Head teacher changed exam papers

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A former primary school head teacher who admitted changing answers on exam papers has been found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.

Pamela Ward told a teaching tribunal stress over staff cuts led her to alter papers at Kilnhurst Primary School, Mexborough, South Yorkshire.

But she said she had no recollection of changing the papers.

Mrs Ward was banned from taking responsibility for exams for five years but was not stopped from teaching.

'Systematic approach'

She had denied a charge of unacceptable professional conduct at the tribunal.

Mrs Ward resigned from the school two months after changing the papers. She now works at Sitwell Junior school in Mexborough.

The tribunal heard all the school's Year 6 pupils had their SAT examinations annulled in 2005 as a result of the incident.

Committee chair Angela Stones said the changes made to the papers demonstrated a "systematic approach" to amending work with the intention of benefiting pupils.

The panel heard an external marker raised concerns about the test papers and a forensic investigation by the National Assessment Agency revealed they had been tampered with.

Wrong answers on at least 14 maths papers had been changed to correct answers.

'Confused state'

Mrs Ward accepted the handwriting on the papers was hers but said she had no recollection of the events of the morning of the exams.

The teacher said she had become stressed over a period of months as a result of having to make six staff members redundant.

She said on the morning of the SAT exams she had an argument with another teacher and returned to her office in a confused state.

It was at this point, she said, that she must have begun marking the Key Stage Two papers, mistakenly believing them to be other test papers.

Mrs Ward was "very, very sorry" for her actions, her defence lawyer said.