School headteacher awarded £100,000 after being sacked for tapping own son's hand

A primary school headteacher has been awarded £100,000 after being sacked and accused of assault after she tapped her own toddler’s hand.

Shelly-Ann Malabver-Goulbourne wanted her three-year-old to stop playing with a bottle of hand sanitiser when she made contact with her son in front of the teacher in charge of child safety, an employment tribunal heard. After the teacher filed a complaint, police officers were summoned and the head was suspended from the school.

The police found that the head’s actions amounted to “reasonable chastisement” by a parent - but the 46-year-old was nonetheless sacked after being found guilty of gross misconduct. Ms Malabver-Goulbourne, who was the head of Northwold Primary School in Hackney - part of Arbor Academy Trust - took her case to an employment court, where she has now won significant compensation.

Mom squeezing hand sanitizer onto littler daughter’s hands

An employment judge found there was no evidence that Ms Malabver-Goulbourne had committed “physical chastisement of an assault” and ruled that her dismissal was unfair, awarding her £102,328 in compensation following the dismissal.

Ms Malabver-Goulbourne had worked at the school since 2005 before becoming the head teacher in 2017, before she was sacked following the incident on January 17, 2022. “It was around 6.20pm and [Ms Malabver-Goulbourne] was packing up her things to go home after having a meeting with Ms Bhagwandas, the designated lead for safeguarding,” the court heard according to the Daily Mail.

“[Her] two children who attended the school were in her offices with her, waiting for her to take them home. [Her] youngest child, her son J, who was 3 years old at the time, was in the room, as was her 11-year-old daughter. J took up a bottle of hand sanitiser which was on a table. [Her] daughter told her that he had squirted some to the floor. [Ms Malabver-Goulbourne] took the sanitiser out of his hand.'

Employment Judge Julia Jones said: “I find it likely that she then bent down to his level to speak to him about why he should not be playing with hand sanitiser. When she did so he turned his face away from her and she tapped him with two fingers on the back of his hand to get his attention, so that he would look at her to hear what she was saying.”

Northwold Primary School, Hackney

The tribunal heard that the toddler had got hand sanitiser in his eye two weeks earlier, and it was with “knowledge of that earlier experience” that Ms Malabver-Goulbourne wanted to “ensure that he understood that hand sanitiser was not a toy that he should be playing with”.

Ms Bhagwandas told the head teacher she should have spoken to her son instead of hurting him - but Ms Malabver-Goulbourne contended that she did not hurt him and only aimed to get his attention. Ms Bhagwandas nonetheless filed a ‘cause for concern’ form reporting a ‘safeguarding incident’

The tribunal heard: “IIn it she reported that she had witnessed [Ms Malabver-Goulbourne] smack J on the hand. She also stated that before doing so, [she] had told J that she was going to smack him and expressed disregard for Ms Bhagwandas' presence in the office. Ms Bhagwandas reported that the child had been crying and that she had pacified him.” Ms Malabver-Goulbourne was suspended as a result and a disciplinary investigation launched - but neither the council nor the police thought further action was necessary.

“[The officer] considered that physical chastisement could be appropriate because the child was in possession of a chemical, which could have caused irritation to his eyes, and he accepted [his mother's] explanation that her response was to get him out of harm's way,” the tribunal heard.

But the Academy Trust investigated her, with Ms Bhagwandas arguing that she had witnessed a form of corporal punishment. But Ms Malabver-Goulbourne defended herself: “[She said that] when explaining inappropriate behaviours to her child she will say 'this is wrong we don't do that' and explain why or show him the appropriate way to behave,” the tribunal heard.

“She explained that this is what she did when her son J took up the hand sanitiser the first time at home. When it happened again in school, she reminded him about the first encounter with the sanitiser and that it had got into his eyes. [She said] that she used 'tapping' on J's wrist to get his attention.

“She described this action as meaning, 'Look at me when I am talking to you, focus on me and what I am saying' as he looked away when she was talking to him. [She said] that her son had not cried from her tapping the top of his hand, he started whining because she took the bottle away from him. She had not done it in anger or as a punishment.

“She tapped him on the top of his hand to get his attention to explain to him the danger of playing with hand sanitiser as she was worried about what could happen to him. She was clear that she had not smacked him.'

Ms Malabver-Goulbourne was nevertheless sacked in May 2022 for gross misconduct. But the employment tribunal ruled in her favour: “It is this Tribunal's judgement 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.”