Celia Whittuck

Celia’s 20 years experience of acting on behalf of children means she is well placed to address the full breadth of legal issues thrown up across the education system. Celia’s empathetic approach enables her to assist parents of school children, of all ages, with complaints against both state and independent private schools. Celia is well adept at advising parents in relation to school admission appeals and has also provided training to external bodies on the law surrounding school admissions and appeals. Celia has a particular interest in child safeguarding. d Her many years of experience in children law means she is brilliantly placed to represent parents and their child when dealing with sensitive issues related to safeguarding children. Similarly, Celia’s experience in childcare law, coupled with her knowledge and skills in education law, has strengthened her ability to advise parents of children with Special Educational Needs, to navigate the processes involving Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) and the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal. Celia is well versed in negotiating and preparing documents in SEND cases. As Celia spends a lot of time dealing with special educational needs cases, she is quick to recognise where a child’s Special Educational Needs and Disability are misunderstood and wrongly interpreted by a school as bad behaviour, requiring discipline. Celia has successfully advised and supported parents, to overturn decisions to exclude their children from schools, whether for a fixed term or permanently. She has also able to successfully argue for the recovery of private school fees for parents where their child has experience sub standard teaching. Celia’s analytical mindset enables her to draft creative and persuasive legal arguments against Further and Higher Education institutions in relation to: • Academic Misconduct matters • Academic Appeals including Degree Classification issues • Fee status issues; and • Issues relating to PhDs. Celia has a conciliatory and sensitive approach to dealing with education cases but is also a tenacious litigator if circumstances dictate this approach to be in her clients’ best interests. Celia is supportive of her clients, recognising that the legal disputes in issue are so emotive for her clients. She will always go the extra mile to act in their best interests. Celia will always be realistic with case expectations and will advise clients about the prospects of success of their claims. Celia deals with complex cases involving multiple legal strands straddling both University internal procedures and Regulations and the court system. For example, cases involving students with Special Educational Needs and Disability who require reasonable adjustments to be made by the University, the absence of which results in the student failing exams. This type of case encompasses the University’s complaints procedures, academic appeals processes as well as issuing a claim for disability discrimination. Celia’s organised approach enables her to keep on top of the various procedures and deadlines. Whether pursuing cases involving schools or universities, Celia frequently argues claims for breach of contract, negligence and discrimination, whether gender, racial or disability.. Celia is passionate about assisting all students to achieve their full academic potential. Celia has written various education articles and blogs. She is also keen to speak on a variety of education law topics. In her spare time, Celia enjoys camping, hosting social events with family and friends and has contributed to various charity events.