A LEADING private school has made an unprecedented payout to a pupil who says her career prospects were blighted by poor A-level teaching.
Hurstpierpoint College in West Sussex has paid what is believed to be a five-figure sum after Katherine Norfolk took the school to the High Court, claiming that poor teaching had left her with a low grade in A-level Latin. It is thought to be the first time a private school has paid compensation after admitting poor teaching led to a student getting a low grade and could encourage other parents to sue.
Until now the only successful case against a school for providing an "inadequate" education involved a dyslexic pupil who was awarded £45,650 two years ago because her state school failed to detect her disability. Lawyers believe it will be easier for parents in the private sector to follow 20-year-old Norfolk's example because, by paying fees, there is a direct financial contract with the school which they could claim is breached by poor teaching.
Norfolk, a deputy head girl at the school, had won every school prize in Latin through her years at Hurstpierpoint and had been expected to get an A grade in the exam. However, she and three other pupils failed their Latin A-level after being taught by an inexperienced teacher. Norfolk got her fail upgraded to an E grade after seeking a remark of her paper. She still managed to get a place at Exeter University to study ancient and modern history but she claimed such a low grade would damage her prospects of becoming a highly paid City lawyer. Law firms, she said, would not shortlist her.
After her parents issued a High Court writ seeking compensation for future loss of earnings well into six figures, the school made an out-of-court settlement, believed to cover a proportion of the £30,000 fees that they had paid during their daughter's two years in the sixth form. The college appears to have been keen to avoid a test case that could have made schools which fail their pupils potentially liable for huge future loss of earnings.
The school accepted that there were problems from the end of Norfolk's first year in the sixth form, when she had lessons from a teacher who had a qualification in ancient history but not in Latin. In a letter to Exeter University, Stephen Meek, the school's head, admitted the "new Latin teacher had not prepared the students properly". Meek was unavailable for comment this weekend. The teacher is understood to have since left the school.
Norfolk's father Robert, a stock trader, has signed a confidentiality agreement barring him from discussing the details of the case, but before it was settled he said: "We have paid for her to go to school from the age of four in the hope that she will get a good job. She feels the lack of a good third A-level will be held against her."
Hurstpierpoint, which is expected to come 230th in the new independent school guide to be published by The Sunday Times on November 24, is co-educational. Parents pay £4,865 a term for boarding and £3,765 for day pupils. It was founded in 1849 and stands in 140 acres near the South Downs.
Legal experts said the action by the Norfolks showed that parents could secure compensation if teaching standards fell far below what might be expected. Robert Boyd, of the law firm Veale Wasbrough in Bristol, believed there could be more cases in the state sector, where standards were lower. However, he added: "It is probably easier to sue an independent school."
Roger Peel, of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, which represents top schools, said he did not believe there would be many cases, but admitted independent schools were bracing themselves for claims. "We are living in a more litigious age," he said.
Jack Rabinowicz, a specialist education lawyer with Teacher Stern Selby, a London firm of solicitors, is advising two families who want to sue schools over poor teaching, one in the state sector and one private. They follow the case of Pamela Phelps, a single mother, who at 26 was awarded £45,650 damages against the London borough of Hillingdon. Although judged to be of average ability, she had not learnt to read or write because her dyslexia had gone undetected.
The only other precedent is in the university sector, where Wolverhampton paid £30,000 in an out-of-court settlement to a law student who accused the university of breach of contract and misrepresentation, claiming his education had suffered. His experience of crowded lecture halls, exam errors and poor teaching was far short of the promises made in the university's brochure, he alleged.