A former teacher found guilty of "serious professional incompetence" has been suspended for 10 months by his professional body.

The General Teaching Council heard one pupil in George Candano's lesson at Pent Valley Technology College in Folkestone was putting on make-up while another was listening to headphones.

But at the same time, the council expressed its "concern" generally about "the level of poor behaviour" of pupils at Pent Valley.

The decision of the council's professional competence committee states that Mr Candano "failed to achieve the required standards" and demonstrated "persistent failings" in numerous areas while employed at the school between 2008 and May, 2009.

The committee told Mr Candano that, based on 10 lesson observations carried out by the school, there was clear evidence that all too frequently students did not engage in the lessons.

The findings continue: "The committee considers you were a conscientious teacher.

"Members recognise the effort that you made in carefully planning your lessons and attempting to create exciting and differentiated sessions.

"Unfortunately, this commendable effort did not translate into lessons in which students engaged."

It found that in all of the lessons observed, Mr Candano's performance was assessed as "inadequate".

In one lesson, the detailed feedback showed "a number of pupils had done no work, one was putting on make-up and another was wearing headphones".

It says that one check of pupils' books showed that he had failed to mark them for between three and five months, which the committee says was "wholly unacceptable".

The committee rejected Mr Candano's claims that school head Mario Citro had targeted him for raising concerns about poor behaviour of pupils and discriminated against him on the basis of his race.

While the committee ruled that the school had not been "dishonest", it did not escape criticism.

The decision says: "The committee is concerned about the level of poor behaviour which it considers is exemplified by the fact that the disruptive and unruly behaviour of pupils continued even with senior members of the teaching staff and management team present in the lesson."

Mr Candano was suspended for 10 months, with the requirement that he undertakes 60 days of school-based re-training focusing on professional standards before he can return to the classroom.

He has a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days.