A tribunal has rejected allegations that a teacher at a West Watford school was subjected to discrimination because she is Muslim.

After its governing body was brought before the Watford Employment Tribunal this year, Chater Infant School on Southsea Avenue said it is pleased with the decision that "draws a line under the situation." 

The claimant's allegations of direct religious discrimination, religiously motivated harassment, and victimization "are not well founded and are dismissed," according to the ruling, which was posted on the government website on Monday, December 16.

The school’s application for costs was unsuccessful, however, as the tribunal considered that the claimant had not behaved unreasonably in bringing the case forward but instead “lacked legal understanding of what discrimination is and what was required to prove it”.

Mrs Fatemah Ravji had claimed that she was treated less favourably than colleagues because she is Muslim, including criticism of her performance and being performance managed. She also referred to threatening behaviour, being subjected to two previous disciplinary processes, and not being given a pay rise that other staff received.

A claim for victimisation over a grievance she had raised was also made by the teacher, as well as an unfair dismissal claim.

Watford Employment Tribunal. (Image: Google Street View) The tribunal found the claimant’s evidence “to be inconsistent at times and unreliable” during the process but did not find her to be “an intentionally untruthful witness”.

Its judgement said she “was sometimes caught up in how she perceived her version of events without any regard to the documented contemporaneous evidence of what happened and what she said happened at the time it happened”.

Meanwhile, the headteacher and all the respondents' witnesses were judged to be “witnesses of truth and reliable” with no evidence that headteacher Mrs Bal-Richards treated Muslims unfavourably found.

The school dismissed Mrs Ravji because of a breakdown in the relationship between her and the headteacher. The tribunal did not accept the claim that the real reason was because Mrs Bal-Richards was discriminating against her because she was a Muslim.

A spokesperson for Chater Infant School told the Watford Observer: “We’re pleased with the outcome of this employment tribunal, which relates to a member of staff who left the school in 2022.

“The claims brought against our governing body were completely dismissed by the tribunal and we are happy that this draws a line under the situation.”