A top-ranking Jewish school has been sued for unfair and wrongful dismissal by a former teacher who was sacked for overfamiliarity with students and inappropriate message exchanges that included discussion of relationships and dating.
Sarah Perlberg, who was the head of French for 10 years and latterly an assistant head with pastoral responsibility at the fee-paying Immanuel College in Bushey, Hertfordshire, acknowledged that she had shown “poor judgment” in some communications with students.
But at an employment tribunal hearing this week, her solicitor, Sarah Hougie, argued that nothing the teacher had done had amounted to gross misconduct, for which she was dismissed in spring 2024 after 15 years at the school.
The school – which was in December named the top Jewish school in England and Wales in December by the Times, based on exam results – had also accused her of breaching its code of conduct by meeting students or former students outside the school without the requisite permission. Two senior colleagues had also expressed concern that she had not consistently followed procedures for sharing or reporting safeguarding issues.
Wiping away tears while giving evidence at Watford Employment Tribunal Centre, Perlberg said it would have been “reasonable to remove me from my pastoral duties and let me carry on as head of French and a teacher of French” and also to give her more training and guidance “in order to protect myself”.
After investigations into Perlberg’s conduct began in September 2023, deputy head Yoni Golker concluded there had been “blurred boundaries” in some of her conversations with students but found “no evidence of safeguarding risks”.
The local authority designated officer for Hertfordshire – who deals with allegations against staff who work with children – subsequently reported there had been “breach of the school’s policies and code of conduct but no intent to cause harm”.
But further review of some of Perlberg’s conversations on Teams – the messaging platform the school introduced during a Covid lockdown – triggered further investigation.
The investigating officer, Alex Gaffin, a designated safeguarding lead and head of Immanuel’s now defunct preparatory school at the time, was concerned to find messages with heart emojis and “phrases such as ‘miss you’, ‘sleep well’ and calling pupils ‘lovely’,” the tribunal heard.
The tribunal was told that in one exchange with a student she had referred to not being able to date a Cohen. (Under Jewish law, a Cohen is not permitted to marry a divorced woman.)
“You were having a conversation about your own relationships weren’t you?” the school’s counsel Liam O’Shaughnessy asked her.
“No, because I am not having a relationship,” she replied.
But she acknowledged having made a remark in French about one date she had been on.
In her February 2024 disciplinary hearing with the school’s then-second master, Daniel Endlar – who has since been appointed Immanuel’s head teacher – Perlberg was questioned over messages from a student who disclosed she had kissed her boyfriend and subsequently told her that they had had sex.
She said she had reported the kiss disclosure verbally to a colleague but Endlar told the tribunal there had been “no written record” of that: “She would have a duty to report it even it she didn’t consider it a safeguarding concern,” Endlar said.
On the message about sex, Perlberg had responded with a “stop” emoji in order to shut down a conversation she had regarded as inappropriate.
In another message, a former student had written “Thank you so much for dinner” but Hougie, Perlberg’s solicitor, challenged Endlar over whether there was any evidence a dinner had actually taken place.
A now-former student, who gave evidence in defence of Ms Perlberg, explained that a message the teacher had sent him in French about letting him know “a secret” after he left school had referred to him getting 100 per cent in a mock exam, which she had avoided revealing so he would not become complacent.
The tribunal heard that Perlberg had told the school she had got “carried away” with Teams, was embarrassed by some messages and accepted she had “overstepped the line”.
Discussing one incident, when she had met students in one of the pupil’s homes, she said that she had been giving a revision class ahead of a French oral exam.
But Endlar said it would still be a breach of school policy if she had not received the required permission to meet out of school.
It was put to Perlberg that at a meeting with the school’s then-head, Dr Millan Sachania, in April 2024 to appeal her dismissal, she had not provided alternative explanations for what she was alleged to have done. She said she had been off school for a month due to stress and had been diagnosed with depression.
“I don’t think you understand what I went through during those six months. I did not want to relive them,” she told the tribunal.
She could not review the messages at that meeting because “I could not go through it again”.
Another former Immanuel headteacher, Gary Griffin, who led the school from 2017 to 2021, told the tribunal of his confidence in Perlberg.
Griffin said Perlberg had an “excellent reputation” in the school as a teacher who was known for “achieving good results”.
The judge is currently deliberating over her decision.
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