A former “super-head” of a London academy has been hit with a lifetime ban from teaching after she was found guilty of thousands of pounds worth of expenses abuses. 

Jo Shuter, who was headteacher of Quintin Kynaston Academy until last year, has been handed the “prohibition order” following a hearing led by the National College for Teaching and Leadership held last month.

The details of the verdict were published today and reveal she was found guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” and that she has been banned from a teaching role in any school, with no chance of a review.

The list of abuses that Ms Shuter was found guilty of by the panel include:

• Mobile phone expenditure, including contracts for herself, son and daughter
• Taxi expenditure for personal journeys charged to the school account
• Furniture purchases worth approximately £1,500 delivered to her home 
• A hotel overnight stay for the Senior Leadership Team worth £8,269
• A 50th birthday party expenditure approximately £7,000

The evidence also showed Ms Shuter had claimed for travel expenses that had already been paid for by a client, and also used her PA to organise rental of her villa in Turkey, as well as holiday flights for her family.

In its statement, the panel said: “Ms Shuter has admitted her own wrongdoing. The panel does, however, consider that Ms Shuter showed a lack of insight into the severity and impact of her behaviour.

“The panel found that in evidence Ms Shuter tended to distance herself from responsibility for financial management, referring in evidence to the “minutiae” of financial regulation, which she did not have time to consider.”

Ms Shuter was named head of the year at the 2007 Teaching Awards and awarded a CBE for her work in education under the previous Labour government.

She resigned from Quintin Kynaston last year after the allegations around her expenses abuse came to light following accusations from a whisleblower around financial impropriety. She has since taken up a new role as headteacher at King Solomon High School in Essex.  

In the verdict, education secretary Michael Gove accepted the decision to impose a prohibition order on Ms Shuter. She has 28 days to appeal.