A FORMER headteacher has admitted to drinking eight glasses of wine on a school trip before having “improper contact” with pupils.
Gillian Rew’s behaviour left students feeling “shocked, uncomfortable and awkward”, an on-going disciplinary hearing was told.
Mrs Rew, who was sacked from her £74,000-a-year post at Arbroath High School over the incident, admitted the charges at the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) in Edinburgh yesterday.
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She drank during a trip to the Lockerbie Manor activity centre in Dumfries and Galloway and then “engaged in inappropriate conversations with, made inappropriate comments to and had improper contact with pupils”.
Police investigated her conduct, but no criminal case was brought.
Mrs Rew said she was “mortified” by her behaviour and at the time was drinking too much, partly as a result of working 14-hour days among what she said were hostile colleagues. But she has claimed she should be allowed to stay on the teaching register and told the hearing: “I have a future in education.”
Mrs Rew, 49, told the hearing that she did not think any of her pupils “would have been particularly alarmed” by the events at Lockerbie Manor in September 2014.
“I don’t think they would have been particularly traumatised,” she said. “I honestly don’t think they were uncomfortable. I think they thought it was a bit of light banter.”
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She said on the night of the incident she had stayed up until 4am after drinking eight glasses of white wine.
After being questioned by GTCS case presenter Kate Hart she said this quantity, equivalent to just over a bottle of wine, had never made her blackout before.
Admitting to her actions, Mrs Rew said that she was “mortified” by her conduct on the night of the incident, in September 2014, when pupils had enjoyed a fashion show, ceilidh and disco.
She said that she was dealing with issues with alcohol at the time and was in “great distress”.
She said: “I was drinking more alcohol than was good for me.”
She also said that other members of staff were “behaving in a fashion that was hostile and undermining” to her role at the time.
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And she outlined how she was working long days – starting at 7.45am and finishing at 7pm, before working for three more hours at home each night.
Discussing her decision to take wine on the school trip, she said: “I honestly don’t think that I was in a particularly good place to make proper cognitive decisions.”
Seeking to remain on the register, Mrs Rew said said that she had undergone therapy and alcohol counselling since the event.
She also said that she was “devastated” and “ashamed” by her actions, and said: “I hope that there’s no lasting impact in the young people apart from the adverse publicity for the school.”
Mrs Rew – now employed by teaching union EIS – said: “My days of leading a school are gone.
“The most I would hope would be to retain my teaching registration.”
Andrena Waghorn, head teacher at Craigie High School in Dundee, who has known Mrs Rew for 20 years, described her as a “professional, committed and enthusiastic” individual.
The hearing continues.
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