A 43-year-old teacher has been suspended for selling cigarettes to under-age pupils at a Kent school.

Although barred for six months from Local Education Authority schools, Fiona Forster continues to work at an independent school.

A General Teaching Council tribunal found Ms Forster, a cover teacher at Meopham School, near Gravesend, sold imported cigarettes to pupils.

But Miss Forster, of Parsonage Road, Tunbridge Wells, vehemently denied the charge and is apparently avoiding the ban by working at an independent school.

“My head teacher supports me,” she said.

However, she refused to name the school where she said she was working.

The Independent Schools Council, which represents and inspects 1,300 independent schools, said it could not comment until a specific institution was named.

Under state legislation, a teacher suspended by the General Teaching Council is barred only from schools required to register with it – maintained schools, non-maintained special schools and pupil referral units – or those independent schools that join voluntarily.

This can be overruled only by the Secretary of State. This situation changes only if a teacher is struck off, in which case papers are referred to the Secretary of State, who can impose a complete ban on teaching at any school.

Miss Kemsley, head of Meopham School in Wrotham Road, said the charges were reprehensible and she was disappointed with the length of the suspension.

“I take the view that anybody involved with children should be upholding the highest possible moral and ethical values,” she said. “We are pleased the council pursued the case but six months is almost neither here nor there.”

In defence, Miss Forster questioned the validity of the evidence gathered against her, despite production of CCTV footage showing pupils passing money to her.

She said: “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I am not encouraging children to do either.”