Suing the school

The compensation culture has now embraced suing schools over such matters as the decisions to exclude or expel a pupil, playground accidents, bullying and failure to recognise and address special educational needs. The headmaster of Norlington School for Boys in Waltham Forest said: ‘Every day of the week, I am dealing with solicitors. This is taking a substantial amount of time which I and my teachers should be spending doing our jobs’. His school has faced six legal challenges in the past 18 months after solicitors operating on a ‘no-win no-fee basis’ had targeted parents on surrounding estates. So far no claim has succeeded. The Secondary Heads Association say that they are taking at least a call a day from Heads threatened with law suits by parents. Its assistant general secretary said that they suspected most of the calls arose from lawyers chasing the parents, rather than the parents chasing the lawyers. The Home Office and the Law Society have been asked to consider how schools can be protected from opportunistic law firms.