Headteacher was 'undermined' and 'humiliated' by her boss in front of Ofsted inspector - she has now sued for being forced out

A 'talented' headteacher has successfully sued for being forced out of a primary school where she'd worked her way up. Deborah Lingard joined Tyldesley Primary School, in Tyldesley, Wigan, in 2002, as a teacher.

She worked her way up to assistant headteacher at the 'outstanding' school and was appointed headteacher in September 2016.

But during her time in a leadership role, there was conflict between her position and that of Yvonne Brown, who is now CEO of Leading Learners Multi Academy Trust which runs the school.

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With Mrs Brown previously executive head of Tyldesley and nearby St John's CE Primary School in Mosley Common, she would spend three days at the latter and two at Tyldesley.

A report from the Manchester Employment Tribunal says: "There was considerable dispute about the extent to which the claimant had autonomy as Head Teacher of TPS. The claimant said the majority of her decisions required ratification by YB."

Another teacher gave evidence to state that 'YB still controlled many aspects of the running of the school for example budget requests had to go through YB and YB would telephone her at home directly about matters'.

There was one particular incident that left Mrs Lingard feeling 'undermined' and 'humiliated'.

It was during a visit from an Ofsted inspector in November 2016 when Mrs Brown left Mrs Lingard red-faced by threatening to pull her own son out of the primary and send him to another school.

It came during a discussion about high achievers at the school and Mrs Brown had noticed a marking error in her son's book.

The tribunal report states: "The challenging high achievers issue was discussed in this meeting and Yvonne Brown went