A TEACHING hearing found some allegations against a former primary school deputy head were proven.

Cerys Hands, who taught at Victoria Primary School, Abersychan, faced allegations of ‘serious professional incompetence’ from January 2012 to April 30, 2014.

She appeared before a professional competence committee hearing of the General Teaching Council for Wales in Cardiff yesterday.

The allegations which were found proven include that she did not complete planning on some occasions, if at all; that there were large gaps in pupils’ learning due to Miss Hands not covering the whole curriculum; that she failed to consistently deliver lessons to a required good standard, and; she failed to mark pupils’ work regularly or in line with the school’s policy.

Miss Hands accepted that on occasion she has not adequately planned for lessons and accepted that she hadn’t delivered lessons consistently to a good standard.

The allegation she failed to ‘satisfactorily evidence the outcomes of a Religious Education audit’ was proven.

But the panel did not find evidence that the Religious Education audit which was assigned to Miss Hands was delayed or that she failed to undertake adequate reviews of staff’s performance management targets.

Jacquie Turnbull, chairwoman of the committee, said: “In relation to the proven facts the committee find Miss Hand’s level of competence falls seriously short of a registered teacher.”

The hearing was told Miss Hands had agreed with the head teacher, Joy Dando, she would complete her own daily planning schedule as opposed to using the school’s weekly planning system.

Miss Hands was signed off work with sickness for nearly three months from November 2012 due to stress and depression. Then, she would email a lesson plan in the form of bullet points for a supply teacher instead of using the usual format.

Gwilym Roberts-Harry, for Miss Hands, told the hearing she had been a teacher at the school from 2005 and became acting deputy head in 2009.

He said that no issues had been raised about Miss Hands in that time period or in a performance review in September 2012.

The panel found the allegation of not setting targets with sufficient frequency proven but did not find evidence she had not set the targets at the right level.

Mr Roberts-Harry said in the school’s last Estyn report raised concerns about the level of reading and writing in English.

He said: “Miss Hands has said from the start that there is a problem throughout the school. Yet Miss Dando in her evidence pointed out this only related to one teacher.”

An allegation that displays in the classroom were not adequately maintained was proven.The standard of pupils Welsh was not high enough and 15 minutes of oral Welsh a day had not been completed.

Miss Hands accepted the allegation that pupils’ books were not always on site for monitoring purposes. She had resigned from the school and from October has been working as a supply teacher.

The committee will meet at a later date to decide if any order will be imposed on Miss Hands.