Art teacher’s sacking on sick leave was fair, tribunal rules

John Beardshall, who taught at Brinsworth Comprehensive School, Rotherham, stopped work after one of his lessons was deemed “inadequate” during a spot check.

Students had arrived late and did not appear to know what they were doing, a hearing was told in July.

Mr Beardshall also missed deadlines for submitting pupils’ work records and spied on a newly qualified teacher’s lesson through a peephole.

After an unannounced classroom observation by senior teachers on December 6, 2007, the teacher, from Barnsley, described the results as “patronising, negative and nit picking”.

When the headteacher and his deputy observed another “inadequate” lesson by Mr Beardshall’s on February 7, 2008 he became “immediately defensive and concentrated on the small details of the lesson, rather than the bigger picture of what the pupils were actually learning and gaining from their lesson”, according to the panel.

The teacher, who did not attend the tribunal, left work with anxiety and depression and never returned from sick leave.

He claimed Rotherham Council then failed to follow its absence policy and the school ignored health and safety matters but this too was rejected by the tribunal.

There were numerous attempts to get Mr Beardshall to attend a meeting over a grievance he raised with the school but he was eventually sacked by letter.

He appealed, claiming the school had failed to address his grievance, tackle a culture of bullying and harassment or carry out its duty of care.

The tribunal judgment says: “The appeal was never heard and the grievance was never fully responded to. We place the blame for those failures squarely on the shoulders of Mr Beardshall.”

In conclusion Employment Judge Stephen Shore said: “This is a very unfortunate case. We understand that from Mr Beardshall’s perspective he has been treated very badly.

“However on a cold analysis of the evidence we cannot agree with him.”