By Gavin Mackintosh-
The Teaching Regulation Agency have banned an experienced teacher from the profession following evidence she cheating to favour an autistic pupil.
Gillian Hardman has been banned after submitting an “exemplar” piece of work instead of a pupil’s in June 2021. when GCSEs and A-levels were cancelled in 2021 due to Covid lockdowns. Instead, teachers decided grades and schools submitted these to exam boards.
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The news also follows revelations last year by Dr Jo Saxton, Ofqual’s chief regulator that private schools were being investigated for malpractice after “credible evidence” some over-inflated teacher grades issued when exams were cancelled.
The teenager was eventually forced to resit the exam months later, the school said.
Hardman, a teacher at Inscape House School, which supports autistic children in Stockport, admitted she had submitted the wrong Geography GCSE work but said it was an “error” when copying and pasting documents.
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In addition, she also told the non-maintained special school the pupil had completed a past paper in exam conditions, when the pupil was actually working remotely at home.
Hardman, who had 20 years teaching experience, said she had made a mistake on the TAG form due to “panic”.
She also deceived the school by lying that the pupil’s work had been moderated before the June deadline when it had not been.
Hardman said she had prioritized England and Maths qualifications and Geography had gone “on the backburner” which she acknowledged was “wrong”.
The TRA panel found Hardman had acted dishonestly and without integrity.
The panel concluded she knew two of the three pieces of work submitted had not been completed by the pupil. Some of the submitted work had “been produced by herself”.
A number of the allegations related to teacher assessed grades for GCSE geography during the 2020-21 academic year. The school carried out an investigation in June 2021 and invited her to attend a disciplinary hearing a month later. In August 2021, Ms Hardman resigned.
Referring to the work she produced and submitted for the student’s assessment, decision maker Marc Cavey said in his report to the secretary of state: “Ms Hardman admitted that she included an exemplar piece of work that she had completed within the submission of work for Pupil A and that she had done this in error.
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“The panel also heard evidence from Witness B and Witness C that Pupil A was shown a copy of the work that was submitted
“The evidence of Ms Hardman and all of the witnesses evidence that Pupil A is highly intelligent and articulate. The panel were therefore satisfied that she would have been able to recognise whether work had or had not been completed by herself.
“Ms Hardman stated that, on 17 June 2021, she created Word documents and had copied and pasted the work that had been completed earlier by Pupil A from Microsoft Teams. Further, that in the process of copying and pasting, she had erroneously included the exemplar document that she herself had produced.
“The panel did not accept that Ms Hardman had copied and pasted the earlier work of Pupil A from Microsoft Teams as a likely explanation. Witness B and Witness C stated that they were granted access to both Ms Hardman and Pupil A’s Microsoft Teams accounts and that there was no evidence of this work on either account. Further, that the IT department had confirmed that there were no documents that had been archived or deleted from Microsoft Teams.”
The report went on to say that the panel were “satisfied” that in all probability two out of the three pieces of work submitted by Ms Hardman for the student’s Geography GCSE had been completed by her and not the pupil. In all, five allegations were found proven.
The report concluded: “The panel was of the view that a strong public interest consideration in declaring proper standards of conduct in the profession was also present as the conduct found against Ms Hardman was outside that which could reasonably be tolerated, particularly in light of the significant implications for both Pupil A and the School.
“Whilst there is evidence that Ms Hardman had ability as an educator and had 20 years experience as a teacher, the panel considered that the adverse public interest considerations above outweigh any interest in retaining Ms Hardman in the profession, since her behaviour fundamentally breached the standard of conduct expected of a teacher.
“In this case, I have placed considerable weight on the panel’s comments concerning the lack of full insight or remorse. I am also particularly mindful of the panel’s findings of dishonesty. I have given less weight in my consideration of sanction therefore, to the contribution that Ms Hardman has made to the profession. In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.”
The order means she is prohibited from teaching indefinitely in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. There is a two-year review period as part of the order, meaning Ms Hardman – who attended the hearing – cannot apply to have the prohibition order removed until July 31, 2025, at the earliest
They added that although the incidents were “out of character”, Hardman’s actions “fell significantly short of the standard of behaviour expected of a teacher”.
The teacher had showed remorse but “maintained that her conduct was not dishonest but was the result of mistakes she had made”.
The panel also considered how the incidents occurred “during unprecedent circumstances” caused by the pandemic “and at a time of increased stress and uncertainty” for Hardman and the teaching profession.
Hardman was prohibited from teaching indefinitely, although she can apply for this to be removed in two years’ time.
An Inscape House spokesperson said this was an “isolated incident” and the TAG was not submitted to the exam board.
“Although hugely disappointing for the young person and their family, we did everything we could to support them. We supported the student to retake the exam a few months later and were delighted that they achieved a grade 9. The young person remains a successful student at our school and is currently working towards A levels.”
We looked at TRA rulings published since June 2022 until this week. This case was the only to specifically mention the teacher grade process undertaken during the pandemic.
Ofqual statistics show how penalties for staff malpractice sharply dropped during covid from 450 in 2019 to 35 in 2020 and 50 in 2021.
Dr Jo Saxton, Ofqual’s chief regulator, revealed last year how private schools were being investigated for malpractice after “credible evidence” some over-inflated teacher grades issued when exams were cancelled.
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