Mrs Gillian Hardman

The Secretary of State does not make these decisions themselves. They are made by a senior official on the recommendation of an independent panel.

Teacher's name: Mrs Gillian Hardman

Teacher reference number: 542790

Teacher's date of birth: 05 May 1983

Location teacher worked: Cheadle, Greater Manchester

Date of professional conduct panel: 18 to 20 July 2023

Outcome type: prohibition order

Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with The Teacher's’ Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012, a professional conduct panel was convened to consider the case of Ms Gillian Hardman, formerly employed in Cheadle, Greater Manchester.

Teacher misconduct

Ground Floor, South

Cheylesmore House

5 Quinton RoadCoventryCV1 2WT

Email TRA.Casework@education.gov.uk

Telephone 020 7593 5393

Information about regulating the teaching profession and the process for dealing with serious teacher misconduct.

Ms Gillian Hardman: Professional conduct panel outcome Panel decision and reasons on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education July 2023 2 Contents Introduction 3 Allegations 4 Preliminary applications 4 Summary of evidence 5 Documents 5 Witnesses 5 Decision and reasons 6 Findings of fact 6 Panel’s recommendation to the Secretary of State 12 Decision and reasons on behalf of the Secretary of State 15 3 Professional conduct panel decision and recommendations, and decision on behalf of the Secretary of State Teacher: Ms Gillian Hardman Teacher ref number: 542790 Teacher date of birth: 05 May 1983 TRA reference: 20422 Date of determination: 20 July 2023 Former employer: Inscape House School, Cheadle Introduction A professional conduct panel (“the panel”) of the Teaching Regulation Agency (“the TRA”) convened virtually on 18, 19 and 20 July 2023 to consider the case of Ms Gillian Hardman. The panel members were Mr Paul Millett (lay panellist – in the chair), Ms Christine McLintock (teacher panellist) and Mr Clive Ruddle (lay panellist). The legal adviser to the panel was Ms Ellie Floyd of Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP solicitors. The presenting officer for the TRA was Ms Leah Redden of Browne Jacobson solicitors. Ms Gillian Hardman was present and was represented by Mr Rhys Johns of Counsel. The hearing took place in public and was recorded. 4 Allegations The panel considered the allegation(s) set out in the notice of proceedings dated 28 April 2023. It was alleged that Ms Gillian Hardman was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, in that whilst employed as a teacher at Inscape House School (“the School”) between 20 August 2018 and 8 August 2021: 1. During the 2020-21 academic year, in respect of the Teacher Assessed Grades for the GCSE Geography assessment, she: a. Submitted work as part of Pupil A’s assessment which was not of her own; b. Informed the School the moderation of Pupil A’s work was completed months before the submission deadline when in fact Pupil A’s work had not been moderated prior to the submission deadline; c. Informed the School Pupil A’s work had been completed in February 2021 under exam conditions when in fact she was working remotely from home; 2. Her conduct as may be found proven at 1 above lacked integrity and/or was dishonest; 3. She caused and/or permitted the functional skills exam papers to be left insecurely stored in classrooms. During the hearing, Ms Hardman admitted allegation 1a, amended allegation 1b and allegation 1c. In relation to the admitted allegations, Ms Hardman further admitted that those allegations amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. Allegations 2 and 3 were not admitted by Ms Hardman. Preliminary applications An application was made by the presenting officer to amend the Notice of Proceedings by amending the following allegations: 1. Allegation 1b to remove reference to the word “months” to state that Ms Hardman informed the School the moderation of Pupil A’s work was completed before the submission deadline. Before making an amendment, the panel was required to consider any representations made by the presenting officer and by the teacher, and the parties were afforded that opportunity. The teacher did not object to the application. In relation to the amendment to allegation 1b, the panel considered that the amendment proposed did not change the nature, scope or seriousness of the allegations. There was 5 no prospect of the teacher’s case being presented differently had the amendment been made at an earlier stage, and therefore no unfairness or prejudice caused to the teacher. The amendment clarified the allegations and reflected the evidence in the bundle. The panel considered it in the interests of justice to amend the allegation to prevent it failing as a result of the drafting. The panel therefore decided to amend the allegations as follows: 1. During the 2020-21 academic year, in respect of the Teacher Assessed Grades for the GCSE Geography assessment, she: b. Informed the School the moderation of Pupil A’s work was completed before the submission deadline when in fact Pupil A’s work had not been moderated prior to the submission deadline. Summary of evidence Documents In advance of the hearing, the panel received a bundle of documents which included: Section 1: Chronology – pages 8 to 9 Section 2: Notice of proceedings – pages 11 to 22 Section 3: Teaching Regulation Agency witness statements – pages 24 to 309 Section 4: Teaching Regulation Agency documents – pages 311 to 386 Section 5: Teacher documents – pages 388 to 654 The panel members confirmed that they had read all of the documents within the bundle, in advance of the hearing. Witnesses The panel heard oral evidence from the following individuals, called by the TRA: • Witness A, [REDACTED] • Witness B, [REDACTED]; • Witness C, [REDACTED] Ms Hardman also gave evidence. 6 Decision and reasons The panel announced its decision and reasons as follows: The panel carefully considered the case before it and reached a decision. Ms Hardman had been employed at Inscape House School (“the School”) since 20 August 2018 as a teacher. The School conducted an investigation on 21 June 2021. On 19 July 2021, the School invited Ms Hardman to attend a disciplinary hearing. Ms Hardman resigned on 8 August 2021. Findings of fact The findings of fact are as follows: The panel found the following particulars of the allegation(s) against you proved, for these reasons: 1. During the 2020-21 academic year, in respect of the Teacher Assessed Grades for the GCSE Geography assessment, she: a. Submitted work as part of Pupil A’s assessment which was not of her own; Ms Hardman admitted that she had submitted work as part of Pupil A’s assessment which was not of her own but denied that this was intentional. Ms Hardman admitted that she included an exemplar piece of work that she had completed within the submission of work for Pupil A and that she had done this in error. The panel did not have sight of the TAG form or the pieces of work submitted by Ms Hardman for Pupil A’s Geography GCSE. The panel noted that whilst it would have been helpful for this evidence to have been included within the bundle, the evidence provided by the witnesses and Ms Hardman was consistent in relation to the contents of the TAG form, and that three pieces of work had been submitted by Ms Hardman. Ms Hardman admitted that she had submitted an exemplar document that she had prepared within the submission of Pupil A’s work for her Geography GCSE. The panel also heard evidence from Witness B and Witness C that Pupil A was shown a copy of the work that was submitted by Ms Hardman for the Geography GCSE and she confirmed that she had not completed two out of the three of the pieces of work. The evidence of Ms Hardman and all of the witnesses evidence that Pupil A is highly intelligent and articulate. The panel were therefore satisfied that she would have been able to recognise whether work had or had not been completed by herself. Ms Hardman stated that, on 17 June 2021, she created Word documents and had copied and pasted the work that had been completed earlier by Pupil A from Microsoft Teams. Further, that in the process of copying and pasting, she had erroneously included the 7 exemplar document that she herself had produced. The panel did not accept that Ms Hardman had copied and pasted the earlier work of Pupil A from Microsoft Teams as a likely explanation. Witness B and Witness C stated that they were granted access to both Ms Hardman and Pupil A’s Microsoft Teams accounts and that there was no evidence of this work on either account. Further, that the IT department had confirmed that there were no documents that had been archived or deleted from Microsoft Teams. The panel were therefore satisfied that, on the balance of probabilities, two out of the three pieces of work submitted by Ms Hardman for Pupil A’s Geography GCSE had been completed by Ms Hardman and not Pupil A. The allegation was, therefore, found proved. b. Informed the School the moderation of Pupil A’s work was completed before the submission deadline when in fact Pupil A’s work had not been moderated prior to the submission deadline; Ms Hardman accepted that the School deadline for submission of the TAGs and supporting evidence was 14 June 2021, and that she was aware of this deadline in advance. The deadline for the School to submit its TAGs to the relevant awarding body was 18 June 2021. Ms Hardman also confirmed that she was aware of these deadlines in advance. During oral evidence, Ms Hardman admitted that moderation of Pupil A’s Geography work was not completed and she had not submitted the TAG and supporting evidence to the School by 14 June 2021. The panel had sight of documents from the School’s disciplinary investigation. During oral evidence, Ms Hardman and Witness A stated that Ms Hardman was absent from work [REDACTED] on 17 June 2021, which the panel understands was the last working day before the School was required to submit TAGs to the awarding body. Ms Hardman and all witnesses stated that on 17 June 2021, Witness A and Ms Hardman’s line manager attended Ms Hardman’s property to collect the TAG for Pupil A and supporting evidence. Ms Hardman admitted that she completed the TAG form on 17 June 2021. The oral evidence of Ms Hardman and the witnesses was consistent in that the TAG form stated that Pupil A’s work had been “moderated by LS.” The panel had sight of email correspondence between Ms Hardman and the external moderator (‘LS’) between 17 June 2021 and 18 June 2021. At 15:00 on 17 June 2021, Ms Hardman e