Theresa is a partner in the Education team at Winckworth Sherwood and heads up the School Support Service, a dedicated retainer service for schools and academies. She advises on a range of issues affecting schools including exclusions and admissions, the Equality Act 2010, SEND, safeguarding, data protection, freedom of information, company law, governance and contracts. She has particular expertise advising on complex parent complaints and helping schools to manage communications effectively. She also advises on crisis management and litigation including judicial review and discrimination claims against schools.

Her clients include all types of schools including maintained schools, special schools, academies and large and small multi academy trusts. She also has expertise in advising schools with a religious character and a significant part of her work involves advising Catholic and Church of England schools and dioceses.

Theresa regularly speaks at workshops and seminars and delivers training sessions to senior leaders, governors and trustees.

Recent Experience

• Advising a school on a disability discrimination claim brought by parents of a pupil
• Advising an academy on its response to a claim for religious discrimination
• Drafting a set of admission policies for a Catholic multi-academy trust
• Advising a school on its involvement in an Inquest following the death of a pupil
• Advising on a complex parent complaint involving sensitive safeguarding and data protection issues
• Advising schools on their responses to cyber-attacks
• Advising a school where it declined to respond to a subject access request on the basis that it was considered to be manifestly unfounded and excessive
• Successfully advising an academy on the application of s.14 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act where requests for information were considered vexatious
• Advising various schools on the implementation of a communications protocol to manage communications from parents
• Advising an academy on its strategy for dealing with a parent which led to the Police implementing an interim stalking protection order
• Acting for an academy on its response to a judicial review claim following an Independent Appeal Panel hearing
• Acting for an academy on its response to a judicial review claim following a decision by governors not to reinstate a pupil following a permanent exclusion
• Advising an academy on the statutory process for removing a director