By Annie Butterworth
A TEACHER falsified exam results for more than 50 students because she was “drowning in work”.
Caroline Grieve created false National 5 English results for 54 pupils – half of the students she was teaching at the time.
Ms Grieve, who taught English at Dumfries High, was said to have been disorganised and lacked rigour in recording pupils’ work.
A disciplinary hearing of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) heard evidence that she altered results so pupils were not punished over her “mess”.
The 30-year-old has admitted that in January 2015 she passed students’ exam coursework when it should have failed or the evidence was incomplete.
But she denies she was dishonest or untrustworthy in doing so.
The hearing in Edinburgh was told she was interviewed by a quality improvement officer from Dumfries and Galloway Council over the discrepancies.
In a statement to the hearing, Sheelagh Rusby said: “I asked why she had marked the work as a fail but entered it as a pass. She said she didn’t want pupils to miss out because of her mess or mistakes.”
The problem was discovered after a new principal teacher of English, Claire Harrison, joined the school in 2015. She felt procedures over Scottish Qualifications Authority exams were “ad hoc”.
She told the hearing: “Caroline had been open that she struggled with time management and organisation.
“I went to Caroline for evidence [of pupils’ work] and I took it home and it looked like there were a lot of discrepancies. There were some bits of evidence missing.
“I went back to her and asked for the missing evidence and she looked panicked. There was a lack of rigour and she struggled more than others on the team.”
Ms Harrison said she did not believe Ms Grieve had acted deliberately. “I never got the impression she tried to dodge or manipulate anything,” she said.
Giving evidence, Ms Grieve said: “I felt like I was drowning in my workload. I had forgotten about inputting the marks completely. Staff were sent an email reminding them to input the data.
“As a result of the health issues I was suffering at the time I can’t recall in detail when the email was sent but it was close to the deadline. I hadn’t put in place any planning to make the time.”
She added: “I genuinely believed I had the evidence. I was not a rational person at that time. I was so disorganised I didn’t know what I had and didn’t have.”
The GTCS alleges Ms Grieve intended to protect about 54 pupils and to prevent her own “lack of organisation” from being discovered in 2014 and 2015.
The GTCS says she recorded six results as a pass when she had marked them as fails and recorded 34 results as a pass despite incomplete evidence.
The GTCS panel now must decide if she is unfit to teach.
The hearing continues.
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