A teacher at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School has been disciplined after she gave GCSE pupils advice during a test.

The Old Dover Road school admits that pupils were sitting a “controlled assessment” which counted towards their grade when they were offered comments on how they could improve their work.

When the school became aware of the incident, all pupils doing the same subject in that year were forced to resit the test so that some did not receive an unfair advantage over others.

The incident happened last year, but has only just emerged after a concerned parent made a series of complaints to the school, education bosses at Kent County Council and the examinations board.

“Clearly the students should never have been given any assistance during their controlled assessment" - Patrick Leeson, the director of education at county hall

Patrick Leeson, the director of education at county hall, insists he is satisfied with the way the school handled the incident.

He told the parent: “The teacher who had acted inappropriately in the first assessment was dealt with through the school’s internal disciplinary process.

“Clearly the students should never have been given any assistance during their controlled assessment.

“The teacher that did so admitted her mistake and that she was fully aware that she could not give assistance to students during a controlled assessment but said that she did not intend to encourage cheating at any point.”

Mr Leeson says that because all pupils resat the assessment, the one in which they were helped did not contribute towards the final mark.

He added that he had no powers to further investigate the school nor interview pupils and that any other concerns should be addressed to the school complaints unit within the Department for Education.

He said: “The school admitted that the teacher in charge during the test did return papers to the students with corrections and comments.

“It has taken disciplinary action about the behaviour of the teacher concerned, which is evidence for me that the matter was taken seriously.”

Langton Girls head teacher Jane Robinson said this week that the answer papers had not been written on by the teacher.

She said: “The school dealt with the incident according to its policies and took immediate action internally, ensuring that all students undertook another controlled assessment.

“The comments made by the teacher were verbal, not written on the paper. The examinations board was satisfied that the correct procedures were followed and Mr Leeson, Corporate Director of Education and Young People’s Services, was also satisfied with how the school dealt with the incident.”

Questions put to the school about what type of disciplinary action the teacher involved faced or whether she is still employed at the school went unanswered.

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