A SENIOR teacher who was sacked for gross misconduct amid allegations she awarded herself pay rises and asked for school figures to be doctored has lost her appeal against unfair dismissal.

Alison Morris was fired from SS Simon and Jude’s CE Primary School in Great Lever in December 2008.

She took the school and Bolton Council to an industrial tribunal claiming unfair dismissal, but in a written judgement, an employment tribunal ruled her claim was “without foundation”.

Mrs Morris had been dismissed from the primary school on the grounds of misconduct after allegations she had requested a junior member of staff to falsify school records and mismanaged the school’s finances in relation to her own terms and conditions of employment with the intent to gain financially.

The deputy head, who also later held the post of acting headteacher for a time, increased her own salary in December 2006 to receive a pay rise from September 2006 and in 2008 when again she asked for an increase to be backdated.

Ned Solanki, chairman of governors, said any pay rise that had been authorised had been done behind the governors’ back.

Mrs Morris said she was ignorant of the process to obtain authorisation and claimed she was correcting errors. She said she had always obtained the approval of the chairman of governors for any increases in salary.

A disciplinary panel did not believe a deputy head would believe authorising her own salary without governor approval would be acceptable — despite the fact she may have been entitled to some of the increases.

Mrs Morris, who became deputy headteacher in January 2007, was also further accused of asking a staff member to change some unauthorised absences to authorised to present to school inspectors, Ofsted.

Mrs Morris denied that but admitted she had discussed ways of manipulating data to show a more accurate picture for explaining absences In the ruling, the employment tribunal panel stated: “The tribunal accepted the respondent had a genuine belief the claimant was guilty of misconduct.”

The panel did not find fault with the hearings held into the allegations.

Headteacher Simon Bramwell said: “As I expected, the court agreed that the dismissal and the process had been conducted fairly. I am also pleased that the employment tribunal found the investigation we undertook to be ‘very thorough’. It is always a very difficult time for a school when it is necessary to dismiss a senior member of staff. It is not a course of action that is taken lightly, and it is always a matter of grave regret.”

Chairman of governors, Mr Solanki, said: “It has taken two years to reach this conclusion and the school can now finally move on without this holding us back.”

Mrs Morris was unavailable for comment.

schaudhari@ theboltonnews.co.uk