Head teacher hid thousands of absences in ‘web of deceit’
A CHEATING head teacher covered up 28,000 pupil absences in a five-year “web of deceit”, a tribunal has heard.
Peter Spencer, 52, ordered staff to log pupils at Queen Elizabeth High School in Carmarthen, South Wales, as present when they were missing from classes.
The fiddling of data came after an inspection called for improved attendance at the 1,500-pupil school. More than 28,000 absences were altered from 2014 to 2019, an Education Workforce Council tribunal heard.
Mr Spencer, who was head teacher for nine years, left the school two years ago and has now been struck off from the teaching register.
Luke Lambourne, who presented the case at the tribunal, spoke of a “web of deceit” that unravelled when a staff member told school governors of the practice in autumn 2018.
He said staff falsified records because of misguided loyalty and feeling “under pressure”. One staff member said he was asked to edit the data, and felt “anxious the whole time”. In a written statement, Mr Spencer, now the head teacher of an international school in Qatar, said a staff member had changed the data and he had not reported it because the school was under pressure to perform well.
His statement read: “I have never instructed any employee to falsely inflate attendance data. I accept fully that being aware of malpractice and in not acting I condoned the malpractice.”
The tribunal found he had committed a “protracted, serious instance of misconduct over many years” and he was struck off the register in Wales. The panel said his “extent of regret and remorse is limited”.
Mr Spencer can apply to re-join the teaching register in five years.