A PRIMARY school teaching assistant was fired over Facebook posts that were reported to the headteacher by other staff.

Nicola Cody, a former teaching and learning assistant at Richmond Avenue Primary School and Nursery in Southend, was dismissed from her job in July 2021 following more than 14 years’ employment at the school.

After a failed internal appeal, Ms Cody took her case to an employment journal where she was told the statutory time limit for an unfair dismissal case had passed.

Employment tribunal documents state she was fired over public posts on her Facebook account about the school made on May 17, 2021 – the nature of which is undisclosed.

Although Ms Cody’s Facebook page was set to private, among her 1,000+ Facebook friends were members of staff and parents of pupils of the school, all of whom had access to the claimant’s posts, tribunal documents state.

The report claims “several” members of staff reported Ms Cody’s post to the head teacher of the school and an investigation was launched.

A disciplinary hearing was scheduled for July 14, 2021; on the morning of the hearing, Ms Cody’s trade union representative (GMB) confirmed the union’s support for “was being withdrawn” – GMB has been contacted for comment.

Due to medical conditions, Ms Cody too was unable to attend the hearing and she was served a letter of dismissal in her absence on grounds of “serious acts of gross misconduct”.

An internal appeal hearing was held in November which upheld the decision and Ms Cody was served a letter on November 15.

On December 5, exactly three weeks after receiving the notification that her appeal against dismissal had been dismissed, Ms Cody lodged her claim form with the employment tribunal.

However, the statutory deadline to appeal to the court fell on October 30 – three months after receiving her initial letter of dismissal.

Ms Cody claimed she had been wrongly advised that the three month period to submit her case would begin after the internal appeal.

This was dismissed by the tribunal judge, who wrote: “The claimant’s claims for unfair dismissal was presented out of time and the tribunal has no jurisdiction to hear them. Accordingly, the claim must be struck out.”

Ben Stickley, chief executive officer at Southend East Community Academy Trust which runs the school, said: “Ms Cody was dismissed relating to a number of Facebook posts bringing the academy into disrepute.

“We would have robustly defended the decision to dismiss at tribunal, however because she was out of time, we never got a chance to argue the case either way.”