A FORMER joint head teacher at a Huddersfield school has escaped a classroom ban, despite being found guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct”.

Liam Harron was criticised in a number of respects, including his handling of staff and financial management of the school.

But now Education Secretary Michael Gove has ruled that Mr Harron, 57, should not be banned from teaching, despite a disciplinary panel’s findings against him in respect of his time as joint head at All Saints Catholic College between 2004 and 2008.

The Teaching Agency panel found that Mr Harron behaved inappropriately towards staff, including telling one staff member he was “not up to the job” at a staff meeting.

It also found that he dealt inappropriately with a pupil who suspected she was pregnant.

And it found that he had failed to ensure that the school’s finances were adequately managed.

He was one of two joint headteachers who resigned from the Bradley Bar school in 2009, having been suspended for eight months.

Mary Nixon and Mr Harron were suspended after several complaints against them were made at All Saints Catholic College.

Describing his management, the panel said: “Numerous staff were criticised at staff meetings to a wide extent and frequently. Staff felt publicly humiliated.

“The frequency of criticisms and number of people criticised in this forum was inappropriate. Mr Harron’s behaviour went beyond robust management style.”

Turning to his handling of Pupil A in 2007, the findings say it was “inappropriate” for Mr Harron to conduct discussions with her without a female present.

They continue: “Mr Harron then inappropriately asked Pupil A how she knew she was pregnant and who the father was.

“These were unnecessary and insensitive questions. He provided no appropriate care or guidance. No counselling was made available to Pupil A.”

There were, said the disciplinary panel, “clear failures in financial management” at the school.

They continued: “We find Mr Harron guilty of unacceptable professional conduct. The proved facts, in our view, indicate misconduct of a serious nature and conduct that falls significantly short of the standard of behaviour expected of a teacher.

“Complaints in relation to Mr Harron’s management style with staff were numerous. There was clear and widespread discontent in relation to his approach. He wholly failed to develop effective and productive professional relationships with his colleagues.

“This demonstrates an inability to fulfil a key wider professional responsibility of being a headteacher. As a leader, Mr Harron had a critical role to play in supporting teachers in the school to meet their obligations and develop their practice. He clearly failed in this regard.

“He was undermining and insufficiently respectful, inclusive or fair. This extended into his management of finances and dealings with the governing body in relation to the financial issues facing the school.”

However, recommending that he should not be banned from the country’s classrooms, the panel says he was clearly an extremely hardworking and dedicated teacher who genuinely intended to manage the school in an appropriate manner, but in doing so made poor judgements. It says that he was not motivated by improper or malicious considerations.

In sparing him from being banned the Education Secretary says in the published findings: “Mr Harron has been found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct over a number of areas and the panel has found that this conduct fell short of that expected of a teacher.

“Nonetheless the panel has also given very careful consideration to the purpose of a sanction and the public interest. It is evident that Mr Harron made poor judgements but that there was no malicious intent to his behaviour.

“The panel also believe that he has shown some understanding and that there is little likelihood of repetition. I support the recommendation of the panel that there should be no prohibition order in this case.”