Headteacher banned over too much test assistance

The General Teaching Council (GTC) ruled yesterday Peter Habberjam had failed to act in a “fair, transparent and honest way” when he intervened in standard assessment tests begin sat at Airedale Junior School, in Castleford, in 2009 while he was headteacher.

He was sacked from his post last year and some of the schools’ test scores were annulled.

A GTC hearing yesterday found that Mr Habberjam had prepared information sheets for staff to read out to pupils during English tests, helped pupils answer questions in a reading test and even challenged a teacher for not preventing a child from writing a story instead of a report.

The allegations also included a claim he had directed the school’s deputy headteacher to read an information sheet during an English longer writing test. Mr Habberjam had denied this but the committee found the allegation to be proven.

Mr Habberjam also admitted stopping pupils during a science test to ask them if they would like him to check their answers but said he had only done this to be supportive. He also accepted he produced an information sheet for an English shorter writing test but said that he had not intended it to be read out to pupils.

The GTC committee said: “He put his staff in an invidious position by requiring their complicity in his inappropriate and unprofessional conduct.”