Allegations left former head 'physically ill'

A FORMER headteacher facing allegations over her conduct told a disciplinary panel she ended up in hospital after becoming "physically ill" over one of the complaints against her.

Millicent Anne Sadler, ex-boss of St Alban’s Primary School, personally denied mistreating four young pupils with learning difficulties when she took to the witness stand at the General Teaching Council (GTC) hearing last week.

Mrs Sadler refuted all allegations – including "ranting and yelling" at a boy with Down’s syndrome and telling a child with handwriting deficiency he was "lazy and a daydreamer".

Taking to the stand on the third day of the hearing in Birmingham, she told the GTC panel that a parents’ complaint letter made her "physically ill and upset" when she read it, and was taken into hospital to have a gastroscopy – a medical examination of the stomach.

Mrs Sadler faces one allegation of unacceptable professional conduct relating to her management of four young students – two with Down’s syndrome, one with dyslexia, and one with the writing deficiency, dysgraphia – between 2001 and 2005.

The panel had previously heard from Nick Leale, GTC’s presenting officer, that the parents of both pupils with Down’s syndrome separately withdrew their children from St Alban’s after their experiences.

But Mrs Sadler told the hearing that one of those pupils with the syndrome had brought her flowers on the day he left the Priory Lane-based primary school, to thank her.

"To have any child withdrawn from the school (by their parents) made me personally very sad," she added.

Catherine Callaghan, Mrs Sadler’s barrister, pointed to "serious procedural flaws" in the case, and "hearsay upon hearsay evidence" against her client.

Miss Callaghan also alleged that the chairman of the school’s governors, Peter Wilcox, was "unable to act impartially" in his initial investigation after a personal dispute with Mrs Sadler.

Janice Maloney, school personnel consultant for Cheshire County Council, who investigated original complaints in 2005, told the GTC hearing that it was "unwise" for Mr Wilcox to be involved in the complaints against the head.

But she also insisted that he could act impartially.

Known to colleagues as Anne, Mrs Sadler worked as the headteacher at the school between 1994 and 2005, before she was suspended and later resigned.

The GTC hearing continues in Birmingham next week.