By Paul Reoch

A PERTHSHIRE primary school teacher could become the first in Scotland to be struck off for incompetence due to a change in legislation.

Susan Barnard (55), who taught at Coupar Angus Primary School and also Comrie and Arngask primaries between November 2003 and December 2006, pled guilty yesterday to a charge of serious professional incompetence at a hearing of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) in Edinburgh.

Her case, which could prove to be pivotal and is the first of its kind to be brought before the GTCS’s disciplinary sub-committee, was yesterday adjourned until December 3.

Ms Barnard is understood to be doing supply work teaching in the Stirling area. If the hearing next month decides against her, she will not be able to seek employment as a teacher anywhere in Scotland.

She faces charges she was unable to plan “coherent and progressive” teaching programmes and was not able to communicate clearly and interact with pupils.

She was also charged with being unable to manage pupil behaviour in the class “fairly, sensitively and consistently,” and use the advice of colleagues where necessary.

Previously, teachers could be dismissed for misconduct only, but legislation changes two years ago mean the GTCS can now take action for matters of incompetence.

Ms Barnard has already been sacked by Perth and Kinross Council but yesterday they refused to provide the details of her dismissal.

A council spokesman told The Courier, “The council does not comment on individual cases.

“We are committed to providing excellent education services. This requires the right teachers to be working to the right standards and we give every support to help our teachers do their job.

“However, our priority overall must be to deliver high quality services for our pupils. We take all appropriate action to achieve this.”

Solicitor for the GTCS Robbie Burnett told the committee yesterday “despite significant management support over an extended period of time to address areas of concern” in Ms Barnard’s performance, she failed to meet the standards.

Ms Barnard’s solicitor Andrew Gibb said that she is hopeful of keeping her teaching registration at the hearing next month.

“Clearly she’s extremely concerned about what the future holds for her,” he said.

“Ms Barnard decided—after a lot of thought—that she will accept the charges against her and hopefully present compelling evidence in mitigation, which will enable her to keep her registration.

“The fact that this is the first competence case will give a message that the GTCS is taking this seriously.

“They’ve dealt with this fairly and hopefully they will continue to deal with other cases fairly in the future.”

Gordon Smith, from the Association of Headteachers and Deputies, said, “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone but we have to realise this is an issue in Scottish education that perhaps we’ve ignored.

“If you were an employer with nearly 50,000 staff you would probably assume that 1-1.5% had competency difficulties, so for this to be the first case to come forward is surprising for everyone.”

He added, “Until now if a teacher was deemed incompetent, they were merely moved to another school, due to the complex and sometimes Byzantine process of bringing a case against them.

“Imagine it was your child that was in a class and a teacher with 10 years’ experience will have perhaps ruined the education of 300 children.”

Ms Barnard qualified as a teacher in the 1970s in New Zealand. She resumed teaching in 2002, after a period away from the profession.

Service manager with Fife’s Education Service Shelagh McLean said yesterday, “We have a rigorous interview process for teachers in Fife, which includes a competence-based interview and the taking of references from previous employers.

“We take the development of our teachers very seriously, with our commitment being recognised in the recent HMIe report which praised our high-quality continuing professional development programme, our increasingly robust approaches to performance management and the sector leading opportunities for staff.”

A spokesman for Angus Council said, “We have in place vetting procedures which are applied for anyone seeking to work as a teacher, including supply work.

“If (work monitors) show up any concerns about under-performance on the part of any individual teacher, then detailed follow-up work takes place.”