A teacher at a flagship academy has been suspended from teaching after falsifying grades and forging students’ coursework.
Nigel Kelly was teaching at the Djanogly City Academy in Nottingham when he made false entries into the school’s exam records and submitted pieces of coursework that had not been completed by the pupils themselves.
Mr Kelly claimed he had been “under duress” when he carried out the offence, between 2007 and 2008, which has led to his six-month suspension from teaching.
The General Teaching Council for England (GTC), which found him guilty of unacceptable professional conduct, said the pressures he faced to achieve good grades “did not provide any justification” for his behaviour.
A report from the disciplinary panel said Mr Kelly could have sought help from his leadership team regarding his students’ failure to keep up with coursework.
The panel said it could not regard the offence as an isolated incident as it had taken place over “many months”. But it acknowledged the teacher “genuinely regretted” the episode.
The GTC said it had decided to suspend Mr Kelly because “the probity of the teaching profession and the integrity of the exam system must be upheld”.
The teacher had not worked at the academy for more than a year when the GTC made its findings. The academy said no students’ exam grades had been affected by Mr Kelly’s actions. IB.
