Brit teachers who had affair struck off for helping students in SATs scandal
A former primary school head and the newly-qualified teacher he left his wife of 15 years for have been banned from the profession for unfairly trying to improve SATS results.
Michael Watt, 44, the former headteacher at North Yorkshire's Colburn Community Primary School in Catterick Garrison, has been struck off along with Emma Kelly – the 29-year-old year six tutor he moved in with after leaving the family home in Darlington that he and his wife also shared with their two children.
The pair's fate was decided at a teaching misconduct hearing where the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) scrutinised their actions regarding Key Stage 2 English assessments carried out at the school during the 2017-2018 academic year, reports Yorkshire Live.
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The results of the assessments were annulled following an investigation by two local authority officers.
Mr Watt and Miss Kelly resigned from their positions on December 31, 2018.
The former was reportedly earning an annual salary of £80,000 at the time.
Neither admitted the allegations, but the panel was shown written work by pupils which had shown "significant and striking" similarities to a piece written by Miss Kelly.
It was also found that Mr Watt had caused or permitted, or failed to prevent maladministration, by passing off guided work as independent pupil work and by "excessively scaffolding" pupil work.
The panel concluded that Mr Watt's actions amounted to dishonesty, saying: "The panel found that ordinary decent people would consider Mr Watt's actions dishonest. There is an expectation that teachers do not tamper with pupil's assessment outcomes.
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"The panel did acknowledge that Mr Watt was of previous good character. However, the panel found that Mr Watt had knowingly caused the maladministration of writing assessments to unfairly improve the assessment outcomes for several pupils.
"The panel was mindful that in his role as headteacher, Mr Watt held a trusted role at the school, and in society. The panel found that Mr Watt's actions fell below the ethical standards of the teaching profession, and amounted to a lack of integrity."
The panel went on to conclude that Miss Kelly's actions were dishonest, saying: "The panel did acknowledge that Miss Kelly was of previous good character. However, the panel found that Miss Kelly had knowingly caused the maladministration of writing assessments to unfairly improve the assessment outcomes for several pupils."
The panel heard that Miss Kelly was "keen" in her role and had a successful year as a newly qualified teacher.
The panel also considered that Miss Kelly was passionate about teaching and cared about the pupils.
But it said prohibition from the classroom was both proportionate and appropriate.
A pupil told the investigation interview: "When I would do work by myself with my own ideas Miss Kelly would sometimes tell me to stop and look at the example on the board and use that. I got annoyed when Miss Kelly told me to stop what I was doing and use the board as I had my own ideas."
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