The press report into this case is here: Hertfordshire teachers win tribunal after being sacked for unexpectedly high SATS results

We should immediately make clear that this great result at Employment Tribunal was not our work, but this case does illustrate how blameless teachers can find their careers blighted within a competition-based school system that seeks to apportion responsibility for any perceived failure.

Our client was a successful primary school teacher in her first position who had worked hard under the direction of her school’s leaders to give her children the best SATs results they could. She and several colleagues were then accused by those running the receiving secondary school of inflating pupil’s levels. Importantly, this accusation then justified why the pupils’ attainments were lower than expected in secondary. The same Trust now ran both schools and so they investigated and dismissed four of the primary teachers. Although our client was reluctantly reinstated on appeal, all trust was gone and she did not go back but claimed constructive dismissal. The teachers were also reported to the TRA for misconduct, but we were able to persuade the TRA this was nonsense and they dropped the case against our client and another 10 teachers in all. This then allowed our client and two of those teachers to successfully sue the school. Damages are yet to be agreed.