Gillian Hardman

Introduction

Gillian Hardman is a former teacher at Inscape House School in Cheadle who was prohibited from teaching in July 2023 after a panel found she dishonestly submitted work that was not a pupil’s own as part of the pupil’s GCSE Geography Teacher Assessed Grades, and falsely told the school the work had been moderated and completed under exam conditions when it had not. Hardman, present and represented at a three-day public hearing, admitted the core allegations but maintained throughout that her conduct was error rather than dishonesty; the panel rejected that, finding a pattern of dishonesty. The Secretary of State’s decision maker imposed a prohibition order with a two-year review period, citing her insight, remorse and the COVID-era pressures in which the conduct occurred.

Background Information

Hardman was employed at Inscape House School between 20 August 2018 and 8 August 2021, and the conduct concerned the 2020-21 academic year’s Teacher Assessed Grades — the COVID-era substitute for formal exams, in which teachers’ judgements carried exam-grade weight. The school invited her to a disciplinary hearing on 19 July 2021; she resigned on 8 August 2021 before it took place. The case reached a public hearing before a TRA panel sitting on 18, 19 and 20 July 2023, where the presenting officer successfully applied to amend one allegation. The panel heard evidence from witnesses including the pupil, Pupil A, who was described as highly intelligent and articulate and who confirmed she had not completed two of the three pieces of work submitted under her name.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Her exemplar in the pupil’s folder. Hardman admitted submitting an exemplar piece she had written as part of Pupil A’s GCSE Geography assessment, and the panel found she then lied about moderation and exam conditions to cover it.

She admitted allegation 1a — submitting work as part of Pupil A’s assessment that was not the pupil’s own — though she said including her own exemplar was an error, and admitted the amended allegations that she told the school Pupil A’s work had been moderated before the submission deadline when it had not, and that it had been completed in February 2021 under exam conditions when Pupil A was in fact working remotely from home. Witnesses were consistent that Pupil A had not been in school in February 2021 and could not have sat the past paper under exam conditions; Hardman accepted as much. The panel found that on 17 June 2021 she created Word documents and copied and pasted work Pupil A had completed earlier, and that she had knowingly put a subject, qualification and pupil “on the backburner” in breach of school policy. On the dishonesty allegation she denied intent, but the panel held that to the standards of ordinary decent people the conduct was dishonest — behaviour it found formed a pattern culminating on 17 June 2021. A third allegation, over exam papers insecurely stored, was found not to amount to unacceptable professional conduct because she had attempted to hand the papers to the exams officer in line with school procedure.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published decision records no press coverage; the consequences it documents are her resignation ahead of a disciplinary hearing, the findings of dishonesty, and the prohibition. Unlike most banned teachers, Hardman faced the panel in person, represented by counsel, and her representative accepted in light of the findings that prohibition “is not inappropriate”. The panel found her behaviour demonstrated a lack of integrity and a breach of the school’s policies and the profession’s ethical standards, but accepted she had shown a degree of insight and remorse for the consequences for Pupil A and her colleagues. It also weighed that the incidents occurred during the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time of increased stress and uncertainty for teachers — the context in which Teacher Assessed Grades placed teachers’ own judgements in the place of exams.

Current Status

The panel recommended a prohibition order with a two-year review period — the minimum the Advice allows — finding the case involved serious dishonesty, which normally points to a longer period, but balancing that against her teaching experience, her insight and remorse, and the pandemic context. On 26 July 2023, decision maker Marc Cavey, acting for the Secretary of State, confirmed the prohibition order with a two-year review period. Gillian Hardman is prohibited from teaching indefinitely — the ban covers every school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation and children’s home in England — and may apply to have the order set aside, but not before 27 July 2025. The order took effect on service, with a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Hardman’s case shows how the COVID grading system created its own species of misconduct: when teachers’ assessments became exam grades, gaming them became an attack on the qualification itself, and the regulator treated her conduct as serious dishonesty — the category that normally forecloses review. Her refusal throughout the hearing to accept the dishonesty finding cost her: the panel gave it as the reason the case was not one for findings-and-publication alone, even while crediting her insight on everything else. Having resigned in August 2021 rather than face her school’s disciplinary hearing, she received the minimum two-year review period — the shortest door back to teaching the system offers, opening in July 2025 if a future panel is persuaded.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Gillian Hardman” — source