Teacher avoids ban despite safeguarding issue

A deputy head teacher who took no action after becoming aware a pupil was potentially being sexually abused has avoided a teaching ban at a professional conduct panel.

Rachel McMaster was also lead safeguarding officer at Holywell Middle School in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, where she worked between 2003 and 2013.

In 2017, a girl reported to authorities she had been sexually abused and during the investigation it was discovered she had told somebody at the school about the abuse in 2011.

A professional conduct panel from the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found Ms McMaster failed to take appropriate action to safeguard the pupil, but it "appeared to be a one-off incident in an otherwise unflawed career history".

When the pupil reported the abuse in 2017, Ms McMaster was in a new role with the Chiltern Learning Trust, which runs a chain of schools not including Holywell Middle.

She was subject to disciplinary proceedings under her new employer, and then dismissed.

The TRA panel concluded she would have been aware the pupil had informed another member of staff she was being abused by her stepfather.

In a police statement, the pupil claimed the abuse escalated in the weeks after her disclosure to the school.

Ms McMaster, who had written the school's safeguarding policy, confirmed during her testimony there were missed opportunities to protect the pupil.

In her witness statement she stated: "In this situation, the disclosure should have been reported to the police and [the Local authority designated officer], and the pupil kept in school and not allowed to return home.

"This would have prevented further abuse."

The hearing considered that the former teacher had not been subject to any other disciplinary hearings during her career and had positive references from past colleagues.

It also noted that though Ms McMaster had not worked in teaching since 2019, she has used the time to reflect on how she "could have dealt with matters differently and has taken full accountability for her conduct".

The panel concluded a teaching ban would have been an inappropriate response and the publication of their findings was enough to tell the teacher her standards of behaviour were not acceptable.