Primary school teacher banned from the classroom after causing pupil to hit head and lying to his parents about it
A man who was found to have caused a pupil to hit his head and then lied about it to the pupil’s parents has been banned from teaching.
A teaching regulator panel (TRA) in May concluded that Daniel Whitley, a former teacher at Beaver Road Primary School in Manchester, had acted dishonestly and showed little remorse for his actions.
On February 28, 2024, Mr. Whitley got his foot caught in a chair and hit a student, identified in the report as Student A, who was struck in the head in class.
At the parent meeting held on March 4 of the same year, the student’s parent asked why they did not receive an accident notification slip after the head injury. During the appointment, Mr Whitley claimed the injury occurred on the playground.
The next day, he filled out a backdated accident reporting slip by forging a colleague’s signature. The note read: “Head hit climbing frame[,] “I was given a small sign, an ice pack.”
While talking to another colleague, she said she found the note behind Student A’s tray and gave it to him to pass on to the parent.
The parent complained the next day that it did not reflect the account of Student A, who said Mr. Whitley tripped over the chair and hit him.
“I was sitting next to a chair and the chair grabbed me and hit me… Mr. Whitley said he would check later and get an ice pack, but he forgot,” the student said, according to the report.
The former teacher said he did not know who wrote the note or who gave first aid to the incident, did not fill out the note, and did not know where to find it. He said he had no knowledge of how the note was written.
In a meeting with others at the school, he later admitted that “the blue padded piece on the side of the chair” struck the left side of Student A’s head as he turned his chair towards the blackboard, but he did not think this would warrant a grade. He later admitted to forging the note.
The school referred the incident to TRA in October of that year.
Mr Whitley admitted a year later that his behavior amounted to unacceptable professional conduct that could bring the profession into disrepute.
He only started working at the school as a First Grade classroom teacher in September 2023.
The board acknowledged that she was “panicked and afraid” when preparing the document, but was “confident” that “in her own mind” she knew “what she was doing was wrong” and that as a new teacher she knew the school’s safety procedures.
The court also considered that Mr Whitley’s conduct involved “repeatedly providing false information about a student’s injury and how it occurred”, meaning there was a strong public interest in the safety and welfare of students.
Mr Whitley will no longer be able to teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. You can apply to have the banning order annulled no later than May 11, 2030; where a panel will meet again to discuss whether the decision should be rescinded.
