A FORMER Wirral school teacher has been suspended from the classroom for six months for “serious professional incompetence”.

Simon Wilkinson failed to mark pupils’ books at Woodchurch High School to a satisfactory standard and failed to complete reports to a sufficient standard or on time.

The General Teaching Council’s Professional Competence committee also heard that, while employed at the school in 2008, Mr Wilkinson did not provide pupils’ books and planners punctually for monitoring, and failed to adhere to the school’s positive behaviour for learning policy.

The committee said that it reached its findings on the basis of evidence, including that of headteacher Rebekah Philips, who it found to be an “honest and competent witness”.

The committee said: “By not marking books to a satisfactory standard, by failing to provide pupils’ books and planners punctually for monitoring, by failing to adhere to the school's positive behaviour for learning policy and by failure to complete reports to satisfactory standards and on time, Mr Wilkinson has demonstrated a level of competence which falls seriously short of that expected of a registered teacher.”

The committee found that a six-month suspension order was a sanction that would be “both proportionate and appropriate”.