School ‘did not act unlawfully’ in barring Chinese pupils’ guardian

Dr Chuanjie Zhou is seeking damages from Queen Ethelburga’s College, near York, after it stopped him from acting for pupils at the school – a move he claims could cost him potential earnings of £113,000.

A county court hearing was told yesterday the school had barred Dr Zhou after discovering he was allowing students to live in unsupervised apartments in neighbouring cities during school holidays.

Queen Ethelburga’s principal Steven Jandrell said the decision was taken after Dr Zhou failed to assure him he would prevent students living in such accommodation.

However Dr Zhou, 47, claims the school had wanted to remove him as he had become seen as a troublemaker who was interfering with the course choices his students were making.

In written evidence Dr Zhou said the college had adopted a strategy of placing under-performing pupils into a separate school called Queen Ethelburga’s Faculty, and suggested this allowed the school to “inaccurately” describe itself as the UK’s top performing school in the North.

Mr Jandrell’s written evidence vehemently denied these claims and yesterday the school’s barrister, Giles Mooney, said the decision on whether pupils were taught at the college or the faculty were based on the interests of the students’ education.

Dr Zhou is seeking damages from Queen Ethelburga’s for “unlawful and deliberate interference” with his business and economic interest and procuring a breach of contract.

He was removed from his guardian role for Chinese students at the private school at Thorpe Underwood Hall after a meeting with Mr Jandrell on the last day before half term in October 2010.

The court heard differing accounts of the 10 minute conversation from the two men. Mr Jandrell said he failed to receive an undertaking from Dr Zhou that he would stop some students staying in unsupervised accommodation. The school principal also claims Dr Zhou said he could do nothing to stop it as “it was what the pupils wanted”.

Dr Zhou accepted seven of his 30 students had refused the “home stay” accommodation he had arranged for them, but said he had agreed with Mr Jandrell that this must stop, a claim disputed by the school.

Mr Mooney said: “Throughout all of the correspondence and all of the documents we have seen the flavour and thrust of what Dr Zhou is saying is not ‘this is a problem we must stop’ but rather this is not a problem and in any event it is none of the school’s business.”

Five days after the meeting Mr Jandrell wrote to Dr Zhou informing him of the governors’ decision to prevent him acting as a guardian.

Mr Mooney told the court that even if the Judge accepted Dr Zhou’s version of events and believed the decision to remove him was “the most malicious and mean-spirited ever taken by a school” Queen Ethelburga’s should still not be sued as their actions had not been unlawful and did not cause a breach of contract.

Dr Zhou’s barrister Simon Whitfield alleged Queen Ethelburga’s wanted to remove Dr Zhou because he was seen as a troublemaker, and he highlighted an email sent by Mr Jandrell about a month before he was removed, objecting to the guardian’s interference in a pupil’s course choices as an example of this.

He said the issue of the pupils’ accommodation had been “a smokescreen” and said that it was striking that Dr Zhou was given no advance warning about his meeting with Mr Jandrell and was not given a chance to find suitable accommodation for his pupils before he was removed.

Forty per cent Queen Ethelburga’s College – a private day and boarding school – are international students. Judge Foster told the court this “was big business” for the school as 400 pupils paying annual fees of around £30,000 meant income of around £12m.

A decision is expected today.