Carmarthen: School head banned after attendances falsified
- Published
Peter Spencer was headmaster at Queen Elizabeth High School in Carmarthen for nine years
A school headmaster has been banned from the teaching register in Wales for telling staff to record absent pupils as being present.
Peter Spencer then tried to influence an official investigation, an Education Workforce Council Wales panel heard.
The five-year deception at Queen Elizabeth High School in Carmarthen began after an inspection.
Schools depend on high attendance for funding and performance rankings.
The schools inspectorate, Estyn, had recommended that Queen Elizabeth improve its attendance.
The panel heard that over the following five years, from 2014 to 2018, more than 28,000 pupil absences at the bilingual Welsh-English school were changed to present.
'Under pressure' to join in
Mr Spencer left after nine years as head with a financial settlement from Carmarthenshire council in 2020.
He told members of staff to falsify attendance data on the school information management system, witnesses told the hearing.
Luke Lambourne, presenting officer for the EWC, said one member of staff was drawn into Mr Spencer's "web of deceit" out of misguided loyalty, while others felt "under pressure" to join in.
Queen Elizabeth High School has 1,500 pupils
One senior member of staff told the panel he was among those asked by the headteacher to alter codes "N" for not present, and "I" for ill to a symbol showing those pupils as present.
The man, who gave evidence to the remote hearing held on 11 and 12 May, but was identified only as "Person D," said he had felt anxious the whole time he was involved.
He admitted he had been "weak" in doing so, but denied that he had instigated the deception which he said was masterminded by the head.
"Person D" told the panel he was asked by Mr Spencer to make "illegitimate amendments" to attendance data to "show the school in a good light" and that this "dishonest practice" continued with other staff.
"It was difficult to say no to the headteacher's decision," he told the panel.
'Condoned the malpractice'
Mr Spencer, who now works as head of an international school abroad, was not at the hearing or represented.
He did not formally respond to the four allegations against him in person but did so in a written statement of mitigation to the hearing.
In his statement, Mr Spencer denied ever instructing any staff to alter the absence data.
Blaming "Person D" for changing the attendance figures, he admitted that as head he then failed to report it.
The headteacher said he kept quiet about the deception because he understood the pressure staff were under from agencies outside the school including Estyn, the local education authority and school consortia.
"I have never instructed any employee to falsely inflate attendance data," Mr Spencer's written statement said. "I accept fully that being aware of malpractice and in not acting I condoned the malpractice."
"I did not instigate the programme of attendance inflation. The action was started by my colleague [Person D] unbeknown to me."
Mr Spencer added that schools were under so much pressure at the time that "anecdotally it was believed data manipulation was widespread".
The deception was reported to school governors by another member of staff in autumn 2018.
The committee was told that the "whistleblower" reported being told by someone involved that data was being "fiddled".
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