Teacher is first to admit incompetence charge

A PRIMARY school teacher today pleaded guilty to professional incompetence.

Susan Barnard now faces being struck off after admitting she failed to manage the behaviour of her pupils and was unable to plan lessons.

Her case came before the General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS) – the first time that the professional body has considered a case of competence of a teacher.

Mrs Barnard, 55, had already been sacked by Perth and Kinross Council amid concerns about her performance at Coupar Angus, Comrie and Arngask primaries between November 2003 and December 2006.

Her lawyer, Andrew Gibb, said Mrs Barnard is currently doing supply work for another local authority and hopes to retain her teaching registration when the case comes before the committee again on December 3.

"Clearly she's extremely concerned about what the future holds for her," he said.

But he said she decided today "after a lot of thought" that she will accept the charges against her and hopefully present compelling evidence in mitigation which will enable her to keep her registration.

GTCS lawyer Robbie Burnett told the committee today that "despite significant management support over an extended period of time to address areas of concern", in her performance, she failed to meet the standards required.

The charges against the teacher were that she was unable to plan "coherent and progressive" teaching programmes and was not able to communicate clearly and interact with pupils.

She was also unable to manage pupil behaviour in the class "fairly, sensitively and consistently", and use the advice of colleagues where necessary.

The case was adjourned until December 3 when the committee will hear more evidence before reaching a decision on whether Mrs Barnard should be struck off.

Councils must now automatically report cases of teachers being sacked for incompetence to the GTCS, since legislation was introduced in 2006.

Today's case is the first to come before the disciplinary sub-committee in Scotland but the GTCS today confirmed that another is in the pipeline with two more being investigated.

Mrs Barnard believes she had been treated fairly throughout the process, according to Mr Gibb.

The lawyer, who does other work for the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union, said afterwards he thought the case will make teachers take notice.

"The fact that this is the first competence case will give a message that the GTCS is taking this seriously.

"They've dealt with this fairly and hopefully they will continue to deal with other cases fairly in the future."

Mrs Barnard was born in Manchester and qualified as a teacher in New Zealand during the 1970s but has been living in Scotland for the past 25 years.

She had a permanent contract with the council when the problems arose, and was moved about between the three schools as a result of these, according to Mr Gibb.

He added that she had returned to teaching shortly before 2002 as a supply teacher, after a "long period" away from the profession.