A HIGH school teacher who helped a student cheat by providing him with exam answers breached “basic moral activity” it has been claimed.
In March 2021, Adam Lowery provided a boy known only as pupil A with answers and the marking scheme for three science exams he was sitting that could form the basis of his final GCSE grade.
Mr Lowery, a former professional judo athlete, admitted the allegations relating to his conduct while working at Rainford High School during a teacher regulation agency (TRA) hearing on Monday.
The second and final day of the public session was told how the former teacher had accepted his actions were wrong, but that they amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.
Mr Lowery had been employed at Rainford since September 2019.
In March 2021, pupil A, sat three internal exams that were intended to inform his final GCSE grades owing to formal testing being postponed due to covid-19.
Prior to this, he had been provided with exam questions and the marking scheme by Mr Lowery. The teacher would also go onto invigilate the physics exam pupil A sat on March 31, 2021.
Tuesday’s hearing was told how pupil A scored 44 out of a possible 45 on two out of three exams and 41 out of 46 on a third. It was said his written answers used almost the exact wording of the marking scheme.
Teachers who raised the issue said there had been “no other reasonable explanation for this to be possible” other than for pupil A to have seen the questions in advance.
Initially pupil A said he had cheated “due to the pressure to do well” before admitting he had been given the answers by Mr Lowery.
Presenting officer Shannon O’Connor said Mr Lowery had “deliberately and knowingly” given pupil A the answers and there was “no doubt” he knew his actions were dishonest.
Ms O’Connor argued Mr Lowery’s behaviour had gone against the “basic moral activity expected from teachers.”
Jonathan Storey, on behalf of Mr Lowery, said the former science teacher still had a “huge amount to offer” to the profession and was a professional who had spent “three years in exile” since the incident in 2021. Recalling testimonies from former colleagues, Mr Storey said his client had previously “demonstrated excellent professional judgement.”
The advocate said Mr Lowery accepted his previous achievements as an international judo champion would no longer be what people found when they searched his name online and he was “utterly ashamed” of what he had done. Mr Storey added how Mr Lowery had a “previously good record” and was “deeply sorry” for his actions which had been “extremely isolated in time and narrow in scope.”
He said Mr Lowery had gone through the last three years “with the proceedings hanging over him” and hoped the panel “can see enough good in him to retain him”.
The TRA panel came to the conclusion his behaviour had amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and had brought the profession into disrepute.
They will now deliberate as to any potential sanction to impose in private.
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