Cryptic crossword clue
Awful charade with the termination of free school principal 4,7

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 7 letter word HEAD TEACHER

I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
H
E
A
D
T
E
A
C
H
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Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "school principal" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case school principal = head teacher.
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.
This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.

Crossword Answer definitions

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