Incompetent teacher banned from every classroom in the UK

Published on Wednesday 3 December 2008 21:47

A TEACHER described as a danger to herself and her pupils has become the first to be struck off for incompetence.

A disciplinary sub-committee of the General Teaching Council for Scotland yesterday heard that Susan Barnard from Perthshire showed little empathy for children.

At the hearing it was revealed Mrs Barnard had said of a crying girl with a facial deformity: "There's nothing wrong with her tear ducts then."

Another girl broke her wrist after being chased by pupils Mrs Barnard was supposed to be teaching at the time and the former teacher antagonised colleagues with disparaging and sarcastic remarks.

The 55-year-old also used sign language with children who neither needed or understood it, and often set work that was too difficult for pupils.

After previously pleading guilty to the incompetence charge Mrs Barnard claimed mitigating circumstances and asked to remain on the teaching register.

She blamed her poor performance on the stress of teaching a violent pupil who kicked and hit her repeatedly in the face in 2003.

This, she claimed, triggered health problems associated with a car accident in the 1980s which had killed her boyfriend and blinded her in one eye.

Mrs Barnard trained in New Zealand, but returned to the UK in the 1980s. Concerns were first raised when she began working at Coupar Angus Primary School in Perth and Kinross in 2004.

Complaints from colleagues sparked an investigation, but despite extensive support from council officials and moves to two other schools, she was dismissed in 2006.

In her defence, she said: "I have a style of interaction with children which does not include talking to them with effusive praise.

"I don't call them darling, or honey or babe."

However, the panel ruled she would be struck off and banned from reapplying to join the register for 12 months.

The move effectively bans her from teaching at any school in Scotland or England and Wales.

Leaving the hearing, Mrs Barnard said only that she was "disappointed", but did not say whether she would appeal the decision.

One parent, Allan Hunter, criticised Stirling Council for allowing Mrs Barnard to teach on a supply basis until 20 November this year, knowing she had been dismissed from Perth and Kinross.

He said: "There will not be many people disappointed with this decision in the Stirling area."

He added his 11-year-old daughter had become confused by lessons and reluctant to go to school after Mrs Barnard began teaching her.

Anthony Finn, the teaching council's chief executive, described it as a difficult and landmark case.

FACT BOX

THE power to strike off bad teachers was granted to the GTCS in 2006 through the McCrone deal, which increased teacher salaries in return for improved standards. The move aimed to prevent teachers sacked for incompetence from moving to another council area to work. Previously, teachers could only be struck off for misconduct, not for simply being bad at the job.