Wigan primary school teacher banned after faking qualifications

An unqualified Wigan primary school teacher has been banned after setting up fake email addresses to pretend she had a teaching degree.

A disciplinary hearing heard that 24-year-old Claudia Malley began studying for a BA Honours degree in Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status in 2015 at the University of Chester, but only gained a lesser qualification.

Miss Malley then started work as an unqualified teacher at St Mary and St John Catholic Primary School on Standishgate in the Greater Manchester borough of Wigan in September 2018.

This was while she continued her studies.

She told staff at the primary school that she had received emails from the university and Wigan Council saying she was fully qualified to teach. But when she attended her graduation ceremony on 5 November 2019, she only received a Diploma in Higher Education after failing to meet the requirements of the degree programme.

Staff at the school noted similar characteristics between the two emails Ms Malley provided to support her claim – including font size, type and similar errors of grammar and punctuation.

The school carried out an internal investigation – with a disciplinary panel concluding it was “most probable that the author of the emails was the same person” – which led to Ms Malley’s employment being terminated and the police informed.

The disciplinary hearing found Ms Malley’s “serious dishonesty” to be unacceptable professional conduct.

She has now been banned from teaching for three years.

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