Teacher who ‘put sock in pupil’s mouth and cheated in SATs’ is banned

A primary school teacher accused of putting a sock in a boy’s mouth and giving pupils answers during exams has been banned.

Martin Myers, 47, taught at Ecton Village Primary School in Northamptonshire between 2010 and 2015.

He was accused of putting his sock in a pupil’s mouth to quieten him down and whispering answers to SAT exams.

He was also accused of telling pupils to ask their parents to write letters to the school to save his job.

A disciplinary panel heard how Mr Myers had added annotations to the side of tests in a bid to help students.

Mr Myers denied all the allegations and did not attend the conduct panel.

After a pupil started talking during a reading lesson, he allegedly took off his shoe and put his sock into the child’s mouth.

The National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) panel heard how the student was left feeling “embarrassed” by the bizarre incident.

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A report issued by the body read: “Pupil A went on to say that after a further warning, Mr Myers took off his shoe and his sock and then put his sock in Pupil A’s mouth.

“Pupil A interpreted Mr Myers’ intention as humorous but he admitted he felt embarrassed by the incident.”

Although Mr Myers admitted there was an “incident with a sock”, he claimed that he had told the student to “put a sock in it”, before throwing the object in the youngster’s direction.

However, the panel claimed that his evidence was not “credible” and preferred accounts given by two of his pupils which said he had put the sock in his mouth.

It was also told how the teacher had helped students sitting their exams in order to achieve higher marks.

A worried member of staff initially approached an investigating officer to say “she had concerns that Mr Myers had assisted year 6 pupils during their SATs exams”.

The panel heard how the teacher “read out the questions and whispered the answers” during one mental maths exam, and it was later discovered that at the side of some papers were scribblings which were done by an “adult’s hand” which would have “assisted the pupils in answering the questions”.

Although all of his pupils achieved level 4 or above in the tests, a moderation exercise found that the marks Mr Myers had given were “inflated”.

When the pupils later repeated their examinations using a previous paper, their marks were “considerably lower than those achieved in the examinations invigilated by Mr Myers”.

In a statement given to the school’s own disciplinary panel, he denied any wrongdoing.

Despite Mr Myers denying any wrongdoing, the NCTL panel found him guilty of the offences and banned him from the classroom indefinitely.

It was also ruled that he would not be able to apply for the prohibition order to be set aside until 2023.

Head of the panel Dawn Dandy said: “I have given very careful consideration to this case and to the recommendation of the panel in respect of sanction and review period.

“In considering this case, I have also given very careful attention to the advice that is published by the Secretary of State concerning the prohibition of teachers.

“In this case, the panel has found the allegations proven and found that those proven facts amount to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

“The panel has made a recommendation to the Secretary of State that Mr Myers should be the subject of a prohibition order, with a review period of five years.

“The panel finds that the conduct of Mr Myers fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.”