A teacher who worked in an Oxfordshire School was found to have acted “dishonestly” and displayed conduct which “lacked integrity”, a professional conduct hearing has found.
Rebecca Aslam, who worked at Lord William’s School in Thame, failed to declare to the Princes Risborough School on her application form or in her interview that she was still employed with the Oxfordshire school.
The results of the hearing held in July have been published this week by the government Teaching Regulation Agency.
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Mrs Aslam denied that her conduct amounted to unacceptable professional conduct or that it may bring the profession into disrepute, the panel heard.
In an interview on November 26, 2020, with the Princes Risborough School, Mrs Aslam accepted that she failed to inform them that she was still employed at the school in Thame.
In terms of deciding whether Mrs Aslam’s conduct amounted to dishonesty, the panel found that the failure to include mention of Lord William’s School in the application form was “deliberate and a conscious decision”.
When questioned by the school whether she had declared her employment at Lord William’s School to the Princes Risborough School, she said: “I did not include Lord Williams on my application form because I knew I would not get another job due to getting a bad reference.”
In coming to a decision about the appropriate sanctions, the panel noted that Mrs Aslam was “under extreme duress at the time of the misconduct”, as she said that she “didn’t have a choice”.
The panel decided that it was not necessary to ban the teacher from the profession as the “severity of the behaviour did not pose a risk to children”.
It believed the “adverse findings it had made was sufficient to send an appropriate message to the teacher as to the standards of behaviour that are not acceptable”.
In deciding the appropriate sanction for Mrs Aslam, it was taken into account that the teacher “was remorseful” and “displayed a good level of insight into her actions”.
The panel did find that Mrs Aslam was employed at Princes Risborough School while she was on sickness leave at Lord William’s School.
It was also found that there were no concerns about Mrs Aslam’s teaching, as a reference provided by Highcrest Academy to Princes Risborough School stated: “Definitely suitable to work with children.
“Very high standards.”
If Mrs Aslam had been banned from the profession, the panel recognised that this would “clearly deprive the public of her contribution to the profession for the period that it is in force”.
The panel therefore concluded that banning Mrs Aslam from continuing to work as a teacher would not be “proportionate” or “in the public interest”.
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