THE FORMER deputy headteacher at Romilly Primary School in Barry has been banned from the teaching profession after a disciplinary hearing found she had engaged in a prolonged pattern of unreasonable, intimidating and dishonest behaviour towards her colleagues.
The ruling against Indira Yagambrun was made following a six-day remote hearing of the Education Workforce Council (EWC).
During the hearing, the panel heard evidence from six current and former staff members at the school, where 13 separate allegations against Miss Yagambrun were investigated.
Miss Yagambrun began working at the primary school in 2004 when it was known as Romilly Junior School, and she was suspended in September 2022 following a series of complaints about her conduct.
Internal disciplinary investigation
The school carried out an internal disciplinary investigation that concluded in October 2023, but the process went no further due to long-term sickness absence.
The matter was subsequently referred to the EWC, the independent regulator for the education workforce in Wales. At the end of the hearing, the committee concluded that Miss Yagambrun’s behaviour amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.
The committee said Miss Yagambrun’s unacceptable behaviour had occurred over a long period and was particularly serious because she held a senior leadership position.
Among those who gave evidence were Katy Williams, the school’s former headteacher who now works as head of Additional Learning Needs (ALN) for the Vale Council; Daisy Williams, a former teacher at the school; Adele Sawdon, formerly a lunchtime supervisor at the school who is now a council support worker; Claire Richards, a learning support worker; Harriet Valentino, a member of the school’s Parent Teacher Committee (PTA); and Jemma Thomas, who still teaches at the school.
Miss Yagambrun was not present at the hearing, and no witnesses gave evidence on her behalf.
Ms Sawdon described an incident where she had been questioned by Miss Yagambrun about an allegation involving a child. Miss Yagambrun told Ms Sawdon she was under investigation, when this was not the case.
The panel’s ruling
The panel ruled that her behaviour was intimidating, unreasonable and bullying in nature, and that she had acted without integrity when dealing with the incident. They also concluded that she behaved unreasonably towards Ms Sawdon on other occasions.
The hearing was told of an incident where Ms Sawdon was supervising children by herself on a school field when Miss Yagambrun asked her why she did not have another staff member with her and was told to go and find someone else herself. The panel said Miss Yagambrun should have supported her colleague and that it was unreasonable to expect Ms Sawdon to deal with the situation alone.
On a further occasion, Ms Sawdon was told to leave an indoor sports facility despite having been sent there by an acting headteacher. Miss Yagambrun had told her she should not be there and instructed her to leave. The committee ruled that, taken in isolation, the incident did not constitute bullying or intimidating behaviour, but it found Miss Yagambrun’s manner was unnecessary, rude and abrupt.
Ms Walsh was a new teacher at the school in February 2022 when Miss Yagambrun interrupted her lessons 11 times in a single day. The teacher kept a tally in her notebook of the interruptions, most of which could have been handled at break time or via email.
Ms Walsh’s account was backed by Ms Richards, who was the class’s learning support worker. She told the committee that on the day in question, Miss Yagambrun would enter the classroom and ask, “Where is Ms Walsh” because sometimes she was at tables with children rather than at the front of the class by the whiteboard.
Ms Walsh told Miss Yagambrun she would resolve the issues raised when she had finished her teaching duties, but she nevertheless continued to return and interrupt the lessons.
Ms Richards told the panel Miss Yagambrun’s behaviour was unusual and unwarranted and said it left Ms Walsh feeling “distraught”. The panel found that the interruptions were unreasonable and intimidating but ruled the incident did not amount to bullying.
Harriet Valentino described how Miss Yagambrun told her she would have to cancel a school fête at just a few hours’ notice because of a misunderstanding about risk assessment and said she should not have bought a bouncy castle for the school after she had already done so. The committee ruled that Miss Yagambrun’s conduct constituted an abuse of power.
Constant threats
The school’s then-headteacher, Ms Williams, described how she felt on edge due to constant threats from Miss Yagambrun, which included mentioning involving a barrister whenever there was a disagreement among staff. Ms Williams said she began taking records of every conversation as a means of self-protection.
In one instance, Ms Williams asked Miss Yagambrun to include a photograph of herself on a safeguarding information poster. She refused to comply, giving the reason that she was “under police protection”, which Ms Williams later discovered was untrue.
The tribunal heard that Ms Williams had asked Miss Yagambrun to attend gate duty, but she had refused to do so, and that she also pressurised staff to attend an after-school disco. Ms Williams said: “The bullying and threats were constant, whether it was that she was telling me that she was getting her barrister involved or that she was going to put a grievance in on me.
“Her behaviour was unreasonable to the point where I think I ended up questioning everything. It made me start questioning myself all the time. Was I asking too much?
“The allegations that we’re talking about today are just a small snippet of the reality. It was relentless.”
Grievances raised each day
Ms Williams said the sheer number of grievances being raised each day by Miss Yagambrun meant she would spend the whole day dealing with them, meaning her wider duties as headteacher would have to be completed beyond working hours.
Ms Williams said: “In six months I spent from 8.30am purely focused on incidents that were happening concerning Miss Yagambrun and dealing with those and then the strategic element of my job I had to do in the evenings.
“In terms of what I needed to do as a headteacher it was quite paralysing. I was really concerned about the school as well. We know that these children only get one chance at an education.”
Ms Williams told the panel how morale among the staff improved drastically once Miss Yagambrun left: “After Miss Yagambrun was no longer at the school I felt a release, in comparison to the constant dread. Before, I was having to be hypervigilant.
“It was every single day having to go into school and feel like I needed to watch my back. I had to just be prepared all the time. After the suspension, the feeling of the school was different. I felt that we were suddenly able to accelerate.”
Not all the allegations uphold
The panel did not uphold all of the 13 allegations, and emphasised that it reached its own independent conclusions based on the evidence at the hearing, rather than on findings or opinions from the previous internal school investigation.
They also took into account Miss Yagambrun’s previously unblemished professional record but nevertheless concluded that her overall pattern of behaviour was too serious for a lighter punishment like a reprimand, conditional registration or suspension.
The committee said there was no clear evidence Miss Yagambrun had developed sufficient insight into her behaviour or demonstrated that she was willing or able to address the upheld complaints against her.
They added that her proven conduct had negatively impacted several staff members and included behaviour it described as bullying, intimidating, dishonest and lacking integrity, and that her failings went to the core of her practice as an educator.
Prohibition Order
The EWC imposed a Prohibition Order, meaning Miss Yagambrun is unable to practise as a registered education professional. The order will remain in force indefinitely unless she successfully applies to be restored to the register.
Miss Yagambrun will be entitled to apply for restoration after two years, but any application would have to satisfy a Restoration Committee that she meets the standards expected of an education professional.
Miss Yagambrun has the right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days.
By Marcus Stead – News Reporter
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