Geography teacher 'sacked for attacks on pupils'

 
11 November 2013

A geography teacher sacked for a series of pupil assaults violently attacked a schoolboy after finding work as a supply teacher, a professional panel heard.

Veteran teacher Barrie Mugford, from Bristol, allegedly strangled, slapped and shoved pupils in a series of assaults at two different schools over five years.

As the long-standing head of geography at Caldicot School, in Newport, south Wales, he was well-liked and respected by his colleagues, the panel heard.

But a series of violent incidents against teenage boys and girls at the school from May 2004 saw him eventually sacked for gross misconduct in 2006.

He went on to work as a supply teacher at a school in Bristol several years later after allegedly suppressing his classroom record in Wales to find work.

Susan Gwyer-Roberts, head at the Newport school, took over as head teacher in 2002 and said there had been two independent investigations into violent incidents.

Mugford, head of geography at the school from 1991, and started at the site in 1974, did not attend the General Teaching Council for Wales hearing in Cardiff.

Mrs Gwyer-Roberts said he must have been a "very able" teacher in the past but standards in geography were "declining," by the time she took over.

She described him as the sort of teacher who leans over pupils and was "not popular."

"His engagement with teaching was not that committed and robust. I think his patience level with year nine pupils (aged 14) was diminishing."

She added: "He had forgotten how to plan lessons appropriately for more challenging pupils and that put a burden on other members of the team."

Mugford was accused of grabbing a schoolboy - referred to as pupil A - around the neck, leaving red marks, in the first alleged incident in a corridor in May 2004.

The head teacher eventually gave him a verbal warning for his conduct but he went on to have an alleged physical confrontation with two schoolgirls the following year.

In one case he held one of the schoolgirls by the jaw and squeezed her face to see what she was eating, giving her a tooth ache.

Mugford was suspended and given a final written warning, but within a year of returning to work he faced an allegation of hitting a schoolboy on the head during a lesson.

Described as a "opened handed slap", the schoolboy's parents wrote complaining of the incident and an investigation was triggered.

Mugofrd initially claimed he had touched him accidentally but later claimed it had been a "playful gesture."

A series of pupils gave evidence confirming the attack and after two weeks Mugford, whose overall behaviour was taken into account, was sacked.

He, however, claimed pupils at the school conspired against him and Mrs Gwyer-Roberts admitted some of those who gave evidence against him "were no angels".

She said she thought that Mugford was a "proud" man who did not ask for support and did not acknowledge his behaviour was a problem.

Mugford was also accused of attacking a schoolboy at the Oasis Academy in Bristol, where he was working as a supply teacher in April 2012.

In the confrontation he is accused of grabbing the boy and pulling him down on to a table.

The boy was later to say in a statement that he had been trying to leave a corner of the classroom when he was attacked.

"He digged his hand in my knee and my head got hit off the wall, but not hard."

He said that Mugford had told him "If there is one boy in the world I would like to punch it's you."

Mugford would later confirm that he had said those words, but would claim that he said them to himself in a moment of exasperation.

The panel heard that his account of the incident was inconsistent, beginning with him claiming there was no contact - but later saying he could not remember.

The professional panel heard that 14 pupils at the school all gave statements confirming the incident had happened as the victim described.

Mugford had got the supply teaching post through the agency New Directions Education Ltd allegedly without revealing he had been dismissed from the school in Wales.

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