Head teacher failed to follow recruitment policies

Sharon Flowers was head teacher at Bramingham Primary School

A former head teacher of a primary school failed to follow proper recruitment policies, a misconduct panel has found.

Sharon Flowers had worked at Bramingham Primary, on the outskirts of Luton, since it opened in 1993 until she left in 2020.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found Ms Flowers made mistakes when recruiting staff by failing to hold formal interviews and not advertising a post.

The panel recommended that she should not be banned from the profession but it found she had conducted unacceptable professional conduct and conduct likely to bring the profession into disrepute.

Ms Flowers had been head teacher at the school – which has 400 pupils aged between four and 11 – since 2001 but left before any disciplinary proceedings were completed.

During an audit, Luton Borough Council found she had not complied with its school recruitment policies, which were introduced after the Soham murders and other incidents.

The panel concluded that Ms Flowers, who did not attend and was not legally represented at last month's hearing, was in breach of safeguarding pupils' wellbeing.

It found one employee was appointed despite a post not being advertised and only one reference was subsequently obtained – and that was not from their current employer.

A second staff member was not interviewed when they returned to work at the school after a period away, nor interviewed when they applied for further internal posts.

Pre-employment checks were also not carried out when that staff member rejoined the school.

The TRA found that another employee failed to complete an application form or have a formal interview when reappointed.

'A clear theme'

But it noted that Ms Flowers had engaged with proceedings to a "substantial degree", had positive character references and had never been the subject of any previous regulatory action during her long career.

"There was a clear theme... in that all were previous members of staff at the school and all known to Ms Flowers," the panel found.

"The evidence showed Ms Flowers had placed an over-reliance on her own knowledge and trust of the staff when they were re-recruited.

"Whilst this demonstrated significantly poor judgment... it could not be fairly described as a complete disregard or wholesale failure to adhere to the appropriate safeguarding procedures."

The panel's findings were sent to the office of the secretary of state for education, which ruled that Ms Flowers should not be banned from teaching given her contribution to the profession but said that the findings should be published.