A primary school teacher who was beaten and kicked by a Year 5 pupil is suing her former employers for £25,000.
Jacqui Overfield was trying to protect a reception-age child from an older one in the school lavatories at Francis Askew Primary School in Hull when she was attacked in 2019.
Mrs Overfield says she suffered a “sustained” attack by the older pupil, leaving her injured and traumatised, and claims the school was negligent towards her.
She has subsequently retired from teaching and is now suing The Constellation Trust, which runs the primary school, for up to £25,000. Lawyers for the trust deny liability.
Prior to the alleged assault, Mrs Overfield had been a veteran primary school teacher of almost 20 years, describing herself online as a “passionate and creative primary-based teacher”.
According to documents filed at Central London County Court, she was set upon around lunchtime during a July day in 2019, a few months after she started at the school.
“During the course of her employment as a teacher at Francis Askew Primary, the claimant was in her classroom when a pupil rushed into the room, saying that ‘a year 5 pupil was trying to get a reception kid by climbing over the toilet booth’,” say her lawyers.
