Jordan Risebrow

Introduction

Jordan Risebrow was a headteacher at two Norfolk primary schools — Hemsby Primary School and, before the events there and after a gap, Henderson Green Primary Academy in Norwich — when a series of physical incidents put him before a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel in April 2023. The panel found that as Hemsby’s head he had lifted a pupil off the floor under the arms and carried him to his office against staff training, and that at Henderson Green he had slapped a caretaker hard on the back of his hand and tipped another pupil off a chair onto the floor. He denied everything, refused to engage with the proceedings, and was banned from teaching indefinitely by decision maker Alan Meyrick, with a two-year review period.

Background Information

Risebrow worked within the HEART Education Trust as a teacher at Valley Primary Academy, assistant head at Henderson Green from April 2017, and deputy head at Heartsease Primary Academy, before taking the headship of Hemsby Primary School — a maintained school outside the trust — on 25 February 2019. After a June 2019 incident with a pupil was referred to the Local Authority Designated Officer, he left Hemsby in August 2019 and, when interviewed that September for the investigation that continued after his departure, denied any physical contact with the pupil. He returned to the trust as Henderson Green’s headteacher on 28 October 2019; fresh allegations surfaced within three months, an internal investigation began on 27 January 2020, and another LADO referral followed. His union informed the panel he did not wish to engage with or respond to the allegations, and the hearing proceeded in his absence.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Denied everything, refused to engage; three physical incidents found proved on witness evidence. The panel heard oral testimony from three witnesses and preferred it to his shifting investigation accounts.

The Hemsby incident of 17 June 2019 was found on the evidence of Witness B: a pupil lay on the corridor floor, not distressed and a danger to no one, while staff were trained to de-escalate by talking; Risebrow emerged from the library, told the pupil to stand, and when he did not do so immediately lifted him by the armpits and carried him feet-dangling to his office. Witness B said she was shocked, told him to stop, and was ignored; the school’s policy permitted force only to prevent injury or disorder, none of which applied. At Henderson Green on 8 January 2020, caretaker Witness A described what happened after he tore a corner of a Harry Potter poster removing a door: Risebrow “flipped out”, screamed “like a child”, ran at him “waving his arms in the air ’like a chimp’”, shouted “Don’t you dare touch them”, and smacked the back of his hand hard enough to redden it and leave a stinging sensation lasting about ninety seconds. That evening Witness A telephoned to apologise for the poster. On 24 January 2020, Witness C saw Risebrow tip Pupil B off a chair onto the floor during garden art work — an act he thought “absolutely unnecessary”, with no intention to hurt but no reason for it either; the pupil confirmed it and said it made him angry and upset. Risebrow’s own accounts shifted — first denying the pupil fell at all, later admitting it — and the panel noted the change only came in his second interview. It found Witness A credible, supported by contemporaneous accounts, and proved every allegation.

The panel found the behaviour associated with violence was relevant, that his conduct fell significantly short of the standards expected, and that there was “no evidence that Mr Risebrow’s actions were not deliberate”. It weighed his previously unblemished career and rise to two headships — even Witness C said he had learned a lot from him — but a LADO meeting record described him as reluctant to take advice and struggling to fit his strong personality into the headteacher role. Prohibition was found proportionate; Meyrick added that a published decision “not backed up by evidence of remorse, does not in my view satisfy the public interest requirement concerning public confidence in the profession”, and adopted the panel’s two-year review recommendation.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published decision is the case’s entire public record; no press coverage attaches to it. The consequences moved school by school: the Hemsby LADO referral of July 2019, his exit that August, the September 2019 interview in which he denied contact entirely, his re-employment at Henderson Green that October, the second LADO referral of January 2020, and the end of his headship career. The panel heard that Individual F, the only colleague who partially witnessed the slap, had called it “playful” in an investigation email but was judged to have had his view potentially blocked; the panel preferred Witness A’s account supported by Individual E’s contemporaneous written account.

Current Status

Risebrow is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. The order takes effect from service. He may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 3 May 2025, two years from the date of the order at the earliest — and the decision states this is not an automatic right to have the order removed. He retains a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days of notice. The determination is dated 25 April 2023, with Meyrick’s order dated 26 April 2023.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case is a study in total disengagement: no attendance, no representation, no written response, a union statement that he would not engage, and a ban imposed entirely on the testimony of the people he had supervised. His denial of any physical contact with Pupil A — contradicted by two witnesses — and the shifting account of the chair incident cost him any credibility route, and the panel’s adverse finding of deliberateness followed directly. For headteachers, the case shows the regulator treating violence-associated behaviour toward both pupils and staff, sustained across two schools, as incompatible with teaching even with an otherwise unblemished record, and treating absence plus absence of remorse as grounds for refusing a no-order outcome.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Jordan Risebrow” — source