Dame banned from school management

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Dame Jean Else, the former head of Manchester's Whalley Range High School, was criticised by a General Teaching Council panel for the manner in which she promoted her twin sister to the post of assistant head.

Finding the 57-year-old guilty of failing to observe minimum standards in recruiting and promoting staff, the panel ruled that she had potentially deprived good candidates of the opportunity to contribute to the school.

Imposing a conditional registration order barring Dame Jean from working as a headteacher or as an assistant head, GTC panel chairwoman Anne Garner said Dame Jean's recruitment of a small number of staff without proper scrutiny had fallen short of the standards of integrity expected of a teacher.

Ms Garner said: "Dame Jean's behaviour potentially deprived good candidates from an opportunity to contribute to the educational process at Whalley Range. This was a failure to observe basic standards of equal opportunities for employment."

Dame Jean apologised to the General Teaching Council panel for not following procedures during her 10-year tenure in charge of Whalley Range.

She acknowledged that she had not observed minimum recruitment standards when making several appointments at the school, including that of her twin sister, who rose from a part-time post as a clerical assistant to earn more than £58,000-a-year.

But Dame Jean expressed pride in her achievements at Whalley Range, which she transformed from a school with the worst truancy record in England into one at which more than half of pupils gained more than five GCSEs at A*-C.

Kevin Jaquiss, the solicitor representing Dame Jean, stressed his client had made 415 appointments during her headship and that only 10 had been made without a formal interview or shortly after an advertisement.

Mr Jaquiss told the disciplinary panel: "I suggest to you that Dame Jean's achievements are not just good, but that they are properly described as exceptional. It's agreed that nothing of what Dame Jean did was done for personal gain rather than in the interests of the school."