Court told welfare fears for pupils led to sacking

Queen Ethelburga’s principal Steven Jandrell said Dr Chuanjie Zhou was told he could no longer act as guardian after he failed to ensure pupils under his care were placed in supervised homes during half-term holidays.

Manchester County Court heard yesterday the school had also claimed that Dr Zhou was advising one of his pupils to attend lessons in a subject which staff did not think was suitable because of her low level of English.

Dr Zhou has taken the private school near York to court to seek damages for his lost earnings which he claimed could be up to £113,000.

He claimed that the school had used the issue of pupil accommodation as “ammunition” to remove him but suggested the real reason was because he was interfering with the college’s plan to put some of his students into B-tec courses rather than traditional academic subjects.

Queen Ethelburga’s operates two separate schools, the college and the faculty which is more focused on delivering vocational education.

In Dr Zhou’s written evidence he claims Queen Ethelburga’s has adopted a strategy of putting underperforming students into the faculty, a claim the school denies.

Dr Zhou’s statement also says parents and students had told him to “communicate with the school in order to avoid B-tec options.”

But Mr Jandrell said the decision to remove Dr Zhou was taken by school governors after he had failed to give assurances that he would ensure his students were supervised during the holiday. The principal told the court that other guardians had raised concerns that Dr Zhou was allowing pupils to stay in serviced accommodation.

Dr Zhou’s removal from his role dates back to a meeting between the pair, on October 22, 2010.

Dr Zhou alleges that Mr Jandrell had said: “Chaunjie I will tell you straight, your interference with course choices and other difficulties is affecting the interests of the school and we are getting to the point where we must act. I will recommend that the school governors remove you.”

However Mr Jandrell said he had raised concerns with Dr Zhou over pupil accommodation and had not been given assurances that suitable places would be found.

Mr Jandrell told the court that Dr Zhou had said he was unable to stop pupils going into serviced accommodation as “that is what they wanted”. However Dr Zhou claims he had accepted that the situation needed to stop.

Dr Zhou was born in China but is a British national. He has been working as a guardian for Chinese students in the UK since 2004.

He is seeking damages from the school for tortious interference with his economic and business interests.

In Mr Jandrell’s written evidence he said: “It is incorrect of the claimant to assert that the college, for want of a better word, cherry picks so as to achieve the best possible examination results. The fact is that the two schools have separate entry requirements.”

He also said Dr Zhou had inferred the reasons for his removal had been “in some way manufactured because the college was unhappy with his involvement in education matters. This is both untrue and vehemently denied.”

The case continues.