Arabic version: تعليق رخصة التدريس لمؤسسة مشاركة لمدرسة فيتزروي

According to ABC News, the Victorian Institute of Teaching has suspended Fitzroy Community School co-founder Faye Berryman’s teaching registration on an interim basis while it investigates. The regulator said Berryman, 82, who is registered under her married name Faye O’Carroll, cannot teach at any school during the suspension.

Berryman and her husband, Philip O’Carroll, founded the alternative primary school in their family home in 1976. She taught at the school’s Brunswick Street campus until recently. Berryman, the school and its board did not respond to ABC questions. In 2020, she received a Medal of the Order of Australia for “significant” services to education.

The school has been the subject of complaints by parents and former students to the teaching regulator, and is under investigation by Victoria Police, regulators and an independent consultant. Police said the matter was under ongoing review and encouraged anyone with information about criminal offending to come forward, regardless of how long ago it allegedly occurred.

Berryman’s son, former teacher Nick Berryman, is also suspended from teaching and is expected to face a formal VIT hearing at a date yet to be set. Another son, former principal Tim Berryman, is under VIT investigation and was found unfit to hold a senior position at any Victorian school, along with Berryman and Catherine O’Carroll. ABC News reported that two additional staff members had been stood down while police and regulatory inquiries continue.

Fitzroy Community School has appointed former Australian Federal Police detective Simon Davies of Safeguarding Services to conduct an independent investigation. Davies said he could not begin without Victoria Police clearance because criminal allegations had been made. The school has also considered closing its Brunswick Street campus at the end of the school term, according to emails to parents seen by ABC News.