UPDATE: |Boy, 8, left alone in school toilet cubicle for more than three hours without food or drink, hearing told News

The boy was allowed to remain alone in a toilet for more than three hours at a school in Pembrokeshire, a professional standards hearing was told

A young boy was left alone in a school toilet for over three hours without being offered food or water, a professional standards hearing has heard.

Debbie Williams, the former head of Waldo Williams Primary in Haverfordwest, told an Education Workforce Council Wales fitness to practise committee that teacher Sally Berry had left the boy in the lavatory but falsely assured his parents he had been monitored, when, in fact, he hadn’t been.

According to Mrs Williams, the child “took himself” to the toilet, and stayed within a closed cubicle from 11.30am until 3pm without anyone checking on him. Mrs Williams told the hearing that the child was ‘in the bathroom with the door closed and no one going in’, reports Wales Online.

“He was in the bathroom from 11.30am through to 3pm. He did not have access to water or food in that time,” she added.

She said the boy, who was in a class in the school’s learning resource base, was quiet but this did not mean he was calm and no one knew how he felt because “no one saw him”. The former headteacher, who was known at that time as Mrs Bond, told the hearing on April 7 that learning support staff were upset to hear that Mrs Berry had told the child’s parents he had been checked on while in the cubicle.

“One of them was really upset when the young person came out of the toilet and the feedback Mrs Berry gave to his parents. What Mrs Berry recounted to the parents was not what she (the support staff member) had witnessed through the day,” the former headteacher told the panel.

Mrs Williams said she had not been in charge of the boy and neither she nor other senior staff had not been aware of him being alone in the toilet until afterwards. Questioned by the panel she agreed that staff involved did not appear to have followed health and safety procedures.

It is alleged that On 22 May 2023, with respect to the child, referred to as Child A, Ms Berry allowed him to remain in a toilet cubicle for more than three hours; and/or did not provide sufficient instructions to learning support assistants on how to respond to him and/or recommend strategies they should use in accordance with his positive handling plan; and/or did not respond to him in accordance with his positive handling plan; and/or did not arrange for him to be supervised during the lunch period.

It is also alleged that on On May 22 2023 Miss Berry did not tell senior staff; and/or Child A’s parents about the incident “in a timely manner” and that she told Child A’s mother and/or father that she had been checking on Child A in the toilet cubicle every five to 10 minutes, when this was not the case.

Mrs Berry also faces an allegation that she created an antecedent, behaviour and consequence chart form in respect of the incident with Child A on 22 May 2023, which contained incorrect information in terms of how often she had checked him and/or the strategies used.

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She also faces a further allegation that On January 26 2023, when another child, Child X, made a comment threatening to harm a child, she did not inform a Designated Safeguarding Person (DSP) and/or the Headteacher; and/or b) The Child Care Assessment Team in a timely manner.

On the second day of the hearing on April 8 learning support assistant Michela Scott told the panel that she and another LSA Smanatha Thomas had checked on Child A occasionally during the time he was in the cubicle, but that Mrs Berry had not.

Mrs Scott said he was not speaking or making eye contact and was communicating by turning a tap on and off, but that the door was not locked.

“Samantha Thomas and I checked on him during lunch. I checked on him twice during lunch and then loitered around the door,” Mrs Scott told the committee.

“Child A went to the toilet at approximately 11am and stayed there until his dad came to pick him up between 15.20 and 15,25,” Mrs Scott said.

She said senior staff were not told about the incident until 2.25pm when Mrs Berry made them aware. The boy had shut himself in the school toilet before and used it as a “safe space” when he didn’t want to do something.

On the day in question she thought he had gone to the toilet to avoid attending school assembly.

But she said she was “shocked” to hear Mrs Berry tell the boy’s parents she had checked on him herself during the hours he was in the cubicle: “She definitely did not check on Child A every five to 10 minutes,” she told the panel.

The hearing continues.