Banned, teacher whose pupils had answers in exams
A SECONDARY school teacher has been struck off after allowing pupils to take fully written answers into their examinations.
Kirsty Parkes, who was also an exam marker, was sacked from her job at a high school in West Lothian following an internal investigation in 2013.
Now documents released by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) have revealed she has been struck off from the teaching register.
The history teacher of eight years breached Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) rules by allowing pupils to take fully written essays into exams and also providing them with example essays beforehand.
Mrs Parkes claimed she was not aware of SQA guidance on quality assurance in spite of the fact she had been a marker with the exams body for four years.
The 36-year-old, understood to have taught at Inveralmond Community High School, Livingston, even inappropriately emailed one pupil from her own personal email address to give him example essays ahead of SQA exams.
Staff also found official papers were inadequately stored in a folder on a shelf in Mrs Parkes’ classroom meaning anyone would have access to them, in breach of strict examination procedures. During a two day GTCS hearing in Edinburgh on June 8 and 9, witnesses gave evidence supporting charges against Mrs Parkes who chose not to attend.
The principal teacher responsible for the history department, known only as Witness B, said she was ‘shocked’ when she heard Mrs Parkes had been emailing pupils privately and writing some of their essays.
The charges against Mrs Parkes, which were found proven on the balance of probability, stated that during the 2012/13 school session, ‘whilst employed by West Lothian Council... you did, inappropriately store National Assessment Banks, which resulted in documentation being lost’.
On March 23, 2013, the teacher contacted a pupil ‘via your own personal email account and their own personal email account and you did provide them with work and feedback contrary to West Lothian Council policy’.
Mrs Parkes was also found guilty of providing ‘inappropriate information to pupils regarding examinations by emailing a pupil with example essays for them to learn for a Scottish Qualification Authority examination’ and ‘allowing pupils to bring a plan in excess of the stated word limit of 200 words into the SQA extended essay exam’.
The charges also outlined how she provided ‘false and/or misleading information to pupils and parents on pupil progress and also to the SQA’.
On issuing a removal order, the GTCS decided ‘there was a potential for harm to pupils’ education to be caused by providing essays and allowing pupils to enter exams with materials which were not permitted’.
The panel added: ‘It set a poor example to those for whom essays were provided as well as those pupils who took the exams in accordance with the rules.
‘As the panel had found that the respondent had not remedied the conduct and that it was not possible to say that it would not reoccur, a finding of unfit to teach was required in order to protect the public, specifically pupils, from harm.
‘Furthermore, a finding of unfit to teach was required in order to mark the seriousness of the conduct.’
The SQA declined to comment.
‘It set a poor example’