Teacher struck off after helping children to cheat in their exams

KIRSTY STEWART

had marked for the SQA for four years. The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) has now struck Mrs Parkes from the profession’s register after a two-day disciplinary hearing earlier this month.

The body found her colleagues discovered official papers were inadequately stored in a folder and placed on a shelf in Mrs Parkes classroom, allowing anyone access to them.

Mrs Parkes was also found to have failed to follow school procedure regarding the “administration and quality assurance of the National Assesment Banks (NABs) 1, 2 and 3”.

She emailed one of the pupils from her own account to give the student work and feedback that breached her employers’ policy on March 23, 2013.

She was also found to have given “inappropriate information” to pupils about their exams by essays for them to learn for an SQA exam. The GTCS findings added that she allowed “pupils to bring a plan in excess of the stated word limit of 200 words into the SQA extended essay exam”.

It said Mrs Parkes had instructed the pupils involved to rewrite the “required 200-word plan for the purpose of submission to the SQA along with the essay they had written”.

The investigation added that she had provided “false and/or misleading information” to pupils and their parents on students’ progress and to the exams body by failing to mark the documentation for NAB 2.

She was found to have given pupils inadequate feedback and failed to confirm that the NAB 3 was sat by the pupils.

Mrs Parkes also submitted grade estimates that did not match evidence she had produced.

Witnesses gave evidence in support of the charges at a disciplinary hearing three weeks ago, which Mrs Parkes did not attend.

The principal teacher in charge of the history department said that marks subsequently submitted to the SQA from Mrs Parkes showed passes for every pupil for all three NABs.

The witness, who was not identified, stated that this turned out to be completely false and that she was “shocked” when she heard Mrs Parkes had been emailing pupils privately and writing some of their essays.

She said it was her view that the lack of evidence that the pupils had passed the NABs showed the records had been falsified.

Removing Mrs Parkes from the teaching register, the panel said: “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.”

Eithne and Colin Bell celebrate their win.