Vivienne Nugent
| Vivienne has 37 years experience of teaching at Primary schools in Britain and overseas and since September 2007 she taught at Trinity Primary School, Hereford. In February 2011, she was accused of Gross Misconduct by her Head for greeting a pupil with the words "Good morning". She was summarily dismissed without notice by a panel of School Governors in May 2011. Her dismissal was confirmed by the LEA in August 2011. |
| Vivienne recorded what happened in her personal statement and went to the Employment Tribunal in Birmingham, claiming unfair dismissal. Judge Pauline Hughes and two lay members of the tribunal heard her case over six days. Judge Hughes read the unanimous decision of the three member Tribunal Panel over one and a half hours on the afternoon of 29th March 2012 and issued a one page summary judgment. |
| Vivienne and Herefordshire Council have been supplied with copies of the full judgment. It has come to our attention that there is still speculation concerning the reasons given by Trinity Primary School for Vivienne's dismissal and the reasons given by the Tribunal for its judgment. The judgment was read in the Birmingham Employment Tribunal, where members of the public were free to attend. Since the judgment is already in the public domain, we wish to put the record straight by making it available here, including the full 28 page written judgment and a list of the main points. |
| We are grateful to those people who are supporting Vivienne through her long ordeal and wish to extend our thanks also to those brave individuals who testified at the Employment Tribunal on her behalf. Justice would not have been done without your resolute support and cooperation. |
| Vivienne has been unemployed since her dismissal and does not believe that she will ever again be able to work as a teacher. |
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Chris Nugent, April 2012 |