported the incident on the school's child protection online management system and Mrs Dollings dealt with the issue. However, days later student A was involved in another playground 'incident' with a another pupil.

The hearing heard student A then wrote something concerning in his journal which was not made public at the hearing. A member of staff notified Mrs Dollings of the incident and she requested a copy of the journal entry which was provided to her.

'Scary mayhem'

However at the time, Mrs Dollings was dealing with a major incident. A panel spokesperson added: "While she was dealing with a major incident on the playground involving year five and year six boys fighting the teaching assistant came to tell her student A had written something in his journal and she was concerned about them.

"Mrs Dollings explained she asked the other teaching assistant to photocopy it and bring it to her and continued dealing with the immediate violent incident. Mrs Dollings submitted that she was making phone calls home to parents reporting the various incidents, assisting those who had been hurt and emailing the CEO to keep him updated.

"Mrs Dollings further stated that this had been a particularly violent incident and one of the students involved was physically larger than many of the staff members and was behaving violently towards staff and younger pupils." The headteacher branded the incident as "scary mayhem" and said when she later returned to her office she had forgotten about the conversation regarding student A and the copy of his journal was covered by other documents on her desk.

She did not take further action until the following day when she reported the incident on the system and was reminded of the need to contact student A's parent through a notification on her phone. However, this did not happen.

The panel spokesperson said: "Upon her return to school there was a group of parents who were very irate and demanding to speak to her. She explained the parents were refusing to speak to any other member of staff and were refusing to leave the building and would regularly attempt unauthorised access to staff areas to speak with Mrs Dollings.

"Mrs Dollings submitted that she was 'firefighting' and 'repairing the ship while sailing it' and later forgot to take further action in relation to the [playground] incident. She further explained that she perceived her experience at the school as quote 'death by 1,000 cuts'."

Final warning and resignation

The hearing heard on February 4, 2020, Mrs Dollings was suspended from the school and in July of that year the school issued a final warning to the teacher. She resigned on August, 31, 2020.

The hearing heard the teacher accepts she should have contacted student A's mum as soon as possible and she "deeply regrets" not doing this. The panel found Mrs Dollings had failed to properly act upon concern raised for student A following the incident.

Mrs Dollings admitted she failed to properly and effectively safeguard student A's wellbeing. The panel was satisfied the conduct involved breaches of teaching standards.

However the panel stated: "The panel regarded this as an isolated mistake resulting in a lapse in concentration arising from Mrs Dollings being quote 'swamped' by the challenges in a quote 'very difficult situation'. The panel did not find that the teacher's conduct amounted to 'unacceptable professional conduct' and Mrs Dollings did not face a sanction."

It is understood she now works as a teacher at another Teesside school.

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