A head teacher has been barred from teaching indefinitely after a stream of allegations were proved true, including creating jobs for family members and pocketing £4,000 in a secret arrangement with a national curriculum provider.
Isabel Prynne was employed as head teacher at the Bursted Wood primary school in Bexley from 1998 until she resigned in September 2009. Her activities were brought to the attention of the local authority by a member of staff, which prompted an investigation.
The General Teaching Council committee ruled eight out of the ten allegations against Prynne to be true on Thursday.
They included claiming £160 for a desk, behaving in an 'inappropriate and favourable manner' by employing and paying her daughter without consulting other staff, and keeping large sums of unaccounted-for cash in her filing cabinet.
She also benefited to the tune of £4,000 from presentations by national curriculum providers Creative Learning Journey (CLP) in an arrangement not approved by the governing body. The Chair of Governors was not aware Prynne was receiving personal payments for the sessions.
Prynne was also found to have paid capital income totalling £10,468 received by the school into the school voluntary fund, when it should have been paid into delegated funds and claimed reimbursement sums for the School Voluntary Fund, leading to the school losing more than £1,000 in VAT.
The committee concluded on Thursday that Prynne had seriously demeaned her colleagues, brought the reputation and standing of the profession into serious dispute and misused her professional position.
Prynne was absent from the hearing due to "mitigating circumstances", which were not explained in the report.
Dorothy Elliott, chair of the committee said: "We have found some evidence pupils were adversely affected by her actions. We also observed a number of witnesses who became distressed giving evidence to us because they felt they were unable to stand up to Isabel Prynne."
The committee added they were disappointed the local authority was not aware of the difficulties being experience by staff and they should have been notified of the situation by staff members who had left the school.
Prynne has been struck off the teaching register indefinitely and is barred from teaching in both maintained schools and non-maintained special schools.