Caroline Hadley was targeted by primary school head Anupe Hanch (pictured) – who was branded a ‘blatant bully’ by Judge Heather Baucher
A teacher who endured years of ‘horrendous’ bullying at the hands of a headmistress from hell is now suing for more than £700,000 in damages.
Caroline Hadley was targeted by primary school head Anupe Hanch – who was branded a ‘blatant bully’ by Judge Heather Baucher.
Miss Hadley, now 40, suffered repeated acts of humiliation at Mrs Hanch’s hands, said her barrister Andrew Buchan.
She was assistant head of Gearies Primary School, in Ilford, but felt as if she was ‘at war’ with her superior.
Mr Buchan said she was at one point suspended for insubordination and the ‘malicious nature’ of the bullying was highlighted by episodes in which Mrs Hanch ‘sent her to Coventry’.
She left Ms Hadley’s name off the invitation list for the school’s Christmas lunch and, when she went off sick, Mrs Hanch posted the medical reasons for her absence on the staff notice board, Central London County Court heard.
She told the school’s finance officer that Miss Hadley ‘could not be trusted’ – and even removed her name from the school’s headed notepaper.
Mrs Hanch ‘spread malicious gossip about her’ and ‘asked the caretaker to lie about her behaviour’, said Mr Buchan.
And she repeatedly dropped hints by showing Miss Hadley the job section of the Times Educational Supplement, he added.
The head was dismissed from her post and, in June 2015, she was barred from ‘ever teaching again’ by the Secretary of State for Education. Pictured: Gearies Primary School, in Ilford
The 53-year-old head was eventually herself suspended and faced disciplinary action for misconduct.
In May 2015 she was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by the National College for Teaching and Leadership, said Mr Buchan.
The disciplinary panel found that Mrs Hanch told a colleague she ‘looked like a Polish slapper’, and said she’d like to ‘chop off’ another’s head.
She also stunned a pupil by asking, ‘do you want to become a paedophile?’, and locked a teacher inside an office for three hours.
The head was dismissed from her post and, in June 2015, she was barred from ‘ever teaching again’ by the Secretary of State for Education.
Judge Baucher said Miss Hadley suffered ‘prolonged and sustained bullying from an individual who was found to be dishonest and a blatant bully, and who will never be allowed to darken the doors of her profession again’.
Miss Hadley has since returned to her native Lancashire and lives in (Salisbury Avenue) Heywood, where she cares for her sick mother
She is now suing the London Borough of Redbridge, which runs the school, over the bullying and harassment she endured.
The council has admitted breach of duty but is disputing the amount of compensation due to her.
Miss Hadley was ‘exposed to a hostile working environment’ over a four-year period, said Mr Buchan, although the actual bullying lasted between June 2010 to July 2012.
She became ‘a direct target’ after successfully steering the school through an OFSTED inspection, with Mrs Hanch ‘undermining her career’ by branding her a ‘rogue member of staff’, the barrister claimed.
Although Miss Hadley was elated when the overbearing headmistress finally departed, she failed to flourish under the school’s new leadership and transferred out of the borough to a new primary school.
In May 2015 she was appointed head of a school in Camden, but even then she could not get over chronic symptoms of trauma and depression and eventually quit the profession, the court heard.
Mr Buchan said Mrs Hadley would have reached the top of her profession, but her bullying nightmare ‘sensitised’ her to ‘potentially hostile working environments,’ making a return to the classroom impossible.
Describing the impact of her ordeal, the barrister added: ‘The bullying was horrendous and rightly resulted in the suspension and dismissal of the bully. Miss Hadley felt that when she was at work she was at ‘war’.’
Miss Hadley has since returned to her native Lancashire and lives in (Salisbury Avenue) Heywood, where she cares for her sick mother.
Visibly distressed, she told the court: ‘Teaching was my life…I more than enjoyed it.
‘I tried going back several times and fought so hard for my career. But desire doesn’t have anything to do with it, there’s no way I could ever go back to teaching now.
‘I desperately wanted to and fought to stay in it. But I could never go back because it’s just too corrupt.’
After the hearing Miss Hadley described her treatment by Mrs Hanch as ‘simply unspeakable’.
She added outside court: ‘This has dominated my life since I started working for Redbridge in 2008. It’s been such an ordeal for my family as well as for myself.
‘I would not advise anyone I loved or cared about to go into teaching.’
Mrs Hanch played no part in the case and was neither present nor legally repesented in court.
After hearing all the evidence over two days, Judge Baucher highlighted problems in the preparation of the case and directed a re-hearing of the claim.
She told Miss Hadley: ‘It’s not a decision which a trial judge takes lightly. I know it’s very distressing for you, but it’s the right way forward.’