A teacher has been struck off after admitting a string of allegatoins of inappropriate behaviour, including making sexual references to colleagues and a racist remark to a pupil.

The secondary teacher in Scotland was issued this month with a “removal with consent order” - in which he is not named - by a General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) fitness-to-teach panel after he agreed to be removed from the register.

Teacher’s inappropriate sexual comments

Between 2011 and 2013, he instigated inappropriate conversations with colleagues which contained sexual references, including:

• In reference to two pupils, saying to a colleague: “Every man’s dream, twins, but not at their age, of course.”
• Making reference to a brothel during a conversation with a female colleague.
• Repeating a joke of a sexual nature which he had seen on television.
   

On 1 March 2013, the teacher made a racist remark to a pupil, saying: “Are you sure you are not a terrorist? That’s alright then, at least you’re not putting poison on the door handle.”

As well as his conduct, the teacher also faced allegations over his competence. He agreed that he had failed to maintain required standards in relation to teachers’ knowledge and understanding of principles of assessment, recording and reporting. This included failing to record assessment information in a “systematic and meaningful way”; for example, when pupil scripts were “not kept securely”, with the result that “some assessment was not accounted for”.

A number of other charges were found not proved.

When Tes Scotland asked the GTCS why the teacher had not been identified in the fitness-to-teach panel’s written verdict, a spokeswoman said: “The decision to grant anonymity was made by a fitness-to-teach panel and will have been based on the evidence before it.”

A GTCS “practice statement” outlines a number of reasons why a panel may grant anonymity.