My bladder is not my strongest point. It has let me down many times, and caused my most embarrassing moment. I was teaching in a school with a hearing impaired unit, and the pupils were integrated into mainstream lessons wherever possible. Having taught a double lesson followed by a break duty, I knew I couldn’t last until lunchtime, so I settled my Year 7 class down and rushed to the loo.

On my return, Alex gave me a knowing smile; I’d forgotten to turn off my microphone, so he’d lived through my ablutions with me. I was embarrassed, but managed to file the memory away in some dusty section of my brain. It resurfaced when I discovered that pupils at Sandringham school in St Albans, involved in the interviewing process of potential teachers, ask as a standard question: “What is your most embarrassing incident in the classroom?”

Adam Shorey, a Year 10 member of the school council and survivor of 40 interviews, says they do this to find out if candidates have a sense of humour. He says the question is a good test of personality. One of his favourite responses was from the teacher who said that one day her class giggled every time she wrote on the board. She kept turning around puzzled, but only when she got home did she discover that the back of her blouse had an iron-shaped scorch mark. Even at her interview, the candidate could not stop laughing as she told the tale.

Another incident was more embarrassing for the pupil concerned. It was a first lesson with a Year 7 group. A quiet boy kept putting up his hand. The teacher thought he was being silly until the pupil next to him exclaimed:

“He’s wet his pants, Miss.” The wait had been too long.

It isn’t just pupils who reckon embarrassing incidents can be valuable. Hilary Berry, head of Over Hall community primary, Cheshire, believes everyone has such moments and that the best way to recover from them is to talk about them, laugh and learn from them. They offer, she says, a chance for you to laugh at yourself and for your colleagues to laugh with you. Such tales become part of the shared experience and help bond people together.

Ms Berry’s own most embarrassing incident happened when she was deputy head at her previous school. She was driving her husband’s car. At home time she could not get the keys to work, so, with the help of her fellow deputy, she climbed through the sun roof. Then a parent arrived and asked her what on earth she thought Ms Berry was doing in her car. Her husband’s car was parked a few yards away, where the keys worked without a hitch. She was mortified.

Of course, deliberately embarrassing people is cruel and selfish, but helping someone to overcome embarrassment is part of being a good colleague. Incidents seem to fall into distinct categories. The blouse incident, for example, is typical of those related to clothing. Zips and buttons feature largely here.

A second category relates to toilets. Sir David Winkley, a former head and now president of the National Primary School Trust, remembers taking assembly and noting that the children were not paying attention, so he told them off. When several hands went up, he doggedly continued until a brave child blurted out that someone was trying to steal the television. Sure enough, behind him the secretary was in mid-fight with a large man attempting to run off with the TV.

The third category, pratfalls, is also common. David Bell, the chief inspector, recalls falling into a ditch while refereeing a school football match in Essex. The 11-year-old players found it difficult to contain their glee, but he says there were no red cards. David Hopkins, head of the school effectiveness unit in the Department for Education and Skills, recalls when he was a young teacher and experiencing problems with a class. He asked the head of year to take over for a short time. While he was trying to make a dignified exit, and to the joy of the class, everything in his overloaded briefcase spilled on to the floor.

Not everyone I asked had an embarrassing incident to relate - or none they would admit to, at least. Now should I embarrass them by naming them, I wonder?

Have you been embarrassed? Are you prepared to spill the beans? Email your tale to susan.young@newsint.co.ukKate Myers is a senior associate professor at Leadership for Learning, Cambridge University