A primary school teacher in the UK has been sacked after she jokingly threatened to ‘whack’ a pupil round the head. The teacher, identified as Baiklautchmee Subrian had more than 35 years of teaching experience when the alleged incident took place in 2023, according to a report in The Times. During a maths SAT preparation class with Year 6 pupils, Ms Subrian responded to a question about what would happen if students did not hold their test papers properly.

She told the small group of students that she would “whack” them whilst making a gesture with her hand. One of the pupils, who felt threatened and did not have English as their first language, reported the incident to another teacher.

The upper hierarchy of Gilbert Colvin Primary School in Ilford, East London, where Ms Subrian had been teaching for the last four years, told her that there would be an investigation into the case. During one of the disciplinary hearings, the teacher argued that the child continued to attend her after-school club where they were not ‘upset’.

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A month later, Ms Subrian received the letter of dismissal, which stated that even if she “intended the comment as a joke” to the student, because he did not have English as a first language he “could not be expected to understand that”.

Ms Subrian argued the punishment was too severe and criticised the school’s investigation for lacking integrity. However, Judge Jack Feeny of the employment tribunal in east London rejected her claim of unfair dismissal.

“I do not consider whether or not the comment was intended as a joke to be particularly important. It was plainly an inappropriate thing to say,” the judge said in the closing remarks.

“A teacher may get away with a comment in these circumstances if all children receive it as a light-hearted comment and laugh along. It is common ground that this was not what happened here. The risk of making such a joke is that if even only one child is upset by it, it must amount to a significant safeguarding issue.”