Headteacher with ‘unblemished’ record is ORDERED to quit after officials rule she failed to properly look after boy, 10, playing about with a glue gun suffered a ‘small single blister’ on his hand

• Sarah Mead was deputy head at Meridian Angel Primary School in Enfield
• In May 2022, a schoolboy named as ‘Pupil A’ suffered a small burn to his hand

A headteacher with an ‘unblemished’ record has been ordered to quit after officials ruled that she had failed to properly look after a ten-year-old boy who suffered a ‘small single blister’ on his hand after playing about with a glue gun.

Sarah Mead was deputy headteacher at Meridian Angel Primary School in Enfield, north London, when in May 2022 a schoolboy named only as ‘Pupil A’ suffered a small burn to his hand.

This prompted the boy’s mother to approach the media claiming he was left in ‘serious pain’ and she was ‘livid’ about the incident.

Now, more than a year later, the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) ruled that Ms Mead failed to provide the child with adequate supervision, did not conduct a risk assessment, take the boy for medical treatment or inform his parents about the injury, the Telegraph reports.

Teaching officials recently came under fire after the Ofsted watchdog downgraded teacher Ruth Perry’s school in a move which her family claim let to her suicide.

Sarah Mead was deputy headteacher at Meridian Angel Primary School in Enfield (pictured), north London, when in May 2022 a schoolboy named only as ‘Pupil A’ suffered a small burn to his hand

In Ms Mead’s case, the TRA panel refused to take away her right to teach because of her ‘long and otherwise unblemished record’.

They also noted her ‘resolute dedication to the teaching profession and to pupils’ as well as how she always ‘gave all’ in her role as a teacher.

The ruling, published last month, explained how Ms Mead told her pupils in an art and design class not to use the glue gun but later realised they had done it anyway and successfully used it for their art project.

READ MORE: What happened to Ruth Perry? The primary school headteacher who took her own life after Ofsted inspection – and what has changed since her death

She demonstrated how to use it safely before moving on to help other students.

At the end of the lesson, one student came up to her and informed her that Pupil A had ‘hurt himself’.

The pupil was ‘reluctant’ to show her his hand but she did make out a ‘small single blister’, she said. Ms Mead then told him to hold his hand under cold water, go to the medical room and tell his mother about his injury when he gets home.

Upon showing his injury to his mother, she took him to hospital where a ‘superficial burn’ on his hand was discovered in the form of two blisters, one of which was ‘oozing’.

The medics at the hospital told him to use over-the-counter pain medication and to put Vaseline on the blistered area.

His mother posted pictures of the boy’s burn on social media, contacted The Sun, which published an article including pictures of the boy, and she also reported the incident to the police.

In response, she received an apology from the school trust, whose HR team advised Ms Mead she should think about resigning.

The report states: ‘Although Ms Mead was unsure of the situation and ramifications, she agreed to resign immediately.’

Unaware of Ms Mead’s resignation, the boy’s mother campaigned to get the headteacher sacked, collecting signatures from other parents and starting a civil claim about the injury.

The TRA panel noted how Ms Mead ‘demonstrated genuine remorse’ and recognised the impact the injury had on her pupil.

They said: ‘The evidence before the panel showed that Pupil A’s and the two other pupils’ safety was not suitably safeguarded by Ms Mead, in that she allowed them the use of the glue gun in the fashion that she did.

Ruth Perry was the headteacher at Caversham Primary School in Reading, and had been so for 13 years when she took her own life in January this year

‘The panel considered it an important right that parents be informed in a timely manner when a child in their care had injured themselves with a burn at school. As previously set out, Ms Mead did not on this occasion follow the relevant procedures in this area.

‘The panel considered that Ms Mead’s failures risked undermining the trust the public and parents placed in the profession to safeguard pupils, particularly so when teachers are acting in loco parentis.

‘The panel paid no regard to any media publicity in the evidence before it, but considered that a well-informed member of the public would consider these allegations to be serious and the conduct displayed would likely have a negative impact on Ms Mead’s status as a teacher, potentially damaging the public perception of the profession.’

The ruling on Ms Mead comes after Ruth Perry, who was the headteacher of a primary school in Reading for 13 years, took her own life while awaiting publication of a negative Ofsted report.

The report was going to downgrade Caversham Primary School from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’.

Ms Perry killed herself on January 8, 2023, and sparked a debate around how Ofsted inspects and reports on schools.

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