The former headteacher of a Suffolk primary school has been censured for putting misbehaving children into “solitary confinement”.

Alison Earl was found guilty of “unacceptable professional misconduct” and bringing the profession into disrepute for leaving pupils at Tollgate Primary School unattended in a “very small” locked room which they were unable to get out of.

However, a National College for Teaching and Leadership panel decided against striking her off because it said she was still able to make a “valuable contribution to the profession”.

Ms Earl started working as headteacher at Tollgate Primary School in Bury St Edmunds in July 2014. According to the professional conduct panel, under her leadership staff began putting misbehaving children into “solitary confinement” in a room known as the “empty room”.

During the 2014-15 school year, the door handle was moved higher up the door so that it was out of reach of children to prevent them from being able to leave the room.

In the summer of 2015 the room was partitioned to create a smaller room within it called the “blue room”. At first this room also had a raised handle which children could not reach, but eventually the inner handle was removed altogether.

According to a witness who gave evidence to the panel, on one occasion a member of staff became trapped in the blue room and couldn’t get out, so a buzzer was installed next to the door. However, this was also put at a height that only adults could reach.

“This room was very small (approximately 2 metres by 1.5 metres) and a few children were put into solitary confinement in this room,” the panel’s report notes.

It could not be observed from the main corridor because it was within the empty room and the glass in its door was opaque.

Investigation triggered

A safeguarding advisor visited the school in September 2015 and informed the staff that using the room was not permitted by law. A group of staff later wrote a letter to Suffolk County Council, triggering an investigation of the school, and Ms Earl resigned in December 2015.

While Department for Education guidance states that use of isolation should only be used in “exceptional circumstances”, the panel found that Ms Earl “normalised” it to the extent that it became “almost a daily occurrence”, including for “relatively minor disciplinary matters”.

Ms Earl admitted to putting pupils in the empty rooms, but denied they were left in the room unattended for periods of time that were inappropriate.

However, each of the witnesses who gave oral evidence at her hearing said staff did leave children alone in the rooms. The panel upheld the allegation.

Three members of staff said they “regularly heard children shouting or crying from the room, while no member of staff was present in the corridor”. Witnesses also said that some of the children became “more distressed by their inability to leave the room”.

The panel concluded that the lack of supervision “posed a significant risk to [pupils’] safety, and physical and mental wellbeing”.

“No risk assessment was carried out and therefore no procedures were in place for the event of a fire risk, children who needed to use the bathroom, or children who could have suffered a health issue whilst in the room (such as a fit or asthma attack),” it noted.

In addition to the solitary confinement, Ms Earl was censured for “inadequate” recruitment processes, such as not advertising posts, not holding interviews with appointees, and not checking references and qualifications for new starters.

The panel also found that staff did not follow proper procedures for reporting use of restraint.

‘Under considerable pressure’

While Ms Earl was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct, the panel decided against recommending a prohibition order - a decision the education secretary’s representative accepted.

The panel said that she was “working under considerable pressure at the time, to rapidly improve standards in a school that was previously judged by Ofsted to be ‘failing’”.

“Witnesses spoke of her being hardworking and dedicated to improving standards at the school and stated that she took a holistic approach to the education of children.”

Ms Earl said her decision to put pupils in solitary confinement was motivated by the desire not to exclude them from school, and the panel said it had “sympathy” for the retention challenges she faced which led her to bypass recruitment procedures.

As the previous head of an “outstanding” school, the panel said it thought she was still “able to make a valuable contribution to the profession”.

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