Shelly-Ann Malabver-Goulbourne was head teacher at Northwold Primary School in Hackney (Picture: Leon McGowran)
A high-flying head teacher was accused of assault and sacked after she tapped her own child’s hand with two fingers to try and get his attention.
A colleague called the police on Shelly-Ann Malabver-Goulbourne after she tried to get her three-year-old to stop playing with a bottle of hand sanitiser in January 2022.
She was forced to endure an investigation from the police, council and education trust to determine whether she was abusive to her children, and if she could keep her job.
Despite the police and local authority determining there was no need for further action, the Arbor Acacdemy Trust sacked her from Northwold Primary School in Hackney, London.
She is now in line for compensation after winning an unfair dismissal case.
On the day of the incident, Ms Malabver-Goulbourne was finishing a meeting with the head of child safety, Ms Bhagwandas, when she was told her son, J, had spilled the liquid on the floor.
The toddler had got hand sanitiser in his eye just two weeks before, the tribunal heard.
Her 11-year-old daughter, who was waiting in the office with her mum, said J had squirted sanitiser on the floor, prompting Ms Malabver-Goulbourne to take the bottle out of his hand.
She then bent down to speak to her son, and when he turned his face away, she tapped him to get his attention again.
But Ms Bhagwandas reportedly told the head teacher that she should not have hurt her son and that she should have spoken to him instead.
She later accused Ms Malabver-Goulbourne of inflicting pain on a child, said that she was shocked at what happened and considered it a form of corporal punishment.
Her complaint led to Ms Malabver-Goulbourne being suspended, a disciplinary investigation being launched and the local authority and police being called.
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Despite the police ruling her actions were ‘reasonable chastisement’, Ms Malabver-Goulbourne was found guilty of gross misconduct and sacked in May 2022.
The tribunal was told that neither the council nor the police – who interviewed all of the head teacher’s children – thought further action was necessary with officers concluding that what she had done was ‘reasonable chastisement’.
An employment judge concluded there was no evidence that she had committed ‘physical chastisement or an assault’ and ruled her dismissal unfair.
The hearing was told she had been a teacher for ‘many years’, and joined the Arbor Academy Trust in 2005. She had been employed as head since 2017.
However, EJ Jones said that the school’s code of conduct does not prohibit all physical contact between pupils and teachers and pointed out that as a parent of pupils it would be a difficult rule for the head teacher to abide by.
Upholding her claim for unfair dismissal, EJ Jones said: ‘It is this Tribunal’s judgment that [the Trust] had sufficient evidence…that she was trying to prevent injury to her child and addressing his behaviour.
‘There was no evidence that she had committed physical chastisement or an assault.’
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