Teaching ban for assistant head who gave false marks

AN ASSISTANT headteacher has been banned from the classroom after he admitted deliberately giving false marks for pupils’ coursework.

Colin Laughton, 49, had worked at Hebburn Comprehensive School in South Tyneside for more than 23 years when discrepancies in marks he awarded were found by an exam board.

Laughton faced a disciplinary hearing by the Teaching Regulatory Authority, which judged that he should be banned from teaching indefinitely.

The disciplinary panel heard that between May and July 2019, Laughton awarded false marks for internally assessed components of one or more pupils’ coursework where there was no evidence to justify the marks awarded.

He submitted false marks for one or more pupils before work had been completed, and/or before he had seen it, and/or the work was not the pupil’s own.

The panel was told Laughton gave a pupil 34 marks for her coursework when she had not done the work and should have received about 14 marks.

Laughton made admissions to the exam board when it queried some coursework. The panel found that when the board notified him that a pupil’s work needed to be submitted for moderation, “he noticed that Pupil A had not completed the relevant coursework, and decided to submit the work of Pupil B instead”.

The panel’s report said: “In a management interview which took place on July 17 2019, Mr Laughton had provided context for his decision but stated ‘there is no one else to blame but me’.”

It also noted Laughton had commented that certain of his actions “disgust” him “professionally and personally” in an appeal to the exam board, and the panel “considered this to be an indication of remorse”.

Laughton can apply for the ban, ordered on behalf of the Education Secretary, to be reviewed after a minimum of two years.