Classroom ban for Welshpool head who humiliated pupils

A headteacher who humiliated and manhandled children as young as four has been banned from teaching for a year for unacceptable professional conduct.

Eirios Hall, 59, subjected nursery pupils at Ardwyn Nursery and Infant School, Welshpool, to a shocking reign of terror that reduced children who were little more than toddlers to tears.

Infants would begin crying in panic when they learned the bad-tempered school headteacher would be taking their class, a hearing was told.

A litany of shocking allegations were detailed to a General Teaching Council for Wales professional panel.

The panel imposed a one-year suspension order on the former headteacher at the end of a four-day hearing in Cardiff yesterday.

Hall faced 14 allegations including that her behaviour amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.

Despite having 28 days in which to appeal against the decision, the ban effectively ends a career spanning more than three decades.

Hall was found guilty of an array of bad tempered behaviour against children as young as four.

It ranged from grabbing one child by the back of his jumper and lifting him to his feet as he struggled to pick up a spoon he had dropped.

Hall dismissed a claim she acted in anger and insisted she was motivated by concern for the child, but was unable to convince the panel.

It also found Hall humiliated a six-year-old child at a school assembly and went on to berate him for being 'immature' when he cried.

In total the panel found seven of the allegations she faced were proved outright and a further four were partly proved. She was cleared of two.