Teacher sacked while awaiting outcome of tribunal

Aldona Done claims she was unfairly dismissed from Ellesmere College due to whistleblowing

A teacher and former housemistress who took an independent school to an employment tribunal has been sacked while awaiting the outcome of her case.

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

At an emergency hearing in Birmingham on Friday, Mrs Done said she believed she was sacked in May for whistleblowing over a student's "inappropriate sexual behaviour" towards girl pupils.

Ellesmere College denies any wrongdoing and is contesting the claims.

Mrs Done had been awaiting the result of a discrimination case against the boarding school, in which she accused bosses of "gaslighting" her after she raised concerns about pupil safety and working practices.

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

Judge Connolly said interim relief required a "high bar" for the standard of proof needed to accept the claim.

'They tried to destroy me'

Mrs Done said she had become “persona not grata” at the school after her whistleblowing disclosures.

She said the school “had to find something wrong with me” as the college “knew they couldn’t dismiss me for whistleblowing”.

The maths teacher was dismissed from her job by an external HR professional who was not a member of staff at the school, but Mrs Done claims this was orchestrated by acting headteacher Vicky Pritt-Roberts, who she alleges told the HR professional to dismiss her.

“They tried to destroy me little by little. This was a retaliatory measure to silence and intimidate me,” Mrs Done said.

“They’re trying to silence me for exposing wrongdoing."

Mrs Done claims the senior leadership team discriminated against her by failing to support her while she suffered an anxiety disorder.

However, the college’s barrister, 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 there was a distinct lack of information to her allegations.

In her dismissal letter, Mrs Done was said to have been dismissed for a number of reasons, including “insubordination to the acting headteacher”.

Breaching confidentiality

Mr Pickett said Mrs Done was dismissed because she refused to follow instructions by talking about the tribunal matter to students and for breaching confidentiality.

He said: “She was asked not to discuss the matters and she refused to give assurance she wouldn’t do so again.”

Mr Pickett also said the school had taken appropriate action regarding a student's behaviour and there was no risk to other pupils.

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

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