A dear friend, Pepe Hart, has not only been forced out of her job, as a result of bullying and harassment but it has been allowed to continue by a public funded service! In the middle of a cost of living crisis, hundreds of thousands of taxpayer pounds, public monies, are being spent to cover all of this up. Who could be so callous as to carry out this kind of targeted harassment campaign you ask?? None other than the UK Government’s Department for Education’s “Teaching Regulation Authority”.
 
You can help stop this waste of public money, time and resources by signing our petition calling on our new Prime Minister to use their power to intervene and ask the Secretary of State for Education to have the Chief Executive of Teaching Regulation Authority pause the case against Pepe whilst an independent party reviews all existing documentation and motives, and reviews what could possibly be in the public’s interest for so much public monies to be wasted on what can only be called a pitiful revenge case against Pepe.
 
Pepe was the only Asian head teacher in the Radstock area of Bath and North-East Somerset, in fact she was the only ethnically diverse head teacher there in Radstock. You can read about her here in The Independent, Award-winning head Pepe Hart ‘forced out of school’ 
 
Twenty years ago, in 2002 a local authority sponsored Research Report found that the historical roots of the Norton community had been in part responsible for the current attitudes of residents, particularly towards those who are perceived as outsiders to what was once a close knit working class community.
 
Of the schools that were contacted during the research in 2002, in one secondary school, the Race Equality Scheme included an overview of the context of the catchment area for the school and an acknowledgement that this predominantly white community brought with it the risk of:
“… ‘rural racism’ fuelled by ignorance and suspicion of different cultures and values” (Headteacher)
One Headteacher commented:
“Some local people are racist because of rural isolation. In small communities, people can feel hard done by. Where there is a lack of resources, attitudes may be negative towards newcomers to the community. Families in crisis have in the past been housed in the same neighbourhoods… and this adds to the problems” (Headteacher)
Another Headteacher commented that changing children’s attitudes was one thing but that
“… there is a bigger problem outside the school. Radstock is insular. People are hugely insular – it’s like a time warp. You can talk to children about world events and they haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. Few people go to Bath... a lot don’t have much money, transport is difficult, and some people can’t afford bus fares. Parents make racist remarks at home and children learn not to bring it into school. Some lead a double life…”
 
The Diocese encouraged and actively promoted Pepe, a Pakistani-born Muslim, to become Head Teacher of Trinity School, and later to become the Chief Executive of the new Multi Academy Trust after School became an academy.
 
So, Pepe was Head Teacher of the Academy of Trinity Primary School between 2005 and 2015. She won national leadership accolades, including a Teacher of the Year Pride of Britain Award in 2008, and also Manager of the Year in a contest by recruiter Reed. During that decade of her leadership, Trinity School received four “outstanding” reports from school inspector Ofsted, and it was in 2010 that the school became an academy at the Department for Education’s invitation.
 
Despite bringing such success to Radstock, and raising education standards she was still different, she was still an outsider, and against the wishes of the majority of parents, a minority of Radstock’s population started a campaign to replace Pepe as the head teacher of the town’s academy school. Even the local authority was involved, Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES) “encouraged” teachers to make complaints about Pepe. B&NES covertly logged information aimed to cause her harm, and even shared sensitive information about her with third parties, a total abuse of its position.  
 
David Biddleston, the National Education Union’s (NEU) district secretary for the B&NES division conspired with other union members, council staff and Pepe’s teachers through “secret meetings” and correspondence to get her sacked, damage her reputation and have her barred from her profession. B&NES and NEU encouraged harmful comments on social media. All of this leaves B&NES and NEU liable to a claim of bullying and harassment, and Pepe has launched high court legal action against both.
 
Pepe has already successfully launched legal proceedings against the NEU in 2017 Academy head triumphs over teaching union in landmark case. She also successfully launched legal proceedings gaining a momentous win against the Secretary of State for Education in 2019.
 
However despite the cost of living crisis, and concerns over the state of public and personal finances, the UK Government’s Department for Education via its Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) is supporting “revenge acts” by the same B&NES teaching staff and NEU activists who had lost the 2017 case, and is using their same discredited claims in a TRA panel hearing against Pepe scheduled start this month and last 5 weeks !!
 
It seems a massive case of injustice that the same local Radstock teachers who started and maintained the online 'witch-hunt' posting vicious smears on social media, including a Facebook page titled 'The downfall of Mrs Hart', with someone feted on it for being Pepe’s 'silent assassin'. One teacher at the school wanted to 'punch her in the mouth'. A former teacher at Pepe’s academy posted on Facebook: 'Heard on the grapevine that my old boss Pepe Hart might now be working as a school improvement officer for a different local authority!! The DFE and Ofsted promised me she would never work with children again'.
 
This was the same former teacher who lost the 2017 case to Pepe and was forced to  agree to withdraw the allegations made in Facebook posts that Pepe was a safeguarding risk working in other schools, encouraging Facebook readers to find out which schools. The former teacher and union activist had to 'publicly and unequivocally apologise' for Mrs Hart's 'distress'. Yet the TRA is doubling down and using public monies to coerce Radstock residents to write statements now, years later, to confront Pepe with at a TRA panel. This is all wrong, totally wrong,
 
Please help stop this waste of public money, time and resources by signing our petition calling on our new Prime Minister to use their power to intervene and ask the Secretary of State for Education to have the Chief Executive of Teaching Regulation Authority pause the case against Pepe whilst an independent party reviews all existing documentation and motives, and reviews what could possibly be in the public’s interest for so much public monies to be wasted on this “revenge case” against Pepe.