Amarni's teacher had asked her to take home a signed permission note because it was incomplete, which was against the school's risk management plan, the court heard. This sparked a "chain of events" that led to the student being in the deep end of a pool in which she should not have been allowed to swim, counsel representing the Dirani family, Anthony Black, told Westmead Coroner's Court.

During his cross-examination today of school principal Rita Porteous, Mr Black asked: "That that situation could occur is a significant failure of the risk management plan, isn't it?" Ms Porteous replied: "That it could occur, yes." Mr Black: "That it did occur is evidence that the risk management plan was defective, at least in its implementation."

Ms Porteous told the court she believed that it was "reasonable" supervision for teachers to be standing along the pool watching children in the water. She also said it was not a problem to send home an incomplete note for Amarni as she was a "responsible student".

"She was a compliant student and would aim to carry out what was asked of her to the best of her ability," Ms Porteous said. The school's former assistant principal, Bronwyn Whelan, defended the teachers, saying they were doing "a good job". She said there had been up to eight teachers supervising the Olympic pool area, and they were scattered along the edge of that area.

"They were doing their job, they were doing a good job," she told the court. But this prompted Amarni's uncle, Aimen Dirani, to interrupt the court, saying: "They didn't do a good job."

He then walked out of the inquest. The court has been told that the teachers' aides were supervising children with special needs and other teachers were in the wading pool area and the canteen. The court also heard today that Stuart Holstein, the teacher who organised the excursion and who pulled Amarni out of the pool would not be required to give evidence.

Earlier, the court had heard that Mr Holstein was in a "fragile state" and had only recently returned to work at another school.



The court had previously heard that Amarni's permission slip for the excursion had circled that she could swim up to 20 metres. However, her father who signed the permission slip was adamant that he had not circled it.

Senior Constable Dianne Erhardt told the court this week that it was unknown whether Amarni's mother, Dalal Dirani, whom she believed did not have as good command of the English language as Mr Dirani, might have circled the permission slip without understanding it. The inquest continues.