A north-east teacher who edited pupils’ coursework – resulting in them failing their National 5 English exams – has been reprimanded by the education watchdog.
Steven Knox was the head of English at St Machar Academy in Aberdeen when he amended the work.
The General Teaching Council for Scotland heard that Mr Knox provided “excessive assistance” to the students contrary to SQA guidelines and failed to ensure that the work submitted was their own.
He also admitted using Google Classroom to make “excessive amendments” which resulted in a number of pupils not obtaining expected results for the 2017/2018 session.
The GTCS has now issued Mr Knox a 12-month reprimand for his misconduct.
It said, however, that this was found to be an isolated incident in a teaching career spanning 23 years.
Mr Knox now works at Kemnay Academy.
A decision notice from the watchdog said: “There was evidence that a number of pupils were upset about their experience of English and that three pupils in particular did not receive an award in National 5 English due to having to redo their folio pieces in a very short space of time.”
Mr Knox told the GTCS that his poor decisions had been made “in the closing moments of the pressured completion of folios”.
He added that he had been struggling to balance the role of faculty head with his position as a union representative, causing him to experience stress, low mood and disturbed sleep.
