As parents, we trusted Miss Goddard as our daughter’s trumpet teacher and were pleased that she reported a very positive relationship with her. She actively sought Miss Goddard out for support at times when she felt vulnerable.

Miss Goddard also went out of her way to be friendly towards the family more generally.

However, under the guise of helping her we now understand that for over five months she was betraying our trust and our daughter’s need for her to be a concerned teacher but maintaining safe boundaries in relation to a vulnerable pupil in her care.

Miss Goddard did not stay true to her professional responsibilities which include taking full responsibility for feelings that might have arisen, and the private times she was able to have with our daughter as a result of her position.

When our daughter told us she was going to visit or stay over with friends from her peer group Miss Goddard co-operated fully in the deception in order to allow her to stay at her flat. We feel particularly betrayed by Miss Goddard using a weekend when we had allowed our daughter to visit her older sister in Paris where we were told that she was staying safely overnight with her sister only to discover that Miss Goddard had in fact arranged to go to Paris that weekend and, unbeknownst to us, had taken our daughter to stay in a hotel with her.

We are deeply upset by the impact on our daughter and because of Miss Goddard’s action which had serious and enduring consequences. She is now in a difficult position with regard to her friends. In terms of Miss Goddard’s irresponsibility the situation is very complex in terms of her now being the object of intense teenage curiosity.

Although she may appear and certainly wants to feel that she is mature beyond her age she is a normal 15-year-old who, through the immature and impulsive actions of Miss Goddard has been deprived of the opportunity for normal age-appropriate development of sexual relations.

Our daughter has been led to believe by Miss Goddard that their contact is within the bounds of a normal relationship. Apart from the fact that she is a few months under age, from our understanding Miss Goddard and our daughter feel it’s possible to continue their relationship without difficulty when she is 16 at the end of September.

Conveying this to our daughter and taking no responsibility for her actions, we don’t believe Miss Goddard has fully understood the seriousness of what has occurred in terms of her breaking the boundary and completely breaching the trust embedded in the teacher-pupil relationship.

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