Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Equality, diversity and inclusionReligious discrimination

Headteacher awarded £400,000 damages by Court of Appeal over ‘Islamophobia’ accusations

by Personnel Today 19 Mar 2010
by Personnel Today 19 Mar 2010

A headmistress has been awarded more than £400,000 in damages after she was forced to quit her job because she had been accused of Islamophobia.


The Court of Appeal ruled Erica Connor, the head of New Monument primary school in Woking, Surrey, was entitled to £407,700 in damages because she was forced from her job after two Muslim governors tried to give Islam a greater presence in the school.


The High Court had ruled in March last year that Surrey County Council had failed in its duty to protect Connor and to intervene when the actions of the governors caused problems, and she was awarded the damages.


But the council appealed against the ruling and said it was not liable in law and had not been negligent in dealing with the problem, the Times reported.


But the Court of Appeal has now backed up the decision of the High Court.


Connor, who was promoted to headmistress in 1998, suffered psychiatric damage and had to stop work in 2005, and then retired a year later on grounds of ill health.


The governors asked Connor to investigate anti-Muslim comments allegedly made by staff, but an official review found no evidence of deliberate racism or religious bias.


The High Court found that the two governors had an agenda to increase the role of the Muslim religion in the school.


When one of the governors, Paul Martin, was later removed from the board in 2005, a petition was circulated calling for Connor’s removal from the school.


Lord Justice Sedley said: “Surrey County Council found itself faced with the unenviable task of responding in an equitable fashion to an inequitable campaign designed to capture a secular state school for a particular faith which happened to be that of a majority of the families whose children attended the school.


“The picture that emerges from the careful and thorough [High Court] judgment is of a local education authority which had allowed itself to be intimidated by an aggressively conducted campaign to subvert the school’s legal status, a campaign which was plainly destabilising the school and placing the headteacher under intolerable pressure.”

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Birmingham City Council social workers sacked to improve services
next post
City broking firm found guilty of unlawfully poaching staff

You may also like

Ethnic diversity: report highlights disparities in school leadership

18 May 2022

Gender equality facing growing backlash from male managers

16 May 2022

Lack of flexibility pushes half of women to...

16 May 2022

Ethnicity pay gaps: Not making reporting mandatory is...

16 May 2022

How to build a compelling talent attraction strategy...

12 May 2022

Women in finance: Aviva CEO slams sexist comments...

11 May 2022

Gender pensions gap: half of women expect to...

9 May 2022

Pay transparency: How organisations can break the taboo

5 May 2022

Employees drive ESG goals for HR, study claims

4 May 2022

Twice as many men as women hold company...

3 May 2022
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+