A HEADTEACHER who failed to act on concerns a teacher had a “close” relationship with a young boy has been removed from her post.

Angela Paterson was found to have failed to act in an appropriate or timely manner after a number of staff reported fears surrounding the conduct of a female teacher, dubbed colleague A.

Ms Paterson, who was head of North Lanarkshire’s Mossend Primary from 2015 to 2019, admitted she failed to act upon or escalate serious allegations made regarding the teacher’s interactions with pupils, nor did she recognise the complaints as being of a child protection nature.

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After multiple staff members shared concerns about the teacher’s relationship with a young boy, known as pupil A, Ms Paterson did not approach North Lanarkshire Council in a timely manner or before speaking to colleague A.

She also failed to mention the concerns during a meeting with the teacher and allowed her to continue running after-school clubs with no management supervision and have one-to-one contact with pupils.

The school boss asked concerned staff to put their concerns about the teacher “grooming” pupils in writing as early as December 2018, however, she failed to read them until April 2020.

When colleague A moved on, the head provided an “excellent” reference and failed to act upon or escalate staff’s concerns that the teacher was leaving to join a school largely attended by vulnerable young boys.

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She also allowed the woman to return to the school, despite no longer working there, and attend primary seven leavers’ events in the presence of pupil A.

Ms Paterson also failed to notify the parents of pupil A about the concerns which had been raised regarding the teacher’s close relationship with their son.

In a statement in response to disciplinary proceedings beginning in 2020, Ms Paterson said: “My action or lack of action regarding this situation has caused me to reflect critically on my role and I am anxious to resolve this as best I can, and I am willing to work with North Lanarkshire Council to ensure that this never happens again.

“I feel that it is important that I now review my own actions in light of this to ensure I have clarity in areas that were lacking.

“I can clearly see that I could have and should have been more proactive in addressing the concerns shared by staff and had I read the notes available to me, and not filed them on receipt for future reference if required, I would have certainly taken a different course of action.”

The General Teaching Council for Scotland said it felt it was “possible” for the education boss to remediate but there was “no evidence” she had attempted to do so.

It said: “The panel was concerned that although she has demonstrated some insight, this was limited and there is no suggestion that she has the motivation to initiate remediation let alone succeed in remediating her failings.

“The panel was provided with no information regarding the teacher’s current circumstances. The panel considered that the public interest required a finding of unfit to teach.

“The panel considered that the teacher’s conduct fell significantly short of the standards expected of a registered teacher and that her conduct was incompatible with her remaining on the register. For these reasons, the panel concluded that the teacher is currently unfit to teach.”