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School head appears before
conduct hearing
A PRIMARY school headteacher was suspended from duty after allegedly calling members of female staff his 'harem'.
Malcolm Beresford also referred to individuals on his school’s governing body as ‘posh pants’ and ‘vindaloo’, it is claimed.
He was suspended from his post at Willoughton Primary School, near Gainsborough, in November 2005.
Now he is appearing before a professional conduct committee of the General Teaching Council to answer a string of charges about his behaviour.
A hearing in Birmingham heard Mr Beresford was guilty of ‘unacceptable professional conduct’ while head of the school.
He allegedly called female staff his ‘harem’, claimed one member was his ‘lover’ and had insulting nicknames for members of the governing body.
Mr Beresford, who started at the 51-pupil school in 1996, helped Willoughton Primary to achieve praise in its 2002 Ofsted report.
It was said to have significantly improved and was complimented on its ‘harmonious atmosphere’.
But a later Ofsted report in 2007, following Mr Beresford’s suspension, noted there had been a ‘period of considerable turmoil and a serious decline in standards’.
Other allegations against Mr Beresford claim he left lessons without adequate provision for cover, left teaching assistants in charge of classes and failed to prepare adequate lesson plans.
It is also alleged Mr Beresford made payments to staff in respect of overtime hours not actually worked.
He is also said to have authorised a payment of 2,250 to his wife in June 2005 from school funds for a website design course without making appropriate deductions for the use of school resources.
He also had substantial amounts of ICT equipment belonging to the school stored in his home without good reason, it was alleged.
Mr Beresford denies all the charges.
His suspension in 2005 split parents and teachers in the village. While at the school Mr Beresford was a member of the National College for School Leadership and the high-profile Department for Education and Skills Innovation Unit, set up to find new ways of teaching.
It was so impressed with the quality of teaching at Willoughton that the school was selected as a ‘guinea pig’ to test new Government education projects.
The hearing, which is being held in Birmingham, has now been adjourned until February.
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Weather for Gainsborough
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
