Teacher sacked after calling her diverse class ‘chattering monkeys’

A Church of England primary school teacher was sacked over allegations of racism after referring to a group of pupils as “chattering monkeys”.
Charlotte Moore, a Year 6 teacher at Trinity St Mary’s school in Chelmsford, Essex, claimed she was unfairly dismissed over the incident, which the police investigated for an alleged hate crime.
An employment tribunal was told that parents complained about Moore after she made the comment while trying to quieten her class. Parents said her language represented a “very racist comment” in light of the class being “racially diverse”.
There were also allegations that the “strict” teacher grabbed one pupil by the back of the neck and shook another, while “jokingly” threatening to shoot one of them if that pupil continued being disruptive.
A police investigation into Moore’s alleged behaviour was dropped but school leaders sacked her for gross misconduct after determining that the monkeys comment was “serious because of the racial diversity in the class” and because it was perceived as racist by parents and pupils.
Moore, who taught at the school for two years until 2023, sued the school but a tribunal in east London has dismissed her claim. It noted that in addition to the “monkeys” comment she had “told the class that they [were] getting on her nerves so much she wants to shoot herself or them”.
Police officers opened a hate crime investigation and visited Moore at the school. But they closed their inquiries within days, officers saying they were “satisfied she used the phrase ‘chattering monkeys’ to the entire class and that this had been taken out of context and would not be considered a racial slur or hate crime”.
But school officials investigated the other allegations, including that she caused one child pain and shook another. About half of the 30 children in the class were interviewed, with the tribunal noting that they described Moore as being “very strict”.
Moore denied all the allegations, while accepting that she used the words: “You are like a bunch of chattering monkeys. Quieten down and get on with your work.” She rejected allegations that she had physically assaulted or threatened pupils and told the tribunal she often made “overly dramatic statements” to children in a “joking way”.
Backing the school’s decision to sack the teacher, the tribunal judge, Suzanne Palmer, said the interviews conducted by school officials with pupils had “raised concerns about children feeling scared of Mrs Moore”. The judge said there were also concerns about the “way she expressed herself in the staff room”.
Palmer said the school was “reasonably entitled” to take the view that it was “duty-bound to investigate because of its welfare responsibilities towards the children in its care”. However, she acknowledged the monkeys comment on its own was not a justifiable reason for dismissal.
A school governor told the tribunal that comment was not the “sole incident” cited for the sacking.