She was one of the top teachers at the school which became a hit on TV.
But now Mrs Beverley James, a deputy head at the “Educating Yorkshire” school Thornhill Community Academy, has been banned from the classroom.
A disciplinary panel heard she had been fiddling attendance records.
The indefinite ban was imposed on behalf of Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan.
Mrs James, 57, who began teaching at Thornhill Academy as an art teacher in 1990 and later became an associate deputy head, was found guilty by a teachers’ disciplinary panel of deliberately altering pupil attendance records between September 2014 and March 2015 and of behaving dishonestly.
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The National College of Teaching and Leadership panel says in its findings that Mrs James, who had denied the allegations, “knew her actions were dishonest” and that she was guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” which could bring the teaching profession into disrepute.
Panel members were told she was accused of altering more than 600 attendance records.
The findings say : “The panel considers that deliberately altering pupils’ attendance records, so that this masks any non-attendance or illness, undermines the School’s ability to identify any persistent absence or other issues which may be highly relevant to safeguarding pupils’ well-being.”
Mrs James, who did not attend the hearing, resigned from the school in July last year.
The Academy starred in the Channel 4 series “Educating Yorkshire” and made TV stars of head Jonny Mitchell, teachers Michael Steer and Matthew Burton, and young pupil Musharaf Asghar, nicknamed Mushy P, who overcame a stammer to bring the audience to tears.
WATCH below as Gareth Gates meets Mushy at Huddersfield New College
The statement said: “In the panel’s view, the level of dishonesty involved in Mrs James’ actions was serious, as she made a very large number of changes over a period of at least six months, demonstrating that she pursued a continuous and consistent course of dishonest conduct, potentially affecting numerous children at the School” say the findings.
Imposing the ban on behalf of the Education Secretary, Jayne Millions, NCTL head of teacher misconduct said the conduct of Mrs James was “outside that which could be tolerated.”
she left the way open for Mrs James to attempt to return to teaching after five years. She ruled that she can seek to have the ban lifted after that time though she made it clear that it would not be lifted automatically and that she would have to satisfy another NCTL panel that she was fit to return to teaching.
