A former primary school headteacher who referred to a pupil as a “fat slug” has dodged a ban from teaching.
Nicola Brogan, who was head of Woodland Community Primary School in Heywood in Greater Manchester between September 2011 and December 2019, made derogatory remarks about staff, pupils and a parent.
A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) disciplinary panel found that Brogan referred to one pupil as a “wimp” and another as having “no personality.”
The former headteacher also used the term “Captain Camp” about a male member of staff in reference to his sexuality.
Brogan was head at Woodland Community Primary School in Heywood, Greater Manchester
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Other comments included calling a teaching assistant a “fat cow” and claiming another member of staff, who was late for a meeting, wouldn’t need an inhaler if she “wasn’t so fat.”
She also described one pupil as a “wimp” and said another “annoys the f**k out of me, he has no personality.”
The panel said the conduct of Brogan, which concerned “abusive and inappropriate” comments about staff, pupils and a parent, was “very serious”.
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Brogan used the term ‘Captain Camp’ to describe a teaching assistant (file pic)
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A panel also found she inappropriately joked with a teacher about whether they would have sex with an Ofsted inspector in return for an outstanding rating.
She was also inconsistent and moody in her dealings with staff and shouted at them inappropriately in her office on at least two occasions, reports The Telegraph.
The TRA report said: “The working culture at the school at the material time was at times negative and hostile. Some pupils and some staff members were clearly not always treated with respect by Mrs Brogan.”
The panel concluded that Brogan’s actions amounted to unacceptable professional conduct, but it said that not recommending a prohibition order was a “proportionate and appropriate response”.
Ruling on behalf of the Education Secretary, Sarah Buxcey said that the panel was led to believe that Brogan had worked for many years at the school without complaints prior to the allegations which came to light in November 2019.
She wrote: “I have also placed considerable weight on the finding of the panel that ‘the panel also considered that, given her experience and prior good service, there was every prospect that Mrs Brogan would be able to make a contribution to the education profession in the future.
“I have given weight in my consideration of sanction therefore, to the contribution that Mrs Brogan has made to the profession.
“For these reasons, I have concluded that a prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest.”
