A SUPPLY teacher has been disciplined after ‘threatening’ to break a child’s arm at an East Lancashire primary school.

Grace Astley, of Sabden, told a pupil whose arm was in a sling that her other arm would end up broken too if she did not stop misbehaving.

She apologised yesterday, but said her comment to a girl at Sacred Heart RC Primary School, Lynwood Road, Blackburn, ‘was not meant to be malicious or threatening'.

Mrs Astley was brought before the General teaching Council over that incident and five other allegations of ‘unacceptable professional conduct’.

The GTC said her comments to the pupil were ‘completely unacceptable’ and ordered her to take a behaviour management course.

Mrs Astley has also been told that she will not work as a teacher in Blackburn with Darwen again, after both Supreme Education, the supply agency which employed her, and the borough council, ‘de-registered’ her.

But Mrs Astley said she felt the incident, which happened during her only day of work at Sacred Heart on April 25 last year, had ‘got out of hand’.

She said: “It wasn’t meant to be malicious or threatening.

"I am sorry I said it. It is not an ideal thing to say to a child.

“Normally I come across as having a happy classroom but that day was a bad day and my bad day has been made very public.

“The child had been talking and I said it to attract her attention.

“It wasn’t meant to carry any weight at all.

“Teachers say things every day that aren’t appropriate but mine has been highlighted.

"But you should be professional at all times. I regret what has happened and I’m sorry.

"I have let myself down and I can’t change it.”

Mrs Astley was also found to have spoken in an inappropriate manner to teaching assistants and used her mobile phone while supervising pupils during break-time.

In a separate incident, she was also found to have ‘inappropriately reprimanded a pupil in a way which made physical contact’ at a school in Failsworth, Greater Manchester.

The GTC said Mrs Astley’s behaviour ‘did demean her colleagues although this was not serious’.

It continued: “The committee’s principal concerns were regarding Mrs Astley’s failure to take reasonable care of pupils in her class.

“The manner in which she dealt with the pupil who had her arm in a sling and the suggestions that she made to the pupil that her other arm would end up in similar fashion if she continued to misbehave was completely unacceptable.

“The committee had similar concerns as to the manner in which Mrs Astley made gesticulations in close proximity to the children in her care which could have been frightening.

“These examples of behaviour fell short of the standards expected of a registered teacher and was a breach of the standards of propriety expected of the profession.”

The GTC could have suspended her from the teaching register but said the facts were not ‘so serious’ as to warrant the action.

Simon Johnston, national operational manager for Supreme Education which works in partnership with Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “We follow all the stringent guidelines and checks.

"All of those checks were followed with regard to Grace Astley and they came back clear.

“When she went to the school we received an allegation.

"We followed procedure and investigated the matter.

"The case was also referred to the General Teaching Council.

“This was an unfortunate incident.”

Humma Ahmed, headteacher of Sacred Heart RC Primary School, said it was a ‘regrettable incident’.

She said: “The incident was treated very seriously and dealt with immediately by staff at the school.

“We are pleased with the action that has since been taken by the General Teaching Council.”