Teacher who helped pupils with exam notes banned

A teacher at a Derbyshire school has been banned from the profession for trying to help students gain an unfair advantage in an exam.

Elaine Lee worked as a teacher at Aldercar High School in Langley Mill from April 2021 until she resigned in January 2022.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) heard she revised pupils' notes to aid them in a law exam that should have been prepared independently.

The 59-year-old then deleted email evidence which showed she had helped students.

A professional conduct panel heard Mrs Lee provided amended "Part A" notes to pupils during the BTEC Level 3 Applied Law exam.

The two sides of A4 notes are designed as an aide-memoir to help learners during the exam, but exam board Pearson guidance states “teachers must not give any support to the notes".

The TRA heard she had acted “dishonestly and in ways that lacked integrity”.

Less than two weeks after Mrs Lee’s resignation, the school conducted an investigation after allegations emerged.

One pupil said she encouraged children to send her notes and even chased students to send them to her so she could review them.

She was found to have reorganised the order of paragraphs and edited some content, which was not permitted.

A report said there were “countless different versions” of the pupils’ notes that changed over time following feedback from and amendments made by Mrs Lee.

On one occasion she sent back a document to a student featuring “completely different” notes than the ones sent to her previously, the report said.

Another student told investigators he felt he had “done better” in the exam thanks to the amendments Mrs Lee had made.

The report said one boy was given notes in his exam which had been so significantly changed “he did not recognise it all”.

Another pupil said an amended version of notes “contained acronyms and abbreviations”, making it confusing and difficult for her to complete the exam.

The TRA heard Mrs Lee had said some students would have failed the qualification if she had not changed the notes.

When she was confronted about helping the students, Mrs Lee deleted emails with the intention of concealing the amendments she had made to the notes of pupils, the review heard.

All of these allegations were found to be proven by the panel. One allegation of whether Mrs Lee stated that she was unable to find an email when she was aware it had been deleted was not proven.

Mrs Lee, who did not attend the hearing on 31 May, has been indefinitely banned from teaching and will be unable to review the decision for at least two years.

Aldercar High School has been contacted for comment.

Follow BBC Derby on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.