Ellesmere College: teacher sacked pending court outcome

A teacher and former housewife who took an independent school to court has been dismissed pending the outcome of her trial.

Aldona Done, who worked at Ellesmere College in Shropshire for 15 years, has now been granted a new hearing for unfair dismissal.

At an emergency hearing in Birmingham on Friday, Ms Done said she believed she was fired in May for reporting a student’s “inappropriate sexual behavior” towards female students.

Ellesmere College denies any wrongdoing and disputes the allegations.

Judge Joanne Connolly granted Ms Done a new hearing later this year, but rejected her application for interim measures, which would have meant the college would continue to pay her until the full hearing.

Judge Connolly said the interim measures required a “high bar” for the level of proof needed to grant the application.

Ms Done said she became “persona not grata” at the school after her whistleblowing revelations.

She said the school “must have found something wrong with me” because the university “knew they couldn’t fire me for reporting.”

The maths teacher was fired from her job by an external HR professional who was not a member of the school’s staff, but Ms Done claims this was orchestrated by acting headteacher Vicky Pritt-Roberts, who , according to her, asked the human resources professional to fire her.

“They tried to destroy me little by little. This was a retaliatory measure aimed at silencing and intimidating me,” Ms Done said.

“They are trying to silence me because I spoke out about wrongdoing.”

Ms Done claims the management team discriminated against her by failing to support her while she suffered from an anxiety disorder.

However, the college’s lawyer, Andy Pickett, rejected her claims and said: “Having a grievance or disagreement with an employer is not in the public interest.” »

He also claimed that his allegations were clearly lacking in information.

In her termination letter, Ms Done was said to have been terminated for a number of reasons, including “insubordination towards the Acting Director”.

Mr Pickett said Ms Done was fired because she refused to follow instructions in speaking to students about the tribunal matter and for breaching confidentiality.

He said: “She was asked not to discuss these matters and refused to give assurances that she would not do so again. »

Mr Pickett also said the school had taken appropriate action regarding one student’s behavior and there was no risk to other students.

He added that Ms Done’s claims were “mere allegations” and not a disclosure of information.

She is still awaiting the outcome of her original tribunal regarding discrimination and a case management hearing for unfair dismissal will take place on October 21.